The project ADR-LEOCOM (Active Debris Recovery System for LEO Communications Missions) was a project in the frame of the ARTES program. The objective of this activity was to identify different business model architectures for debris removal systems together with the associated high-level Concept of Operations where applicable. After finding a valid business model, then an initial design of the...
There is little doubt that we are witnessing a rapid expansion of space activities, both in Earth orbits and outside Earth's sphere of influence. This is mostly driven by commercial activities: new and existing companies that are exploiting the "Resource Space" to deliver innovative product and services while making profits.
In order to use space efficiently, an infrastructure of logistics...
The status and novelties of the ESA Space Debris Mitigation and Re-entry Safety framework is shown in this presentation.
The ESA policy on Space Debris Mitigation makes applicable the requirements in the standard ECSS-U-AS-10C, Rev. 1 / ISO 24113:2019.
The latest update of the ECSS/ISO Space Debris Mitigation requirements was published in 2019. Furthermore, the work on the next updates of...
This session will present the work conducted by Deloitte for ESA regarding the requirements of the disclosure
of non-financial data for the launcher industry.
The presentation will begin with the definition of the key concepts of the disclosure of environmental
information. Then, Deloitte will present the analysis of the environmental-related information disclosure
aspects of Directive...
Airbus has developed many concepts in the field of In-Orbit Servicing, and built unique experience and competencies across:
• Rendezvous and proximity operations: as prime for the ATV programme, leading the world first full automated rendezvous; this success was the result of an intense effort involving design and validation of whole GNC functional chain (incl. Visual Based Navigation sensors...
We need new missions to be smarter and innovative in order to counteract and better manage the future in space to tackle the growing population of satellites. We have to do On-Orbit Servicing: it’s a way of directly managing satellites while they are operating in space. In order to better enable these new advanced operations in space like refuelling or upgrading, this requires satellites, from...
In-Orbit Servicing means performing activities through robotics technology onto a spacecraft or, more generically, a “space object” in space, right when it is in orbit. Today Satellite Operators deal with unserviceable satellites in orbit that might need to be repaired, refurbished, refueled, reconfigured, or placed in orbits where they can last for many more years, or deorbited (either closer...
The sustainability of the servicing mission stands only in the case the servicer can reliably perform different services.
Celestial mechanics have an impact on the servicer spacecraft design. The needed versatility of the servicer cannot withstand with frequent changes of the orbital planes; therefore, the servicer shall target a specific orbit.
The “LCA Ground Segment” project (ESA Contract No. 4000123991/18/NL/GLC/as) aimed to assess the environmental performances and the applicability of eco-design principles to Ground Segment through the elaboration of a specific methodology, the involvement of ground segment experts and the in-depth evaluation of the most promising options.
The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a standardized...
The PERIOD Consortium, -bringing together the competencies of Airbus Defence and Space, DFKI, EASN-TIS, GMV, GMV-SKY, ISISPACE, SENER Aeroespacial and Space Application Services, is proposing a very ambitious demonstration scenario for an orbital Factory concept. A satellite will be manufactured, assembled in the Factory and injected in LEO for being operated. The manufacturing includes the...
The presentation will give insite of the outputs gained at the end of phase A for the e.Inspector 12U cubesat mission.
Rationale for the proposed baseline together with the opportunities the mission offers to play as on orbit demonstrator for technologies to cope with interesting challenges the close proximity operations ask to face will be presented as well.
A glimpse on the MBSE approach...
To make in-orbit servicing a tangible and viable reality, a set of foundational technologies must be matured and verified accordingly. Such technologies act as cornerstones or columns from where in-orbit activities such as debris removal, refueling and inspection can stand upon. ReOrbit is embarked on demonstrating such foundational technologies with a tech maturation mission called Ukko which...
This session will present the methodology and the results of the Life Cycle Assessments conducted on two
ground stations of the ESTRACK network: Kiruna (antenna KIR-1) and Cebreros.
Due to the high complexity of the systems, the project team developed a specific methodology for this LCA,
which will be summarized during the presentation. Indeed, a significant challenge lied in the fact that...
Blackswan Technologies is building autonomy in space. While developing autonomous navigation and space robotics technologies, we have realized that all the currently available tools for training and testing autonomous space missions are lacking. Thus, our team has started developing the Mission Design Simulator (MDS) to enable rapid prototyping without the need to use multiple software...
