Flight Sensor Demonstrator (FSD)

The MPBC FSD and FBG fiber installed on Proba-2

The Flight Sensor Demonstrator is currently collecting data on PROBA-2. This is the first full fiber-optic Sensor Network on a satellite in space.

MPB’s Flight Sensor Demonstrator uses fiber sensors for the measurement of temperature and pressure. The system employs a novel tunable fiber-laser source operating near 1500 nm for both the illumination and interrogation of multiple, parallel strands of WDM-multiplexed Fiber-Bragg-Grating (FBG) or Fabry-Perot (FP) type of optical sensors.An illustration of the FSD model, showing Fiber Brag Sensor layout

Specifications

Spectral resolution Better than 2 pm
Communication Redundant RS422 link @ 115,2000 kbps
to PROBA-2 in master/slave operation		  
Sensor Distribution 12 temperature sensors at different locations  
  1 high temperature sensor at the thruster  
  1 pressure sensor at the xenon tank  
Payload mass < 1.5 kg
Payload dimensions (LxWxH) 120 x 70 x 150 mm
Peak power consumption < 3.5 W
Qualification TRL 9 Over 5.5 years of successful operation on PROBA-2  

Partners

MPB Communications Inc., Xiphos Systems Corporation

MPB Contribution

Design, FBG Sensor Fabrication, integration, and testing

Missions

  • The FSD is one of seventeen newly-developed space technologies being tested on ESA’s PROBA-2, launched in November 2009.

  • The second generation, Fiber Sensor for Space was installed in a SHEFEX rocket to monitor the temperatures of its protective tiles and joints during re-entry from orbit.

Papers

 

 

 

Imaging Spectrometers

for GHGSat-IRIS

for GHGSat CLAIRE

Fiber Sensors

Fiber Sensors for High Temperatures
in Space and During Re-entry

Flight Sensor Demonstrator (FSD)

 

© 2020 MPB Space Photonics, a division of MPB Communications Inc. • 147 Hymus Boulevard, Montreal, Quebec H9R 1E9 • info@mpbc.ca
All specifications subject to change without notice.