Space Research

2016 – 2018 in Switzerland 

Space Research 2016 – 2018 in Switzerland

Report to the 42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly Pasadena, CA, United States, 14 – 22 July 2018

Editors: Nicolas Thomas (Univ. Bern) and Stephan Nyeki (PMOD/WRC) Layout: Stephan Nyeki

Publication by the Swiss Committee on Space Research (Committee of the Swiss Academy of Sciences)

Online copies available at: naturalsciences.ch/organisations/space_research/publications

Edition: 1000, printed 2018 Physics Institute, Univ. Bern, Bern, Switzerland

Cover Page: The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA) is one of a number of payloads onboard the BepiColombo mission to Mercury. The mission will launch from Kourou in 2018 on a 6-year flight before entering Mercury orbit. BELA will characterise and measure the figure, topography, and surface morphology of the planet with < 2 m precision. Image credits: BELA, Univ. Bern; BepiColombo spacecraft, ESA/ATG medialab; Mercury, NASA/JPL (Mariner 10 mission). Contents

Contents

1 Foreword 3

2 Institutes and Observatories 4 2.1 ISSI – International Space Science Institute...... 4 2.2 ISDC ­– INTEGRAL Science Data Centre...... 6 2.3 CODE ­– Center for Orbit Determination in Europe...... 8 2.4 eSpace – EPFL Space Engineering Center ...... 10 2.5 SSA – International Space Situational Awareness ...... 11 2.6 SSC – Swiss Space Center...... 12 2.7 Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) at the Swiss Optical Ground Station and Geodynamics Obs. Zim- merwald ...... 14

3 Swiss Space Missions 15 3.1 CleanSpace One...... 15 3.2 CHEOPS – Characterising ExOPlanet Satellite...... 16

4 Space Access Technology 18 4.1 ALTAIR – Air Launch Space Transportation Using an Automated Aircraft and an Innovative Rocket. . 18

5 Astrophysics 19 5.1 Gaia Variability Processing and Analysis ...... 19 5.2 POLAR ...... 20 5.3 DAMPE – DArk Matter Particle Explorer ...... 22 5.4 LPF – LISA Pathfinder...... 24 5.5 IBEX – Interstellar Boundary Explorer...... 26 5.6 Swiss Contribution to ATHENA...... 27 5.7 Swiss Contribution to Euclid ...... 28 5.8 XARM – The Swiss Contribution to the X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission...... 30 5.9 XIPE – The X-Ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer...... 32 5.10 eXTP – The Enhanced X-Ray Timing and Polarimetry Mission...... 34 5.11 SPICA – Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics ...... 35 5.12 HERD – High Energy Radiation Detection Facility...... 36 5.13 THESEUS – The Transient High Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor ...... 37

6 Solar Physics 38 6.1 VIRGO – Variability of Irradiance and Global Oscillations on SoHO...... 38 6.2 Probing Solar X-Ray Nanoflares with NuSTAR...... 39 6.3 CLARA – Compact Lightweight Absolute Radiometer on NorSat-1...... 40 6.4 FLARECAST – Flare Likelihood and Region Eruption Forecasting ...... 42 6.5 DARA – Digital Absolute Radiometer on PROBA-3 ...... 43 6.6 STIX – Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-Rays Onboard Solar Orbiter...... 44 6.7 MiSolFA – The Micro Solar-Flare Apparatus...... 45 6.8 SPICE and EUI Instruments Onboard Solar Orbiter...... 46 6.9 JTSIM-DARA...... 48

1 Contents

7 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing 50 7.1 APEX – Airborne Prism Experiment...... 50 7.2 HYLIGHT – Integrated Use of Airborne Hyperspectral Imaging Data and Airborne Laser Scanning Data. 51 7.3 SPECCHIO – Spectral Information System ...... 52 7.4 FLEX – FLuorescence EXplorer Mission...... 53 7.5 Wet Snow Monitoring with Spaceborne SAR...... 54 7.6 Moving Target Tracking in SAR Images...... 56 7.7 Calibration Targets for MetOp-SG Instruments MWS and ICI...... 57 7.8 EGSIEM – European Gravity Service for Improved Emergency Management...... 58 7.9 Copernicus Precise Orbit Determination Service...... 60 7.10 EMRP MetEOC-3 ...... 62 7.11 ARES – Airborne Research Facility for the Earth System...... 63

