We all know the saying that there is strength in numbers. The next revolution in space technology could be the use of swarms of tiny spacecraft, called CubeSats, that work together to achieve things greater than what any lone spacecraft can. CubeSats, assemble!&nbsp;

Join the hive: send your ideas for CubeSat swarms

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A CubeSat is a miniature satellite made up of one or more standard-sized 'units'. Each unit measures just 10 cm×10 cm×10 cm and weighs less than two kilograms. They are quick and cheap to produce and can carry all sorts of instruments on board. Almost 2000 of these tiny spacecraft have already been launched into space; while these have mostly operated alone, technological developments in recent years mean that we may soon use 'swarms' of tens of CubeSats that operate autonomously.&nbsp;

"In the last four years we've demonstrated that CubeSats can effectively communicate with each other via inter-satellite links, and we have exciting developments in our technology programme for their movement control in all directions," explains Roger Walker, head of ESA's CubeSat Systems Unit. "When you combine this finely controlled propulsion with inter-satellite links and visual or radio-based navigation, from a hardware perspective you're able to fly swarms. All that’s left is to address the challenges in software to guide, control and safely manage the swarm as a whole."

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CubeSat swarms could greatly outperform classical spacecraft systems, or even touch totally new application areas impossible to address with classical configurations. This is why ESA is asking for your innovative ideas for new mission concepts enabled by swarms of CubeSats. The open call for ideas, which is being run by the Preparation element of ESA's Basic Activities through the Open Space Innovation Platform (OSIP), welcomes ideas for both scientific and commercial applications.

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Roger: "We really encourage proposals from consortia – partnerships between industry and research institutes – because in our experience this leads to concepts which are realistic from a technical point of view, while being focused on interesting applications."
There are two types of swarms you could consider. One is a distributed swarm, in which many CubeSats fly in formation, connected by inter-satellite links and using onboard data processing techniques to generate a single output that gets sent back to Earth. The alternative is an aggregated swarm, in which separate CubeSats rendezvous and dock together, potentially with a larger central hub, to form a larger modular spacecraft that can autonomously (re)assemble itself. Both types of swarms allow us to overcome the size and weight constraints of the rockets that carry them to space, and could challenge classical spacecraft design methods and operations.

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"The concept of using CubeSat swarms for a wide variety of missions has never had a dedicated open call before at ESA. I'm very excited to see what comes from this call. Previous open calls have resulted in ideas which we never thought of, and we'll certainly push the boundaries of the state of the art, leading to new breakthroughs." – Roger Walker

<h3>Launching your idea</h3>
The call for ideas will be open until 17 February 2023. You can find full details and up-to-date information of the timing, process and conditions via OSIP. Selected mission concepts will be given six months and funding from ESA up to €100 000 to perform a mission/system concept study. The best concept will then be awarded a session at the Agency's Concurrent Design Facility together with ESA experts, potentially the first step towards an In-Orbit Demonstration (IOD). If your mission concept is selected, you won't have to wait long: ESA hopes to launch the first swarm IOD missions by 2026, to have the first operational mission launched by 2029.
"OSIP now has such a wide network within the European space community that it allows us to reach the maximum amount of people. Meanwhile, the online submission process on OSIP is very easy. I think there's no better mechanism within the Agency for soliciting a large number of diverse concepts," says Roger.
Just like a swarm, and in line with ESA's priorities outlined in its Agenda 2025, we are stronger when we work together. Because yes, there is strength in numbers.

Member State delegations pledged a record-breaking €16.9 billion budget for ESA at last week's Council at Ministerial Level in Paris, including renewed support for dedicated R&amp;D programmes employed by ESA’s Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality to invent the future in space.

Renewed support for ESA innovation at Paris Ministerial

In advance of the Ministerial, the Directorate had published an updated version of its Technology Strategy, setting out its plan for technology development in response to ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher’s Agenda 2025, which itself underlined innovation as a crucial element in ESA’s future.&nbsp;&nbsp;
As the Director General himself previously emphasised: “Technology is at the heart of everything ESA does.” Now the outcome of the Ministerial represents a clear endorsement of that approach.&nbsp;

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“This has been a good result for ESA, and the wider space sector in Europe,” comments Torben Henriksen, ESA Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality. “Our Directorate will play an essential part in all the new and renewed programmes approved this week, because our job is to develop and optimise all the technologies needed to realise Agency missions.&nbsp;&nbsp;
“We are also grateful for the strong support given to our Directorate technology development programmes, which span all the stages of innovation for space – from our very first contact with new ideas to finalising new products for market, all the way up to actually testing them in space.”&nbsp;

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The support to ESA’s Basic Activities will allow the Directorate to continue to prepare the future of the European space sector by funding early stage technology developments and studies via its Discovery and Preparation elements, including early ‘black sky’ thinking on promising concepts from all available sources, and the Technology Development Element, developing early prototypes and laboratory versions of new technologies.&nbsp;
The follow-on General Support Technology Programme takes these technologies from the mid-Technology Readiness Levels to ready them for space and the marketplace. Despite being an optional programme, GSTP was once again subscribed to by all ESA Member States, in recognition of its value and effectiveness.