Atmospheric Re-entry Assessment is an ESA study dedicated to the investigation of the potential impacts on the atmosphere and on climate, caused by gases and particles released during the re-entry of spacecrafts and rocket upper stages. The activity had been carried out by combining very diverse heritages and capabilities, such as re-entry analyses, by-products evaluations and different types...
Satellite owners, operators, space agencies and commercial players owning the mega-constellations (e.g. Starlink, Amazon Kuiper, OneWeb, etc.) will need to find economically viable ways to inspect, refuel, augment, extend and manage the lifetime of their satellites. Satellite owners are bound to face the challenge to choose the most reliable and profitable on-orbit satellite servicing solution...
In the context of the Eco-design/Clean Space initiative, ESA has been developing tools to quantify the environmental impacts of the space industry. It has adopted a standard approach, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), which evaluates inputs, outputs, and potential environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle of products. LCA can deal successfully with most phases of space activities (R&D,...
Over the last few years, ESA has established a life cycle assessment (LCA) database and collected data from use of this database in several contracts. Recently, efforts were made to integrate all datasets into one harmonized database for materials, manufacturing processes, system components, propellants and support functions, with the intention to support ecodesign. In this presentation we...
In the frame of the French Space Operation Act (LOS) signed on 3rd June 2008, CNES and R.Tech are particularly interested by re-entries of space debris. CNES is indeed in charge of ensuring the right application of the law, for every mission launched or operated from the French territory. To predict the debris survivability during their re-entries and assess the prospective risk on ground, the...
During re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere a spacecraft encounters strong thermal and mechanical loads. The thermal loads result in heating and eventually thermal failure (e.g. melting, combustion) of some of the spacecraft parts. The mechanical loads can result in bending and eventually breaking of parts. Both effects are considered in state-of-the-art re-entry simulation tools separately,...
Due to its uniqueness, the space sector needs more specific methodology definitions besides the ISO 14040 and 14044 standards on LCA, in order to apply LCA studies to space applications. Therefore, to enhance and strengthen the LCA approach in space industry, ESA developed a new methodological LCA framework, taking into consideration the specificities of space sector. Additionally, a...
The on-ground casualty risk of any re-entry (controlled or uncontrolled) shall be below 1 in 10,000. One way of reducing the risk for the system is to focus on the equipment on-board.
For equipment which does not demise, the casualty risk can be reduced by design-for-demise (D4D), this is achieved by reducing the number, size, and kinetic energy of the surviving fragments associated with...
The shift within Europe to destructive re-entry models which are grounded in test data has provided significant steps in the understanding of key phenomena, and capturing of critical effects such as length-scale dependent heating and fragmentation through joint failure. This has led to more careful modelling, both of critical parts within a wider range of components, and of fragmentation...
Usually heat flux measurements in ground test facilities as well as simulations in the hypersonic flow regime are performed at static conditions with non-moving objects. But objects performing an uncontrolled re-entry are quite likely to rotate and/or tumble. This is true for meteorites, satellites and empty stages of launch vehicles.
Previous experiments were conducted with free flying...
There are many limitations in ground testing in the laboratory, that prohibit fully realistic simulation of the destructive entry-flight. Some of these limitations could be overcome by technical solutions, others are determined by the physics (e.g. gravitational forces acting on the test hardware). The impact of the limitations varies and have been discussed in the community for years. One of...
Fluid Gravity Engineering FGE have been active in destructive entry modelling for ground safety and planetary protection applications for well over a decade. Modelling approaches have evolved significantly during the past eight years and particular attention has been focused on: (i) methods to verify component level demise and (ii) methods to assist in Design for Demise (D4D) assessment....
ArianeWorks, an innovation platform initiated by CNES and ArianeGroup, is currently developing Themis, a demonstrator of a low cost and reusable rocket stage paving the way for the 2030 European launch fleet. In consistency with an eco-design vision shared with its partners, ArianeWorks wants Themis to be a pathfinder for eco-friendly rocketry. In this regard, an ongoing internship aims at...
Design-for-demise looks at technical solutions to reduce the casualty risk on ground of re-entering satellites and their components by promoting demise during atmospheric re-entry. Earlier studies have shown that the early release of the satellite structure will also help to improve the overall demise of the satellite. A broad range of current joining samples were tested under a range of...