8 Comets, Planets 64 8.1 ROSINA – Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis...... 64 8.2 Seismometer Instrument for the NASA InSight Mission ...... 66 8.3 Investigation of the Chemical Composition of Lunar Soils (Luna-Glob and Luna-Resurs Missions). . .68 8.4 Investigation of the Volatiles Contained in Lunar Soils (Luna-Resurs Mission)...... 69 8.5 CaSSIS – The Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System...... 70 8.6 SERENA/STROFIO on BepiColombo...... 71 8.7 BELA – BepiColombo Laser Altimeter...... 72 8.8 PEP – Particle Environment Package on JUICE...... 74 8.9 SWI – Submillimeter Wave Instrument on JUICE...... 75 8.10 CLUPI – CLose-Up Imager for ExoMars Rover 2020...... 76 8.11 GALA – Ganymede Laser Altimeter...... 78 8.12 MiARD – Multi-Instrument Analysis of Rosetta Data...... 79

9 Life Science 80 9.1 Yeast Bioreactor Experiment...... 80 9.2 Calcium-Dependent Current Recordings During the 2nd Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign...... 81 9.3 Focal Adhesion Characterisation During Parabolic Flight Campaign...... 82

10 Swiss Space Industries Group 83

11 Index of Authors 85

2 Foreword

1 Foreword

The Committee on Space Research the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), Looking further into the future, the (COSPAR) is an interdisciplinary sci- was launched in March 2016 and has Swiss space community is eagerly entific organisation which is focussed recently reached its primary science awaiting the operation of the first on the exchange of information on orbit. TGO carries the Swiss-led im- Swiss research satellite: CHEOPS, progress of all kinds of space re- aging system, CaSSIS (Colour and CHaracterizing ExOPlanet which was search. It was established in 1958 by Stereo Surface Imaging System), selected by ESA as a small nationally- the International Council for Science which is now returning high resolu- led mission. The mission will study (ICSU) as a thematic organisation to tion colour and stereo images of the exoplanets using the transit method promote scientific research in space on surface of Mars in support of the to determine radii and possibly the an international level. COSPAR’s main spectrometers designed to measure atmospheric structure of previously activity is the organisation of biennial trace gases in the Martian atmosphere detected exoplanets. CHEOPS was Scientific Assemblies. On the occa- (supplied by Belgium and Russia). The adopted for construction in early 2014, sion of the 42nd COSPAR Assembly first colour observations from in-orbit designed in the last two years, and (Pasadena, USA) the Swiss National show a highly performant imager successfully passed the critical de- Committee on Space Research takes that can also support future landed sign review, giving green light for con- this opportunity to report on its activi- missions. These will include NASA’s struction of the flight hardware. The ties to the international community. InSight mission to Mars that will at- instrument is now integrated on the tempt to detect “Marsquakes” for the spacecraft, and the launch is currently The majority of Swiss space research first time. Switzerland has made a scheduled for early 2019. This mission activities are related to missions of the contribution to the seismometer on is of special interest and importance to European Space Agency (ESA) and, the spacecraft. Swiss contributions the Swiss community as it is the first therefore, ESA’s science programme to the ExoMars Rover (launch 2020) Swiss science satellite. is of central importance to the Swiss are also in development and indicate science community. Within this pro- Switzerland’s support for exploration Finally, Switzerland led the hardware gramme, Swiss scientists and their of the Red Planet. development of Europe’s first inter- industries have been extremely active planetary laser altimeter experiment, in the past years and this is reflected in Switzerland has also contributed to BELA. This instrument will launch from the diversity and depth of this report. the success of LISA Pathfinder. The Kourou in 2018 on a 6-year flight to recent detection of gravitational waves Mercury where it will map the surface The previous 2016 report was writ- has given renewed impetus to the with <2 m precision. ten when ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft LISA mission which is now sched- was in its extended mission at comet uled to fly in 2034. We expect that As the highlights above illustrate, the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The Switzerland will also contribute to Swiss space community is active and mission was already clearly a ma- LISA taking advantage of past expe- a reliable partner in space research jor success for ESA, and the Swiss rience. Switzerland has also played a activities. For your information and community was also proud of the significant role in the preparation of to trigger your interest, this book is a Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for the ESA astrometry mission, GAIA, compilation of Swiss national projects Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) by contributing to the detection and related to space research. It shows experiment which contributed to the analysis of variable celestial objects broad interests in many fields with determination of the coma composi- and characterising and classifying technical innovations to match. tion and density of the gas close to the variable sources. nucleus. Although the mission ended in September 2016 with a semi-hard CLARA, a payload onboard the Nicolas Thomas landing on the nucleus, data analysis Norwegian NorSat-1 micro-satellite, President of CSR continues with the detection of glycine was launched in July 2017, and is a being a recent highlight and further new generation of radiometer to mea- results are to be expected when more sure the Total Solar Irradiance (TSI). Weblinks detailed analyses combining data sets The main science goal of CLARA is to from several instruments are under- measure TSI with an uncertainty better COSPAR: cosparhq.cnes.fr taken. Swiss scientists have already than 0.4 W m-2 on an absolute irradi- Swiss Committee on Space Research, Swiss taken significant steps in this direction. ance level. This continues the long- Commission on Remote Sensing, term involvement of Swiss institutes Swiss Academy of Sciences: The joint ESA/Roscosmos mission, in studies of the Sun’s output. naturalsciences.ch/organisations

