to the surface during landing, our software
detects that with all kinds of sensors and
then avoids them autonomously and finds
the safest place to land,” Dr. de Lafontaine
said.
The company is also involved with the
newest satellites in the PROBA series,
PROBA-3. The preliminary studies and
designs have been completed and NGC
is currently developing the software. The
unique thing about this project is that it
consists of two satellites that will fly in for-
mation, that is the two satellites will coor-
dinate themselves in terms of orientation
and relative position to achieve a mission.
The satellites’ mission will be to observe
the sun; one will hide the sun disk while
the other will examine the external part of
the sun for eruptions.
The importance of this monitoring system
is needless to say; solar eruption is a pop-
ular theme in doomsday movies and the
havoc they can wreak on Earth is universal
knowledge. Accordingly, once launched,
PROBA-3 will be used to detect eruptions.
A LITTLE CLOSER TO EARTH
Here on Earth, NGC is involved in aerial-
terrestrial systems and projects have cen-
tred on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
and unmanned ground vehicles. At this
time, along with other industrial and uni-
versity partners, the company is develop-
ing an unmanned helicopter, which will be
OCTOBER 2016
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