Space technology – technology developed by space science or the aerospace industry for use in spaceflight, satellites, or space exploration. Space technology includes spacecraft, satellites, space stations, and support infrastructure, equipment, and procedures. Space is such a novel environment that attempting to work in it requires new tools and techniques. Many common everyday services such as weather forecasting, remote sensing, GPS systems, satellite television, and some long distance communications systems critically rely on space infrastructure. Of the sciences, astronomy and Earth science (via remote sensing) benefit from space technology. New technologies originating with or accelerated by space-related endeavors are often subsequently exploited in other economic activities.

Space technologies

Satellite technology

Space Technology 6 (ST-6) is part of the NASA New Millennium Program. ST-6 is a subsystem technology demonstration that consisted of 2 separate projects, the Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment on board the Earth Observing 1 satellite and the Inertial Stellar Compass (ISC) experiment aboard TacSat-2.

The Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE) is a software experiment that has been operating on board the Earth Observing-1 mission since 2003. The ASE software uses onboard continuous planning, robust task and goal-based execution, and onboard machine learning and pattern recognition to radically increase science return by enabling intelligent downlink selection and autonomous retargeting. This software demonstrates the potential for space missions to use onboard decision-making to detect, analyze, and respond to science events, and to downlink only the highest value science data.

The Inertial Stellar Compass (ISC) enables a spacecraft to continuously determine its attitude or the direction in which it is pointing. It also enables a spacecraft to recover its orientation (direction and pointing) after a temporary malfunction or power loss. This is done by combining a miniaturized star camera and a gyro system. Although this is not a new concept, the small size and low power consumption are revolutionary and an important feature for the new, smaller spacecraft and satellites of the future. It was flown aboard the TacSat-2 spacecraft in 2006.

Champollion was a planned cometary rendezvous and landing spacecraft. It was named after Jean-François Champollion, a French Egyptologist known for translating the Rosetta Stone.

Rosetta surface science package

As originally envisaged, the joint NASA/CNES Champollion was to be one of two surface science packages for the Rosetta mission to comet Wirtanen, alongside the German-led RoLand. Champollion was to provide for return of cometary samples to Earth.

This part of the Rosetta mission was withdrawn in late 1996 due to lack of funding from JPL.

Deep Space 4 / Space Technology 4

Champollion was revived under NASA's New Millennium Program as Deep Space 4 / Space Technology 4, again as a joint project of NASA and CNES. In this version, Champollion would be a stand-alone project consisting of an orbiter and a lander, with the focus shifted somewhat to engineering validation of new technologies rather than pure science.

As of March 1999, the baseline mission was to launch in April 2003, reaching comet Tempel 1 in 2006. The sample return element of the mission was at this point contingent on sufficient funding/resources, possibly being replaced with a demonstration of related capabilities.