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Support was well balanced between the three elements of GSTP: Element 1 ‘Develop’ qualifies technologies for space use, while the market-driven Element 2 ‘Make’ seeks to mature technologies into finalised products. Element 3 ‘Fly’ provides European industry with early opportunities to fly promising technologies in space, by hosting flight opportunities and in-orbit demonstration missions, especially using miniature ‘CubeSats’.&nbsp;
This Ministerial saw two new components added to GSTP, which both received good support from delegations.

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This Ministerial saw two new components added to GSTP, which both received good support from delegations.&nbsp;&nbsp;
The EEE Space Component Sovereignty for Europe aims to safeguard the supply of Electrical, Electronic and Electromechanical (EEE) components, working with industry, ESA Member States and European organisations such as European Commission and European Defence Agency, to deliver a stable, predictable development and procurement approach for EEE parts over an initial five-year period, to compensate for current volatility in the global microprocessor market.&nbsp;
And ENDURE, for ‘EuropeaN Devices Using Radioisotope Energy’, will deliver an end-to-end European capability for radioisotope heat and power systems by the end of this decade, opening up exploration of the outer Solar System as well as challenging planetary environments such as the long nights on the lunar surface or the cold and stormy conditions prevailing on Mars.

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And ENDURE, for ‘EuropeaN Devices Using Radioisotope Energy’, will deliver an end-to-end European capability for radioisotope heat and power systems by the end of this decade, opening up exploration of the outer Solar System as well as challenging planetary environments such as the long nights on the lunar surface or the cold and stormy conditions prevailing on Mars.
Another new initiative, SOLARIS to advance key technologies for Space-Based Solar Power plants, forms part of the over-subscribed Element 1 of GSTP. Discussions are now underway with national delegations on their preferred levels of commitment.&nbsp;
In an additional piece of good excellent news for the Directorate, the Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence received the funding needed to complete and launch the mission. Hera, tasked with performing a close-up survey of the Dimorphos asteroid which was this year diverted by NASA’s DART spacecraft, is a mission of ESA’s Space Safety programme but with the Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality responsible for its implementation.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Whether sending European spacecraft to distant frontiers, studying our home planet in greater detail than ever before, or designing new launch systems, ESA activities drive the development of new technologies.

These technologies can be protected as patents, which ESA makes available to entities in its Member States for research or commercial uses. But there is a long way to go before a patent becomes a product.

Discovery funding transforms ESA patents into commercial success

To support this journey, ESA's Technology Transfer and Patent Office turned to the Discovery element of ESA's Basic Activities. Through the Open Science Innovation Platform (OSIP), the Discovery element issued a call for ideas on innovative ways to use a collection of promising ESA patents for commercial purposes. Eight of these ideas will now be awarded funding to help boost the transfer of ESA technology and the competitiveness of the European space industry.

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<h3>Bridging the R&amp;D gap</h3>
ESA patents could include new technologies to make spacecraft power last as long as possible, or new radio equipment that allows satellites to send back large volumes of science data more efficiently.
But the technologies in these patents are often at a very early stage of development. Providing access to the intellectual property may not be enough: there is often a large R&amp;D gap between an ESA patent and a profitable commercial application, which can make it tough for a company to justify an investment.

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Enter ESA Discovery and this call for ideas: the OSIP call was set up to get new ideas off the ground and bridge the gap between patent and demonstrated application by bringing together innovative members of the European space community, promising ESA patents, ESA expertise and seed funding.
"The call went out to the European space sector to come up with innovative ways of using a collection of ESA patents," says Mercedes Sanchez Alvarez, ESA Technology Transfer Officer. "We focused on patents that we believe have high potential for new applications, but which are not yet being widely used."
"I was very impressed with the quality of the ideas we received from a range of large and small companies and universities. We then selected the ones that most creatively used the technology and had the highest commercial potential."

<h3>Inventors on speed dial</h3>
OSIP has allowed allow the teams behind the funded projects to interact directly with the inventors of the related patents and with other experts at ESA. The chance to engage and bounce ideas around with the people closest to the technology and who can best explain how and why the technology was developed and used at ESA, is one of the Platform's biggest advantages.

