Summary 2 013 Executive Summary 2 013 Summary
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Executive summary 2 013 Executive summary 2 013 Summary Introduction 2013 : Broadening the Scope \\\ 5 Mission A link between institutions, academia and industry \\\ 6 Role \\\ 6 Members A network in expansion \\\ 7 Projects Clean-mE / Active Debris Removal Toward solutions for an efficient debris removal \\\ 8 CleanSpace One in orbit with Swiss Space Systems (S3) \\\ 10 SpaceCam An eye in space to identify debris \\\ 11 CubETH A tool for precise orbit determination \\\ 12 Call for Ideas 2013 To foster disruptive space innovations based on ideas and concepts \\\ 13 Swisscube Twenty-two thousand trips around the planet \\\ 14 Events Space Career Day 2013 To grow the “ rocket scientists ” of tomorrow ! \\\ 15 ESA International Summer School A comprehensive overview of satellite navigation \\\ 16 Space technology summer camps Moscow Beihang University \\\ 17 International Astronautical Congress When all space actors come together \\\ 18 6th EPFL robotic festival \\\ 19 Members’Word \\\ 20 Introduction 2013 : Broadening the Scope The events heralded in 2012 came with a rapid pace in the beginning of 2013. The growth of membership, the clarification of our mission and tasks spelled out clearly for the first time in the terms of Reference document, the election of the first Steer- ing Committee and the appointment of its first chairman served to strengthen or purpose and direction. The reputation of the sities of applied sciences and the two fed- Swiss Space Center eral institutes of technology. Continuing is steadily growing education has found strong interest with among the national the prototype of a week-long systems en- and international ac- gineering course that will be opened to tors. This allowed us all members from 2014 onwards. to participate in im- The new initiative “ call for ideas ” portant conferences launched in 2013 showed a strong reso- such as the RAST in Istanbul and the IAF/ nance in the country with more than 30 IAC in Beijing as invited speakers or as proposals submitted, a third of which session chair persons and gave us the could be funded. We are confident that opportunity to inform the international more than one of these studies will result in space community about activities in a project under the up-coming “ Mesures Switzerland. de Positionnement ” or other international The first summer school with Beihang funding measures. University as well as the now established It is thanks to the support and trust of our summer school with Baumann University members and partners, as well our thor- of Moscow were a great success and will oughly dedicated staff that we are able be enhanced and repeated in the future. to accomplish the activities presented The Swiss Space Center has equally been in this executive summary and we are busy at a national level. Projects such as looking forward to the challenges that lie CubETH and the ESA GSTP study provide ahead of us. positive synergies between large and small industrial members as well as univer- Volker Gass, Director \ \ \ 5 Mission Members A link between institutions, academia and industry A network in expansion Within the new “ Terms of Reference ” is- the mission of the Swiss Space Center : During the year 2013, the Swiss Space Center welcomed seven new Swiss industries sued on October 31st, 2013, the Board of “ The Swiss Space Center provides a ser- within its members : Almatech, Clemessy, DLTECH, Meggitt, Sarmap, Spectratime Directors composed by the SERI/SSO Direc- vice supporting institutions, academia and Swiss Space Systems (S3). tor, Daniel Neuenschwander, the EPFL Vice- and industry to access space missions President, Philippe Gillet and the ETHZ Vice- and related applications, and promote Therefore, the Swiss Space Center current- tutes, Universities, Universities of applied President, Roland Siegwart, has reinforced interaction between these stakeholders. ” ly counts 20 members from each region sciences) and institutions (Swiss Space Of- of Switzerland and representing all types fice, CSEM). Discussions are on-going with of companies (large size, medium and other entities from the Swiss space com- start-up), academies (Swiss Federal Insti- munity to include more members in 2014. Role • To network Swiss research institutions • To facilitate access to and implemen- and industries on national and inter- tation of space projects for Swiss re- national levels in order to establish fo- search institutions and industries; cused areas of excellence internation- • To provide education and training; ally recognized for both space R&D • To promote public awareness of space. and applications; Swiss Space Center Members. 