AI-enhanced sensing and tracking suite for close-proximity in-space inspection — feeds relative navigation data to InspeCity's RIG and VEDA platforms, works with both cooperative and non-cooperative targets.
CHAKSU — AI-Enhanced Satellite Tracking and Inspection System
AI-enhanced sensing and tracking suite for close-proximity in-space inspection — feeds relative navigation data to InspeCity's RIG and VEDA platforms, works with both cooperative and non-cooperative targets.
Description
CHAKSU is InspeCity's dedicated sensing and relative-navigation payload, purpose-built to give the company's servicing vehicles the ability to safely navigate during close-proximity and docking operations. It combines real-time tracking, AI-enhanced navigation, and high-resolution imaging sensors to allow InspeCity's robotic platforms to approach a client or derelict satellite, characterize its motion, and inspect its exterior for damage, structural degradation, or fuel leaks — without requiring cooperative markers or prior detailed knowledge of the target's state.
As the sensing and guidance layer of InspeCity's stack, CHAKSU feeds precision relative-position and attitude data to the company's RIG (robotic guidance) and VEDA (life-extension and deorbiting vehicle) platforms, enabling accurate rendezvous and docking even with non-cooperative resident space objects. The inspection data it gathers — high-resolution imagery and diagnostic sensor readings — allows satellite operators to assess anomalies remotely, informing decisions about whether a spacecraft is a candidate for repair, life-extension servicing, or responsible deorbiting.
InspeCity designed CHAKSU to be modular and reusable across its family of servicing missions, rather than a single-use instrument, so it can support a pipeline of customers needing pre-servicing diagnostics as India's commercial in-orbit servicing and active debris removal market matures. The system has completed design and simulation work and is progressing into manufacturing.
By offering inspection as an integrated part of a broader on-orbit servicing stack — rather than a standalone flyby mission — InspeCity aims to reduce the cost and risk for satellite operators of diagnosing problems in orbit, supporting the company's larger vision of sustainable, serviceable space infrastructure.
Specifications
| System name | CHAKSU (Comprehensive AI-Enhanced Satellite Tracking Sensor Unit) |
|---|---|
| Function | Relative navigation, tracking, and close-proximity visual/sensor inspection |
| Guidance support | Feeds RIG and VEDA for precision docking |
| Navigation | AI-enhanced, real-time tracking |
| Target compatibility | Cooperative and non-cooperative resident space objects |
| Development status | Design and simulation complete; entering manufacturing |
| Country of origin | India |