Development of miniature visual monitoring cameras at OIP

This paper describes small modular cameras for space applications, which have been developed by OIP Sensor Systems. These cameras are based on CMOS Active Pixel Sensors (APS) developed by FillFactory. The "Visual Monitoring Cameras" (VMC) are mostly developed under ESA contracts and are used for observing the deployment of mechanisms such as solar panels and antennas on board satellites. The VMC cameras are also suitable for monitoring the separation phases of satellites and landers from their spacecraft, by means of a sequence of snap shot images. Numerous VMC cameras have been successfully launched on the XMM satellite, CLUSTER II, PROBA, ARIANE V and the MARS-EXPRESS mission. In this paper the design of the VMC cameras, that have been developed, are described, and possible future developments are discussed.