Space debris removal needs a complex strategy of mitigation and remediation where technological innovations may open new routes and possibilities. At present, the use of cleaning satellites for debris capture and de-orbiting seems to be very promising. Nevertheless, traditional solutions are mainly investigated, from the net to robotized arms. It is evident that the grabbing device technology...
To ensure that near-Earth space remains commercially and scientifically viable in the future, it is of great importance to reduce the amount of space debris in orbit and minimise the generation of new debris. Major space actors such as ESA and NASA have issued guidelines for reducing space debris. An important part of this is the removal of discarded rocket stages and satellites from orbit....
On-orbit manufacturing, assembly and recycling (OMAR) servicing entails many challenges with one of the most complex tasks being that of cooperative capture. Such challenges are related to rendezvous proximity operations, close range navigation, capture and manipulation of payloads or client spacecraft.
Robotic arms are key enablers of OMAR, providing capabilities for soft capture and...
In light of the increasing importance of Design for Demise (D4D), the Demisable SADM activity was initiated to better understand the breakup phenomenology of Solar Array Drive Mechanisms, as these components are recurrent units on satellites.
The first phase of the activity made use of the high fidelity reentry simulator SCARAB to recreate a detailed model of KARMA-4 TG, a commercial...
Nowadays two tendencies makes that the number of in orbit objects are increasing exponentially. The launch of smallsats constellations, and the fact that the old satellites remains in orbit which also increase the risk to generate colliding debris. Considering these trends, the aim of the CRUSSADER (Capture system for servicing and debris removal) project is to develop a gripping system up to...
The purpose of the study is to identify and validate containment techniques that can be broadly applied to spacecraft critical elements to reduce the casualty area of the spacecraft re-entry event. In this activity, the methods to contain critical elements shall be investigated, assessed, traded-off and prototypes of the containment method(s) will be developed and tested.
With the dramatic increase in the use of drones, protecting people and assets against from uncontrolled or hostile drones is a priority for public and private organizations responsible for safety and security. Drone Catcher is a net-based drone capture system that allows the capture and retrieve of the drone safely without it falling to the ground, though the action of a tether pulled by an...
Demisable Joint is a technical solution to allow an early break up of satellites structure and payload separation in order to reduce the risk posed by re-entering satellites, improving their demise. The ESA study “ITI – Innovation Triangle Initiative - Demisable Joint” aims at identifying the environment conditions, an then design, manufacturing and testing dedicated breadboards to verify this...
As the challenge of orbital debris is set to grow, the Space Sustainability Rating (SSR) was conceived to provide a new, innovative way of addressing the orbital challenge by encouraging responsible behaviour in space through increasing the transparency of organisations’ debris mitigation efforts.
The SSR will provide a score representing a mission’s sustainability as it relates to...
In 2016, ESA published the first worldwide guidelines on how to perform Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of space
systems. This first publication of the guidelines was based on previous ESA LCA studies and on the European
guidelines at the time. Since then, ESA and different European stakeholders have had the opportunity to use
the Handbook on different ESA projects and technologies. In order to...
To properly reconstruct shape and dynamics of a target a chaser has to interact with is a crucial skill that servicing spacecraft shall ensure in performing on-orbit servicing missions. Imaging based sensor suite on board the chaser is the baseline for target data acquisition and drives the proper fly-around guidance synthesis in the mission design phase.
That scheme, however, lacks...
One of the focuses of TIRVOA (ESA Contract No. 4000132353/20/NL/CRS/hh) project is to collect, evaluate and compare open-air with vacuum conditions through tests, simulation, and image rendering data in the thermal infrared band. The gathered information can help to improve the application of thermal infrared cameras in vision-based navigation for active debris removal.
Tests have been...
A multi-spectral system has been developed by an European consortium, led by cosine Remote Sensing (NL), including Spanish GMV Aerospace and Defence (ES), for a visual based navigation approach, based on the complementary use of imagery acquired in the Visible Near Infrared (VNIR) and the Thermal Infrared (TIR) spectral ranges. VNIR images exhibit high spatial resolution, but favourable...
One of the most important technical challenges for future on-orbit servicing missions is represented by the autonomous relative navigation in the proximity of a potentially uncooperative target. Current relative navigation techniques mostly rely on visible band (VIS) images. However, the acquisition of such images imposes several constraints on the spacecraft trajectory and operations, since...
