The joint 15th International Symposium on Materials in the Space Environment (ISMSE) and 13th International Conference for Protection of Materials and Structures from the Space Environment (ICPMSE) represents one of the largest international conferences on materials in the space environment, with a heritage stretching back four decades.

Surviving Space: Major Conference Focuses on Materials in the Space Environment

“It is hard to imagine a more hostile environment for materials than space,” remarks Adrian Tighe, Materials Engineer in ESA’s Materials Physics and Chemistry Section and one of the co-chairs on the conference organising committee.&nbsp;
“Unfiltered ultraviolet sunlight degrades materials remorselessly, along with particle radiation, erosive atomic oxygen in low orbits and a growing population of space debris heightening the impact risk, starting from the microscopic scale on up.”&nbsp;
“Those are some of the traditional topics we’re looking at, but we’re also encouraging contributions on newer areas. Space is not one destination but many; future missions will take us to new environments such as very low Earth orbit, terrestrial reentry, the high-pressure atmosphere of Venus and the dusty surfaces of the Moon, Mars and asteroids.”&nbsp;
Riccardo Rampini, Head of ESA’s Materials Physics and Chemistry Section, adds: “Meanwhile the required performance of mission instruments grows increasingly stringent – which means in practice larger telescopes or greater instrument sensitivity – with follow-on requirements in terms of the need for higher performance materials on the one hand, or more stringent cleanliness and contamination control requirements on the other.”&nbsp;
“We also want to reflect the ways that the space business is evolving, with ‘New Space’ commercialisation leading to the increased use of commercial-off-the-shelf materials and parts, which need to be tested and characterized for space, including 3D printed parts, plus new high-volume manufacturing and digital testing approaches. Finally the space sector’s need to meet sustainability and environmental regulations means novel materials need to be developed and tested.”&nbsp;
The conference will include looking forward to some of ESA’s most challenging future missions from a materials point of view: the Athena X-ray telescope requiring a large-scale optical module based on novel ‘silicon pore optics’ technology, the gravitational-wave detecting LISA constellation which will have to be the stillest spacecraft ever flown, the EnVision mission to Venus orbit, ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter contribution to the international Mars Sample Return endeavour, the Lunar Gateway around the Moon and the proposed Comet Sample Return mission.&nbsp;

More information about the conference

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How can you accurately test a space antenna down here on Earth when it has been scaled up to penetrate the subterranean depths of another planet?

Aerial Antenna Test for Venus Mission

This was the question faced by <a href="https://www.group.sener/" target="_blank">SENER</a> in Spain, currently designing a candidate antenna for ESA’s <a href="https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/ESA_selects_revolutionary_Venus_mission_EnVision" target="_blank">EnVision mission</a> , which will explore Venus from its inner core to outermost cloud layers. To solve it they lifted their prototype skyward with a balloon. 
"To develop key technologies for future missions, <a href="https://technology.esa.int/" target="_blank">ESA’s Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality</a> often explores multiple approaches,” explains ESA antenna engineer Paul Moseley. “This includes parallel prototypes for EnVision’s Subsurface Radar Sounder (SRS), which will transmit and receive radio signals to chart the Venusian subsurface. It will achieve this using very low frequencies – 9 Mhz – which in turn means its antenna has to be very large, 16 m across. 
“To accurately characterise the performance of SENER’s current prototype it needs to be tested free of any interaction with its environment, but it is simply too big to fit dedicated test facilities such as <a href="https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2017/10/Inside_Hertz_Chamber" target="_blank">ESA’s Hertz chamber</a> – which in any case is not equipped to work with such low frequencies.” The only option left was going outdoors, but the ground would still have interfered with the antenna, distorting the results. So the antenna team decided to suspend the SRS antenna and a full-sized mockup of the EnVision spacecraft from a balloon, lifting it more than 200 m above the ground. 
“To further reduce interference from the ground, it was angled to point to the horizon,” adds Paul. “Results from the test campaign show the antenna design is working as expected.” This testing will help guide the final selection of a source for EnVision’s sounder instrument. The mission, targeting launch in the early 2030s, will also carry spectrometers for atmospheric and surface sounding, a radio science experiment to chart the Venusian gravity field and a NASA-sourced imaging radar.

Antenna Balloon Test for EnVision

How to test an extendible spacecraft boom designed to work in weightlessness down here on the ground? This is when helium balloons come in handy.

Inflated Activity

The 3 m-long magnetometer boom of a ‘structural and thermal model’ prototype of the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (Smile) was deployed with balloons attached during its test campaign at the <a href="https://technology.esa.int/lab/test-centre" target="_blank">ESTEC Test Centre</a> in the Netherlands, the largest satellite test establishment in Europe.&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2019/03/The_Smile_mission" target="_blank">Smile</a> is a joint mission between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (<a href="https://english.cas.cn/" target="_blank">CAS</a>) will aim to build a more complete understanding of the Sun-Earth connection by measuring the solar wind and its dynamic interaction with the magnetosphere.&nbsp;
Find out more <a href="https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2022/02/Balloon_boom" target="_blank">here</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;

ESA’s Navigation Laboratory has a new recruit: this drone can carry different types of satellite navigation receivers to collect data for follow-on analysis.

The drone has landed

The <a href="https://technology.esa.int/lab/navigation-laboratory" target="_blank">NavLab</a> , based at ESA’s ESTEC technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, is focused on the testing, analysis and characterisation of navigation systems for both ESA and external customers.&nbsp;
With drones representing a rapidly-expanding user base, this is a timely addition to the NavLab’s suite of platforms for the testing of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technologies and techniques – also including static, mobile and pedestrian platforms and a pair of test vans.&nbsp;
Along with receivers and antennas, the drone can also host radio-frequency spectrum samplers and support equipment such as inertial sensors and stereo cameras, allowing the assessment of performance in specific dynamics and environments related to specific 'Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle' applications, such as approach, landing, flying beside buildings or indoors.
See it in action <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK-zPZ2gQlU" target="_blank">here</a> . 

(C) ESA &amp; Remedia 
&nbsp;

Drone in NavLab

A small forest of antennas sprouts from the roof of ESA’s Navigation Laboratory, based at the ESTEC technical centre in the Netherlands, which is among the most frequently satnav-fixed locations on Earth.

Roof of the Satnav World

This is also the site of the very first <a href="https://www.esa.int/Applications/Navigation/Galileo_fixes_Europe_s_position_in_history" target="_blank">Galileo positioning fix</a> positioning fix, acquired back in 2014 using the first quartet of Galileo satellites.&nbsp;
“The antenna is a critical component of any Global Navigation <a href="https://www.esa.int/Applications/Navigation/Galileo_fixes_Europe_s_position_in_history" target="_blank">Global Navigation Satellite </a> System user segment, capturing power from the electromagnetic waves it receives, then converting it into electrical current to be processed by the rest of the receiver chain,” explains Radio Navigation Engineer Michelangelo Albertazzi.&nbsp;
“Up here we have a variety of antenna designs in place – such as omnidirectional, high gain and arrays – from leading world receiver manufacturers, which acquire signals from all major global GNSS constellations, including Galileo, GPS, the Russian Glonass and China’s Beidou, as well as regional systems such as Europe’s EGNOS.”&nbsp;
The <a href="https://technology.esa.int/lab/navigation-laboratory" target="_blank">NavLab </a> is also equipped with state-of-the-art equipment to record, replay and analyze the RF signals picked up by these antennas, to help with its main goal of performing tests, analyses and characterisation of navigation systems for both ESA and external customers.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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