3 Institutes and Observatories

2 Institutes and Observatories

2.1 ISSI – International Space Science Institute

Fields of Research Realisations in 2016 and 2017

The ISSI programme covers a wide- In total, 131 International Team meet- spread spectrum of disciplines from ings, 8 Workshops, 5 Working Group the physics of the solar system and meetings, and 5 Forums took place planetary sciences to astrophysics in the years 2016 and 2017. ISSI wel- and cosmology, and from Earth sci- comes about 950 visitors annually. ences to astrobiology. Furthermore, ISSI offers a unique Introduction environment for facilitating and fos- tering interdisciplinary Earth Science ISSI is an Institute of Advanced Studies research. Consequently ESA’s Earth Directors at which scientists from all over the Observation Programme Directorate world are invited to work together entered a contractual relationship R. Rodrigo (Executive Director) to analyse, compare and interprete with ISSI in 2008 to facilitate the A. Cazenave their data. Space scientists, theorists, synergistic analysis of projects of the R. von Steiger modellers, ground-based observers International Polar Year, International J. Wambsganss and laboratory researchers meet at Living Planet Teams, Workshops and J. Geiss (Honorary Director) ISSI to formulate interdisciplinary in- Forums. The contract with the ESA terpretations of experimental data and Earth Science Directorate with ISSI Staff observations. Therefore, the scientists has been extended until 2020. are encouraged to pool their data and 10 Scientific results. The conclusions of these activi- ISSI jointly established with the 6 Administrative ties - published in several journals or National Space Science Center of books - are expected to help identify the Chinese Academy of Sciences Board of Trustees the scientific requirements of future (NSSC/CAS) a branch called ISSI- space science projects. ISSI’s study BJ (International Space Science G. Meylan (Chair), École projects on specific scientific themes Institute – Beijing) in 2013. ISSI-BJ Polytechnique Fédérale de are selected in consultation with the shares the same Science Committee Lausanne, Switzerland Science Committee members and with ISSI and uses the same study other advisers. tools. Since 2014, ISSI has released Science Committee together with ISSI-BJ an annual joint ISSI’s operation mode is fivefold: Call for Proposals for International M. Mandea (Chair), International Teams, multi- and in- Teams in Space and Earth Sciences. CNES, Paris, France terdisciplinary Workshops, Working Groups, Visiting Scientists and ISSI is also a part of the Europlanet Contact Information Forums are the working tools of ISSI. 2020 Research Infrastructure (RI) proj- ect. Europlanet 2020 RI addresses key International Space Science The European Space Agency (ESA), scientific and technological challenges Institute (ISSI) the Swiss Confederation, and the facing modern planetary science by Hallerstrasse 6 Swiss Academy of Sciences (SC NAT) providing open access to state-of-the- CH-3012 Bern provide the financial resources for art research data, models and facilities Switzerland ISSI’s operation. The Univ. Bern con- across the European Research Area. tributes through a grant to the Director ISSI is a participant in the Europlanet Tel.: +41 31 631 48 96 and in-kind facilities. The Space Activity called "Innovation through Fax: +41 31 631 48 97 Research Inst. (IKI, RAS, Russia) and science networking" and is working the lnst. of Space and Astronautical together with eight other Europlanet www.issibern.ch Sci. (ISAS, JAXA, Japan) support ISSI institutes to organise three Workshops e-mail: [email protected] with an annual financial contribution. and two strategic Forums over the