Successful in orbit servicing missions rely on a variety of sensors, which provide crucial GNC information. These sensors include navigation cameras and LiDAR sensors. They are the foundation to detect, track, approach and finally enable close proximity operations such as berthing, docking or other operations on the client. Jena-Optronik’s sensors enabled the successful approach and docking in...
Operating spacecraft equipped with robotic manipulators for Servicing and Assembly and Active Debris Removal missions poses significant challenges to autonomy and GNC-driven design.
GMV has actively participated in ESA’s steps towards development of technological responses to their most critical aspects.
The state-of-the art and lessons learnt from GMV's recent experience in the topic are...
Future science and exploration missions will implement innovative mission concepts to embark on daring endeavors exploiting cooperating intelligent systems. Two future applications are the Orbit Debris Removal and the On-Orbit Servicing. The approach to an uncooperative object is challenging but it can enable the achievement of important mission objectives, such as restoring, refueling,...
IOSHEXA is a spacecraft developed to have highly cost-effective access to space to perform a wide variety of operations. Thanks to SAB’s heritage in the development of adapters for Rideshare and PiggyBack missions, IOSHEXA takes advantage of the launcher structure in a way that the launch capacity for such structure is included in the baseline services already being provided by the Launcher...
Space Debris Removal applications will require precise navigation and orbital manoeuvres so may include a variety of onboard sensors to support different types of autonomous guidance systems. Vision and LiDAR-based Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) systems are well-established for space applications including planetary landers, small-body approach and landing, hazard detection for precise...
The ADEO-N subsystem is the smallest of a scalable drag augmentation device family ADEO that uses the residual Earth atmosphere present in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to passively de-orbit small satellites. For the de-orbit manoeuvre a large surface is deployed which multiplies the drag effective surface of the satellite significantly. Thereby the drag force is increased, causing accelerated decay...
Germanium is the semiconductor of choice for the production of high-efficient multi-junction space solar cells. Solar cells technology is, by nature, a large surface area semiconductor application and therefore Germanium is the most important semiconductor material, in weight, of all Space missions. Ge has been identified as one of the important environmental hotspots of space missions. This...
Germanium is a high-value material of limited availability and with a high CO2-footprint. Today, solar cells with the highest efficiency are produced on germanium substrates. For space applications, only high efficiency photovoltaic modules are used due to the restrictions in weight. Therefore, the consumption of germanium has to be reduced and the waste produced during the manufacturing of...
The Deorbit Kit is intended as a modular end-of-life platform for a automated, mission budget friendly controlled re-entry of satellites. The system is planned to be highly scalable for multiple missions in the future. The targets for the Deorbit Kit will be Low Earth Orbit (LEO) spacecraft in the size range of 50 to 300 kg mass.
The system consists of electric power system, sensor...
The Green-eSpace activity aims at providing a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of improvements in space electronics technology, design, manufacturing and verification & validation (V&V), that reduce the environmental impact of the different levels of electronics used in any type of spacecraft. This presentation will provide an overview of the ongoing and planned work to bring green electronics for...
This presentation concerns an overview of development of propulsion system consisting of Solid Rocket Motor and Thrust Vector Control designed at the Lukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Aviation in Warsaw, Poland (L-IoA).
The protection of Earth’s orbit environment has become one of the main interest at the L-IoA. After successful pre-qualification of a solid propellant, which shall...
Polyurethanes (PUs) are versatile materials applicable across many industries for their excellent resilience and applicability in different forms: flexible and rigid; monolith and foam. In space industry they find utilization for instance in spacecraft as coating and potting materials for protection of electronic compounds, and further in launchers as rigid foams for thermal insulation of...
The Aerothermodynamics Design for Demise Workshop (ATD3) is back and it will take place in the second half of November.
As in the previous editions, the main objectives of this workshop are:
Setting up a forum for the dissemination of recent results within the ATD3 community for re-entry missions, experiments, and simulation tools and models.
Creating a framework for verification,...
European Space Agency (ESA) has previously established life cycle data for life stages up to launch. In this work we extend the previous ESA LCA data and present complete life cycle assessment of several current propellants, including propellant chemical production, loading and launch stage emissions with impacts to climate change and ozone depletion. CEARUN was used to estimate launch stage...
In the wider context of Active Debris Removal (ADR) missions, the de-orbiting kit’s plug-in solution is special in its potential to become a self sustaining product. While the aim of the initial activity addressed within Cleanspace is to deorbit a passive launch adaptor (such as a VESPA upper part) as an in-orbit demonstration, the ultimate goal is to develop a modular and scalable concept...