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"Often, the inventors of ESA patents have a general idea of how they could be applied and can offer very useful insight to the external project teams," says Mercedes. "But we saw also saw ideas that surprised even the inventors and which they thought were very innovative!"
"Now, we are looking forward to the second phase, where we will really dive into the commercial aspects of the projects. The funded ideas will help boost Europe's competitive edge in the global technology market by opening up new business opportunities for innovative companies, or by helping them be more competitive in their existing activities. We would definitely like to run a similar call for ideas again in the future with another collection of patents."
The patents involved in this call are primarily related to telecommunications, navigation and satellite power systems, which generally reflects the overall distribution of ESA patents. Read about the selected <a href="https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Preparing_for_the_Future/Discovery_and_Preparation/The_Discovery_Campaign_on_new_ideas_for_the_commercial_use_of_ESA_s_inventions" target="_blank">ideas here</a> .

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Although this pure gold pin is not much bigger than the tip of a pencil, it is the ‘pulsing heart’ of ESA’s Low Earth Orbit Facility, LEOX.

Part of the Agency’s <a href="/lab/materials-electrical-components-laboratory" target="_self">Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory</a> , based at <a href="https://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESTEC" target="_blank">ESA’s ESTEC</a> technical centre in the Netherlands, this test facility is vital for developing materials capable of withstanding the highly-erosive individual oxygen atoms prevailing at the top of the atmosphere, the result of standard oxygen molecules of the same kind found just above the ground being broken apart by powerful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.&nbsp;

Pure gold pin for space testing

All missions that orbit less than about 1000 km above Earth’s surface must be designed to resist atomic oxygen. To realistically simulate the low-Earth orbit environment, the <a href="https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Readying_spacecraft_to_surf_Venus_atmosphere" target="_blank">LEOX atomic oxygen facility</a> generates atomic oxygen travelling at 7.8 km/s.&nbsp;
Atomic oxygen is not easy to generate on Earth, because it is so reactive. This means that the materials used to make the simulator must be as robust as the materials flown in space. This sturdy gold pin is used to inject tiny pulses of oxygen gas molecules into a vacuum chamber, where the molecules are split into atoms using a powerful laser.
Pure gold, though expensive, is one of the few materials that can resist the combined impact of the laser and the highly erosive atomic oxygen, allowing the simulator to pulse millions of times during each test campaign. The pins do eventually erode and need to be replaced. These pins can’t be found in a local hardware store – engineers had to search far and wide for a reliable supplier. With the help of ESTEC’s Mechanical Workshop, they found a jewellery shop in Italy which offered to manufacture the pins, using their experience supplying miniature mechanical gold parts for clockmakers and other industries.
<a href="https://99estec-objects.esa.int/object-items/30" target="_blank">This image</a> is one of the <a href="https://99estec-objects.esa.int/" target="_blank">99 Objects of ESA ESTEC</a> , a set of intriguing, often surprising artefacts helping tell the story of more than half a century of activity at ESA’s technical heart.&nbsp;

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As well as being a possible resource, dust poses a huge risk to missions. It is one of the most important issues we need to resolve to be able to carry out long-term exploration of the Moon and Mars.

Dust Contamination Effects & Mitigation for Lunar & Martian Surface Mission

“I think dust is probably one of our greatest inhibitors to a nominal operation on the moon. I think that we can overcome other physiological or physical or mechanical problems except dust” Apollo 17 Mission Commander, Eugene Cernan.

Almost all of the lunar surface is covered by a layer of regolith of varying thickness (usually a few meters). The regolith consists of particles predominantly below 1 cm in size, the majority of which is very fine-grained, under 100 μm.&nbsp;
Without the impact of terrestrial erosion mechanisms, the grains stay very sharp and highly abrasive. The low electric conductivity of the dust enables it to be charged by the impinging UV light - causing it to stick electrostatically to other surfaces. The stickiness of the material can have a huge impact on missions; obscuring thermal surfaces and covering instruments. Martian dust also has similar unique properties, and on Mars there are even winds to transport it readily around the surface.
Lunar and Martian regoliths are already very different from terrestrial surface materials and depending on the location on the surface there also exist large variations between regolith compositions. To prepare for the conditions faced by future missions, we need to be able to simulate these conditions on Earth, which definitely includes simulating the planetary dust that will be encountered!&nbsp;
Today various regolith simulants exist, but no one Earth-based material can match all properties of lunar or Martian regolith. In TEC-QEE, the Materials’ Physics and Chemistry section, we are characterising selected simulants to see how well they replicate the different properties of real regolith, and which simulant is best used for which test. We are working on developing standardised tests to compare properties for different simulants which may previously have been analysed by different experimenters, making it difficult to compare data. We are also testing some of the impacts of dust on relevant materials. The next step is to carry out more complex tests using relevant conditions, and we have plans underway to build a specialised Planetary Dust Simulation Facility to measure charging effects and changes in thermo-optical properties.

News

Join the hive: send your ideas for CubeSat swarms

Renewed support for ESA innovation at Paris Ministerial

Discovery funding transforms ESA patents into commercial success

Pure gold pin for space testing

Dust Contamination Effects & Mitigation for Lunar & Martian Surface Mission

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