4 Institutes and Observatories

duration of the contract which will ad- 978-1-4939-3549-9, 2016. results in an interactive open-access dress some of the major scientific and journal of the European Geosciences technical challenges of present-day SSSI Volume 55: Remote Sensing Union: https://www.atmos-chem- planetary sciences. Europlanet 2020 and Water Resources, A. Cazenave, phys.net/special_issue11_192.html. RI will run until 2019. N. Champollion, J. Benveniste, J. Chen (Eds.), ISBN 978-3-319-32448- On average, the International Teams All scientific activities result in some 7, 2016. publish over 200 peer-reviewed pa- form of publication, e.g. in ISSI’s hard- pers per year. All results, published cover book series Space Sciences Volume 58: Integrative Study of the papers, and books can be found in Series of ISSI (SSSI), ISSI Scientific Mean Sea Level and its Components, ISSI’s Annual Reports 21 (2015–2016) Report Series (SR), both published A. Cazenave, N. Champollion, F. Paul, and 22 (2016–2017), which are avail- by Springer or individual papers in J. Benveniste (Eds.), ISBN 978-3-319- able online (http://www.issibern.ch/ peer-reviewed international scientific 56490-6, 2017. publications/ar.html). journals. As at the end of 2017, 58 volumes of SSSI, and 15 volumes of SSSI Volume 59: Dust Devils, D. SR have been published. Information Reiss, R. Lorenz, M. Balme, L. Outlook about the complete collection can be Neakrase, A.P. Rossi, A. Spiga, J. found on ISSI’s website: www.issibern. Zarnecki (Eds.), ISBN 978-94-024- Thirty-one new International ch, in the section "Publications". 113 3 -1, 2017. Teams , approved in 2017 by the Science Committee, are starting their SSSI Volume 60: Earth's Magnetic activities in the 23rd business year Publications Field: Understanding Geomagnetic (2017/18). In addition, six Workshops Sources from the Earth's Interior and will take place in the 23rd business The following new volumes appeared its Environment, C. Stolle, N. Olsen, A. year: in 2016 and 2017: D. Richmond, H. Opgenoorth (Eds.), ISBN 978-94-024-1224-6, 2017. - Space-Based Measurement of SSSI Volume 48: Helioseismology and Forest Properties for Carbon Cycle Dynamics of the Solar Interior, M. J. Research. Thompson, A. S. Brun, J. L. Culhane, Scientific Reports L. Gizon, M. Roth, T Sekii (Eds.), ISBN - Clusters of Galaxies: Physics and 978-94-024-1033-4, 2017. Volume 14: Inventing a Space Mission Cosmology. − The Story of the Herschel Space SSSI Volume 51: Multi-Scale Observatory, V. Minier, R.M. Bonnet, - Comets: Post 67P Perspectives (in Structure Formation and Dynamics V. Bontems, T. de Graauw, M. Griffin, Collaboration with MiARD). in Cosmic Plasmas, A. Balogh, A. F. Helmich, G. Pilbratt, S. Volonte, Bykov, J. Eastwood, J. Kaastra (Eds.), Results of an ISSI Working Group, - Role of Sample Return in Addressing ISBN 978-1-4939-3546-8, 2016. ISBN 978-3-319-60023-9, 2017. Major Outstanding Questions in Planetary Sciences (In Collaboration SSSI Volume 52: Plasma Sources Volume 16: Air Pollution in Eastern with Europlanet). of Solar System Magnetospheres, Asia: An Integrated Perspective, I. A. F. Nagy, M. Blanc, C. Chappell, Bouarar, X. Wang, G.P. Brasseur - Understanding the Relationship be- N. Krupp (Eds), ISBN 978-1-4939- (Eds.), Results of an ISSI Team, ISBN tween Coastal Sea Level and Large- 3 5 4 3 -7, 2016. 978-3-319-59488-0, 2017. Scale Ocean Circulation.

SSSI Volume 54: The Strongest Other Publications - ExoOceans: Space Exploration of Magnetic Fields in the Universe, V. the Outer Solar System Icy Moons S. Beskin, A. Balogh, M. Falanga, The Working Group "Carbon Cycle Oceans (in Collaboration with M. Lyutikov, S. Mereghetti, T. Data Assimilation" led by M. Scholze ESSC-ESF). Piran, R. A. Treumann (Eds.), ISBN and M. Heimann published all their

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2.2 ISDC ­– INTEGRAL Science Data Centre