6 / / / \ \ \ 7 Projects Picker Mothership Shuttle T2 T2 T2 Clean-mE / Active Debris Removal T1 T4 T1 T4 T1 T4 T3 T3 T3 Toward solutions for an efficient debris removal Launch Launch Launch China’s demonstration of its capability to destroy an aging satellite in 2007, and the collision between the American satellite Iridium and the Russian Cosmos in 2009 brought a new emphasis on the orbital debris problem. Although most of the work PFSC had been concentrated on avoidance prediction and debris monitoring, all major MSSC space agencies are now claiming the need for active removal of debris. About 16’000 debris above 10 cm are catalogued. Roughly 2’000 of these are remains of Figure XX1 launch vehicles, 3’000 belong to defunct satellites and the rest are either mission Example of 3 mission architectures for removing 4 target debris (T). generated or fragmentation debris. In addition, over the years, many studies potential) per year. The Swiss Space Cent- have been performed to actively remove er in collaboration with Prof. O. De Weck, debris from LEO and GEO, and there is MIT (USA), created a mission and cam- a vast pool of information on this topic. paign analysis tool to feed the technical 2023 2024 However, all solutions known at this point analysis. The tool optimizes the launch Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec MS 1 for removing debris are difficult to imple- date and the debris selection path, the Kit 1.1 Kit 1.2 ment and require non-trivial resources number of remover satellites per launch ; MS 2 (cost, mass…). Furthermore, all these so- it provides a conceptual design of the Kit 2.1 Kit 2.2 lutions need new technology develop- remover satellite and kits, and allows for MS 3 Kit 3.1 ments for efficient debris removal. Based technology trade-offs (see Figures XX1 Kit 3.2 on these observations, the Swiss Space and XX2). The results of this activity were MS 4 Kit 4.1 Center has been involved in active debris published at the 6th ESA Conference on Kit 4.2 MS 5 removal research activities over the last Space Debris in Darmstadt, Germany. Kit 5.1 4 years in a program called “ Clean-mE ”. A second activity started under ESA fund- Kit 5.2 MS 6 Three major activities (involving students) ing, which purpose is to evaluate if and Kit 6.1 Kit 6.2 were pursued in 2014 in this field. which ADR technologies could be dem- Kit 6.3 The first activity was funded by EADS As- onstrated in space using CubeSats (rang- Kit 6.4 trium under a CNES contract. It had for ing from 2 units up to 6 units in size/mass). Launch • 8 debris removed during the first year Re-entry purpose the evaluation of the most cost- This activity involves academic and indus- • 11 debris removed during the second year Rendezvous effective way to remove 5-10 large debris trial partners of the Swiss Space Center. It Cruise/Drift (the ones with the most debris creation is expected to finish late 2014. Figure XX1 Example of Removal Campaign output in the case of the Mothership (MS) and kits architecture (launches on Soyuz or Ariane 5). 8 / / / \ \ \ 9 CleanSpace One in orbit with Swiss Space Systems (S3) SpaceCam The third activity of the Clean-mE pro- ment and mission scenario evaluations gram was the continuation of the CleanS- are on-going. An eye in space to identify debris pace One (CSO) project, which purpose A press conference took place in Payerne will be to demonstrate the removal and on September 10, 2013, to announce this In the frame of the Active Debris Removal (ADR) activities, the Swiss Space Center de-orbiting of SwissCube. A first funding new partnership and present the satel- is seeking for solutions permitting the in-flight identification of debris and the deter- partner, Swiss Space Systems (S3), joined lite’s new design. A large media cover- mination of their attitude. Vision system is a key element of this goal. An ADR mission the project late 2014. Project manage- age resulted from this event. will therefore require autonomous vision system, making use of smart cameras. The Swiss Space Center identified a Swiss developed by the Swiss Space Center CleanSpace One Will De-Orbit Space Junk in 2018 Over 16000 pieces of space junk, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) indus- and sent to BUAA for implementation into CleanSpace One is to be the first satellite to clean earth’s orbit of dangerous debris. Developed at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, larger than 10 cm, the satellite will be launched into orbit by the Swiss Space Systems, aka S3, based on new launch technology that produces have been counted trial smart camera manufacturer and is the BUAA-SAT test platform. no spatial debris. in orbit around the Earth. adapting one of its camera models to In parallel, the Swiss Space Center de- 3 Separation of the capsule 4 Ejection and de-orbit 5 Target debris space requirements. In the frame of col- veloped a communication protocol be- Altitude: ~80 km of the capsule Altitude: ~700 km Speed: 28’000 km/h laboration with the Beihang University of tween the camera and the satellite as 6 Debris capture Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA) in well as the on-board software that will is ebr e d f th Beijing, China, BUAA gave an opportunity be tested with the Electrical Model, deliv- t o rbi O 2 Separation of the shuttle to the Swiss Space Center to fly a camera ered by end of December 2014 to BUAA.