Company a key player in European space mission

A SMALL Irish company is one of the key players in another high profile European space mission.

Captec, based in Malahide, Dublin, has developed software for a landing craft which will chase and land on a comet in 2014.

"The competition for these contracts is quite intense because we're effectively competing against engineering companies throughout Europe," managing director Fred Kennedy said.

The European Space Agency's €1 billion Rosetta mission is named after the Egyptian stone which helped decipher hieroglyphics the written language of ancient Egypt. The spacecraft will have to align itself to the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet, which is travelling at 25,000 miles per hour, and drop a lander from a height of one kilometre.

Captec's €2m software project will allow the lander to send back information from the comet. This may help scientists to determine if comets, which are made up of dust and ice dating back 4.6 billion years, helped to sow the seeds for life on Earth.

The Rosetta spacecraft is due to launch from the European Space Agency's site at Kouru in French Guyana in February next year.

Mr Kennedy said there was a rigorous process to ensure the software on board did not fail.

"You're really talking about having to do it right. Most commercial organisations wouldn't pay the same amount of attention to detail that's necessary for this type of product or allocate the same amount of budget. The deadlines are quite tight because everybody wants as much as they can get as fast as they can get it."

Captec has 22 staff and the challenge of working on space missions has made recruitment much easier, according to Mr Kennedy.