Institute Purpose of Research Past Achievements and Status

Dept. Astronomy, The INTEGRAL Science Data Centre INTEGRAL was launched in October Univ. Geneva (UNIGE) (ISDC) was established in 1996 as 2002 and its data are not only used a consortium of 11 European insti- for papers and PhD theses (more than In Cooperation with: tutes and NASA. It has a central role 100 at present), but also as a near- in the ground-segment activities of real time monitor: several astronomical European Space Agency ESA’s INTernational Gamma-Ray telegrams per month are published German Aerospace Center Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL). and, every second day, an automatic Istituto Nazionale di Astro., Italy INTEGRAL operates a hard-X-ray im- alert for a gamma-ray burst (GRB) is APC, France ager with a wide field-of-view, a gam- sent to robotic telescopes within sec- CNRS, France ma-ray polarimeter, a radiation moni- onds of the detection so that GRBs DTU Space, Denmark tor, and X-ray and optical monitors can be localised. Centro de Astrobiología, Spain which have significantly advanced our knowledge of high-energy astrophys- INTEGRAL carries the most sensitive Prinicipal Investigator ical phenomena. INTEGRAL's ground all-sky monitor for GRBs without a segment activities are divided into localisation capability, and is an es- C. Ferrigno (UNIGE) Mission Operation Center, Science sential tool to discover a gamma-ray Operation Center (both operated by counterpart of a gravitational wave Method ESA), and ISDC which is a PI partner event (Savchenko et al., 2016; 2017). of the mission and provides essential ISDC staff led the Memorandum of Measurement services for the astronomical com- Understanding with both the LIGO sci- munity to exploit mission data. entific and Virgo collaborations to look Developments for gamma-ray counterparts of gravi- ISDC processes spacecraft telem- tational wave events. The INTEGRAL Data from the INTEGRAL gamma-ray etry to generate a set of widely us- team has produced stringent upper space observatory are processed, able products, as well as performing limits on all but one double black-hole archived and distributed to scientists a quick-look analysis to assess the mergers detected by LIGO and de- worldwide together with the software data quality and discover transient tected, together with the gamma-ray to analyse them. Quick-look and au- astronomical events. Data are distrib- monitor onboard the Fermi obser- tomated analyses ensure the data uted to guest observers and archived vatory, a flash of gamma-rays two quality and the discovery of relevant at ISDC which is the only complete seconds after the arrival on Earth of astronomical events. source of INTEGRAL data. ISDC gravitational waves, originating as a also has the task of integrating and result of a binary neutron star merger Staff distributing software for the offline (Savchenko et al., 2017). This historical analysis of INTEGRAL data together achievement has opened the era of About 10 scientists and software with handbooks, and of giving sup- multi-messenger astronomy with the engineers, including administrative/ port to users. Only as a result of the subsequent observation of a kilonova support staff. ISDC contribution are INTEGRAL in the optical, X-ray, and radio bands. data available to the astronomy Contact Information community. ESA has conducted reviews in 2010, 2012, 2014, and 2016, and concluded INTEGRAL Science Data Centre, The presence of the ISDC has guar- that fuel consumption, solar panel and Astronomical Obs., Univ. Geneva, anteed Swiss scientists a central battery ageing, and orbital evolution CH-1290 Versoix, Switzerland role in the exploitation of INTEGRAL will allow the mission to be prolonged Tel.: +41 22 379 21 00 data. To date, ISDC members have for many more years. In 2018, an Fax: +41 22 379 21 33 participated in about 20% of the operational review will ascertain the www.isdc.unige.ch/integral nearly 3000 publications based on reliability of INTEGRAL for the next E-mail : [email protected] INTEGRAL data. extension (2019 – 2020), for which the

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budget has already been approved by high-energy astrophysics with particle and accretion power in a binary mil- the ESA SPC. Further extensions will physics, astroparticle physics is rapidly lisecond pulsar, Nature, 501, 7468, be based on the scientific output of developing around ISDC. Its central 517–520. the missions and budget constraints. topics are the nature of dark matter and dark energy, the origin of cosmic 2. Savchenko, V., C. Ferrigno et al., ISDC is an essential pillar of the mission rays and astrophysical particle accel- (2016), INTEGRAL upper limits on and is currently funded by the Swiss erators. Research in this field involves gamma-ray emission associated Space Office, the University of Geneva, data from X-ray and gamma-ray space with the gravitational wave event and ESA, with contributions from the telescopes, as well as from ground- GW150914, Astrophys. J. Lett., German Aerospace Center through based gamma-ray telescopes operat- 820(2), L36, 5 pp. the Inst. Astronomy and Astrophysics, ing at even higher energies, such as Tübingen. ISDC counts on the contri- MAGIC, HESS or the future Cherenkov 3. Savchenko, V., C. Ferrigno et al., bution of about 10 software engineers Telescope array. (2017), INTEGRAL detection of and scientists who work in synergy the first prompt gamma-ray signal with other space missions within the Publications coincident with the gravitational- Dept. Astronomy, Univ. Geneva. wave event GW170817, Astrophys. 1. Papitto, A., C. Ferrigno, E. Bozzo et J. Lett., 848(2), L15, 8 pp. To ensure data quality and to exploit the al., (2013), Swings between rotation potential of the INTEGRAL observa- tory, ISDC staff continuously performs scientific validations to report relevant "hot" discoveries in collaboration with guest observers. Several astronomer's telegrams, led by ISDC staff, are highly cited, and illustrate the importance of these discoveries. During this activity, INTEGRAL managed to capture the first pulsar swinging from accretion and rotation powered emission, which has been sought since evolutionary theories first appeared in 1982 (Papitto et al., 2013).

