Neptec Design Group is an

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

-based Canadian vision systems company that provides machine vision solutions for space, industrial, and military applications. Privately owned and founded in 1990, Neptec supplies operational systems to

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

's Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs as one of their prime contractors. In 2000, Neptec expanded its technology to include active 3D imaging systems and 3D processing software. This led to the development of the

Laser Camera System Neptec Design Group is an Ottawa-based Canadian vision systems company that provides machine vision solutions for space, industrial, and military applications. Privately owned and founded in 1990, Neptec supplies operational systems to NASA's ...

, an operational system used by

to inspect a shuttle's external surfaces during flight. Neptec also used this system to develop the

TriDAR TriDAR, or Triangulation and LIDAR Automated Rendezvous and Docking, is a relative navigation vision system developed by Neptec Design Group and funded by the Canadian Space Agency and NASA. It provides guidance information that can be used to gui ...

, a 3D imaging and tracking system designed for automated on-orbit rendezvous, inspection, and docking. It combines the LCS with a long range

LIDAR Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

sensor into the same

optical path Optical path (OP) is the trajectory that a light ray follows as it propagates through an optical medium. The geometrical optical-path length or simply geometrical path length (GPD) is the length of a segment in a given OP, i.e., the Euclidean d ...

. On July 18 2018, Neptec Design Group was purchased for $32 million (CAD) by a subsidiary of

Maxar Technologies Maxar Technologies Inc. is a space technology company headquartered in Westminster, Colorado, United States, specializing in manufacturing communication, Earth observation, radar, and on-orbit servicing satellites, satellite products, and relate ...

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates MDA Ltd. is a Canadian space technology company headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, Canada, that provides geointelligence, robotics & space operations, and satellite systems. History MDA (formerly MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates) was founde ...

Laser Camera System

The Laser Camera System (LCS) is a short-range, high-precision autosynchronous triangulation sensor. The camera uses a laser to measure the distance between itself and points on a target and is able to create a three-dimensional representation of the area it has scanned. First demonstrated on the Shuttle Discovery Mission

STS-105 STS-105 was a mission of the Space Shuttle '' Discovery'' to the International Space Station, launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, 10 August 2001. This mission was ''Discoverys final mission until STS-114, because ''Discovery'' was g ...

in August 2001, Neptec's prototype LCS was the first dual target tracking and imaging three-dimensional scanner to fly in space. In 2004, after the

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster The Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster was a fatal accident in the list of space programs of the United States, United States space program that occurred on February 1, 2003. During the STS-107 mission, Space Shuttle Space Shuttle Columbia, ...

, NASA required a means to determine the amount of damage, if any, sustained by a shuttle during the launch phase to ensure the safety of future missions. In response to this requirement, Neptec Design Group developed the Laser Camera System (LCS) in 14 months. The LCS made its first mission in July 2005 on NASA's

STS-114 STS-114 was the first "Return to Flight" Space Shuttle mission following the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' disaster. ''Discovery'' launched at 10:39 EDT (14:39 UTC), July 26, 2005. The launch, 907 days (approx. 29 months) after the loss of ''Co ...

Return to Flight shuttle mission and was a mandatory system for subsequent shuttle missions. For these missions, the LCS was part of a larger sensor system installed on a 50-foot boom extension that provided additional reach for the

Remote Manipulator System Canadarm or Canadarm1 (officially Shuttle Remote Manipulator System or SRMS, also SSRMS) is a series of robotic arms that were used on the Space Shuttle orbiters to deploy, manoeuvre, and capture payloads. After the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' ...

(Canadarm). This

Orbiter Boom Sensor System The Orbiter Boom Sensor System (OBSS) was a 50-foot (15.24 m) boom carried on board NASA's Space Shuttles. The boom was grappled by the Canadarm and served as an extension of the arm, doubling its length to a combined total of 100 feet (30 m). At ...

(OBSS) was used to inspect areas of the shuttle that were previously not visible to the astronauts inside. The LCS was used to survey and delineate the underside of the shuttle while in orbit. It was able to detect cracks or holes less than a millimeter thick while scanning the shuttle's tiles and panels from a distance. Since it scanned three-dimensionally, it was also able to measure the depth of any breakage identified from a scan. The scanner then sent these measurements to Earth where the data was analyzed in detail by Neptec engineers in NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas. During STS-114, critical on-orbit data was often processed and in the hands of the Space Shuttle mission managers within an hour of being collected on orbit. Neptec's LCS continued to fly as an operational part of the OBSS on the remaining Space Shuttle Missions. Neptec LCS Missions: {, border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="2" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #555 solid; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 90%;" , - bgcolor="#efefef" ! Mission ! Date ! Orbiter , - , STS 114 (Return to Flight) , ''Discovery'' , July 26, 2005 , - , STS 121 , ''Atlantis'' , July 4, 2006 , - , STS 115 , ''Discovery'' , September 9, 2006 , - , STS 116 , ''Atlantis'' , December 9, 2006 , - , STS 117 , ''Discovery'' , June 8, 2007 , - , STS 118 , ''Endeavour'' , August 8, 2007 , - Space Shuttle program Spacecraft instruments Space imagers Engineering companies of Canada Technology companies established in 1990 Technology companies of Canada Companies based in Ottawa 1990 establishments in Ontario