The Irish company provides one of the software foundations for the lunar-orbiting space station that NASA and the European Space Agency hope to establish following the recent successful launch of NASA’s Artemis rocket.
Dublin-based Skytek has been awarded a contract by an agency to provide flight support software for the Gateway Space Station. Its orbital platform isn’t meant to carry people all the time, like the International Space Station orbiting Earth. Instead, it’s kind of his Airbnb on the moon, where the crew will be in lunar orbit where he’ll work for three to four months, assisting manned missions to the ground and eventually to Mars. .
Dr. Sarah Bourke, CEO of Skytek, said: Working in the space sector gave me the opportunity to work at the cutting edge of science and technology. We have successfully transferred this knowledge to other areas including insurance and security. ”
Skytek’s contribution to Gateway builds on the wealth of knowledge accumulated from operating the International Space Station into a software system to assist astronauts in the station’s day-to-day operations.
Skytek’s international procedural viewer technology is already in orbit on the space station and forms the basis of the Gateway project. Skytek says it “provides a mobile web application to support routine maintenance and scientific activities.” [as well as] Critical decision-support software to help astronauts perform complex and urgent tasks.”
Skytek Chief Technology Officer Paul Kiernan said:
Software development takes place at Skytek’s three main locations in Dublin, Poland and London.
Dr. Rüdiger Seine, ESA’s Astronaut Training Director, said: Skytek has decades of experience developing software for the International Space Station.
“We look forward to working with Skytech in sending astronauts back to the moon and beyond. The ground component of the software will also help create the ISS.” [international space station] Operations become more efficient. ”
On November 15, NASA’s Artemis Locker with an unmanned Orion capsule launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in the first phase of its return to the Moon after a generation. If all goes well, humans should set foot on the Moon again by his 2024 and on Mars in 2040.
Gateway and its Irish-based software will be an important stepping stone.