While designing satellites, trade-offs are often made between different architectures, designs, materials,...
In most cases, these trade-offs do not consider the environmental performance of the various alternatives.
In the frame of this study, AirbusDS chose to focus on 2 alternative materials being used for optical payload structural parts: SiC and AlSi. The objective was to evaluate the...
The concept of On-orbit manufacturing and recycling has received increasing attention in the past years and a number of isolated technology developments have been initiated. The production and reuse of spacecraft in orbit provides the potential to turn problems into valuable assets. This requires the understanding of the implications at mission and system level as well as a clear view of the...
Through its Clean Space (CS) initiative, ESA has been devoting an increasing amount of attention to the environmental impact of its activities, including its own operations as well as operations performed by European industry in the frame of ESA programmes. On-orbit manufacturing and recycling is a concept that has been gaining momentum in the past years. A number of isolated technology...
Space Sustainability has become an important topic over the last two decades fueled by the debris issue and an increasing number of space infrastructure elements. Besides servicing and debris removal partly sharing technologies, new system solutions are proposed to broaden the scope of space mission, to improve their economics and to make space sustainable in the long-term, also regarding...
Large format, on-orbit additive manufacturing (AM) and assembly is actively being considered as a modular solution that facilitates resource efficient manufacturing, operations, and servicing in space. Customizable structures that can be manufactured in space bring a myriad of benefits that can significantly contribute towards sustainable space missions. To realize this, a novel AM approach to...
The opportunity for in-space manufacturing is significant. The potential for in-space manufacturing to create new materials, composites, and alloys by leveraging the conditions of the space environment is high. As is, the ability to use in-space manufacturing technologies for future exploration and In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) needs.
However, in-space manufacturing is limited due to...
Through its Clean Space (CS) initiative and to fully benefit from the removal of constraints linked to on-ground manufacturing and launcher requirements, ESA has set up the OMAR (On-orbit Manufacture, Assembly & Recycle) initiative. It is a system approach aiming to give an overview of the most interesting applications, to map the state-of-the-art and to derive a roadmap for the critical...
In terms of design for removal, passive technologies installed on the target satellite may potentially ease identification, tracking and pose estimation of the target. From far to close rendezvous, planar distributed 2D markers can be used for such purpose, while for the last moments of the rendezvous, up to capture, a single 3D marker is required to perform pose estimation. Installing LRRs on...
In the last years many space agencies and national entities have raised the problematic of introducing and/or already introduced Space Debris Mitigation (SDM) requirements within the design and development of the next generation of space missions, LEO scenarios/platforms in particular. The introduction those SDM requirements has a not negligible impact both at system and sub-system level on...
Thermal one-way effect Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuators are a lightweight, robust and cost effective alternative to conventional actuators like pyrotechnics or electromagnetic actuators. Parts machined from SMA could be pseudo-plastically deformed in cold state, later they return to their previously machined shape by simply heating them up to their phase transformation temperature. During...
We will present how the concept of passivation of the spacecraft power subsystem has evolved from the early studies to recent proposals.
OHB’s key challenges for LEO End of Life are in the selection of the best spacecraft design options available to fulfil the requirements of the missions at stake. The primary decision to be reached is whether the re-entry requirements can be met through controlled or uncontrolled re-entry. For some missions, the selection is clear, however, between these lie a trade-off space whereby either...
TAS Belgium will present the trade-off results & the component Technological tests results done under the GSTP Electrical Passivation - PCDU upgrade for power passivation in order to cover a Disposal phase (after isolation activation): at least 25 years
- Trade-off
- Tested components and associated technological tests vehicles
- Tests description
- Thermal cycling results
- Power...
Space Debris Removal applications will require precise navigation and orbital manoeuvres so may include a variety of onboard sensors to support different types of autonomous guidance systems. Vision and LiDAR-based Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) systems are well-established for space applications including planetary landers, small-body approach and landing, hazard detection for precise...
This presentation summarizes a number of activities within the European Space Agency (ESA) in the area of Vision-Based Navigation (VBN), using mainly cameras in the visible range and in the thermal Infrared (combined as MultiSpectral cameras, resulting from trade-off studies on the most advantageous wavelength bands for robust feature tracking) and augmented with commercial LIDARs for...
