Development of visual observation system

Necessity of visual inspection of the spacecraft state and the lack of such systems in the Russian market of space technology have become reasons for the development of a visual observation system, which is able to complete the task. The basis of the development was accepted a modular structure with centralized control. Progressive interface SpaceWire (ECSS-E-50-12C) was chosen as the main interface of informational and logical interaction between the components of the visual observation system. Choosing SpaceWire interface was due to its technical characteristics, which allow transferring large amounts of data over short periods of time (maximum speed up to 400 Mbit/s) with high reliability. The modular structure of the visual observation system makes easy to scale it according to customer requirements. The number of observation elements (data recording units containing the cameras of visible and infrared ranges) can vary from 2 to 16. At the moment, as a docking interface of visual observation system and the spacecraft systems for the informational and logical exchange is selected SpaceWire (ECSS-E-50-12C), but if necessary and on customer request, it can be replaced with any other digital communication interface (for example interface by GOST P 52070-2003). This makes it easy to integrate the visual observation system into any spacecraft system with the digital interfaces of exchange.