The studies performed at ISDC are MOC, Darmstadt Observation Telemetry data mainly in the field of high-energy astro- plan physics. Although a significant fraction of the research topics are linked to ar- Feedback eas in which INTEGRAL makes a sig- nificant contribution, a variety of other Auxiliary data ISOC, Madrid ISDC, Geneva observation facilities, such as XMM- Newton, RXTE, Chandra, Planck, and Observing Processed data Fermi, have so far been exploited. The proposals science topics developed in the high- energy group span from nearby X-ray binaries up to cosmological scales, Science with the study of active galactic nuclei Community and clusters of galaxies.

Based on an approach merging Schematic view of the INTEGRAL ground segment activities.

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2.3 CODE –­ Center for Orbit Determination in Europe

Purpose of Research center following this approach. In the meanwhile, other IGS analysis Using measurements from Global centers have started to follow this Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) strategy as well. is (among many other applications) well established for the realisation of In a seperate processing line, a fully the global reference frame, the in- integrated five-system solution has vestigation of the system Earth, or developed, including the established the precise geolocation of Low Earth GNSS, GPS and GLONASS but also Orbiting (LEO) satellites in space. To the currently developed systems, Institute support the scientific use and the de- namely the European Galileo, the velopment of GNSS data analysis, Chinese BeiDou, and the Japanese Astronomical Institute, the International GNSS Service (IGS) QZSS. The resulting solution is gen- Univ. Bern (AIUB), Bern was established by the International erated in the frame of the IGS multi- Association of Geodesy (IAG) in 1994. GNSS extension (IGS MGEX). In Cooperation with: CODE is one of the leading global Past Achievements and Status Bundesamt für Landestopographie analysis centers of the IGS. It is a (swisstopo), Wabern, Switzerland joint venture of the Astronomical The main products are: i) precise GPS Institute of the University of Bern and GLONASS orbits, ii) satellite and Bundesamt f. Kart. u. Geodäsie (AIUB), Bern, Switzerland, the receiver clock corrections, iii) station (BKG), Frankfurt a. M., Germany Bundesamt für Landestopographie coordinates, iv) Earth orientation (swisstopo), Wabern, Switzerland, parameters, v) troposphere zenith IAPG, Technische Universität the Bundesamt für Kartographie path delays, and vi) maps of the to- München, Germany und Geodäsie (BKG), Frankfurt tal ionospheric electron content. The a.M., Germany, and the Institute of coordinates of the global IGS tracking Principal/Swiss Investigator Astronomical and Physical Geodesy network are computed on a daily ba- (IAPG) of the Technische Universität sis for studying vertical and horizontal R. Dach (AIUB) München, Munich, Germany. Since site displacements and plate motions, the early pilot phase of the IGS (21 and to provide information for the re- Co-Investigators June 1992) CODE has been running alisation of the International Terrestrial continuously. The operational pro- Reference Frame (ITRF). The daily A. Jäggi (AIUB) cessing is located at AIUB using the positions of the Earth's rotation axis E. Brockmann (swisstopo) Bernese GNSS Software package with respect to the Earth's crust as D. Thaller (BKG) that is developed and maintained at well as the exact length-of-day, is de- U. Hugentobler (IAPG) AIUB for many years. termined each day and provided to the International Earth Rotation and Method Nowadays, data from about 250 glob- Reference Systems Service (IERS). ally distributed IGS tracking stations Measurement are processed every day in a rigorous Apart from regularly generated prod- combined multi-GNSS (currently the ucts, CODE significantly contributes Res. Based on Existing Instrs. American Global Positioning System to the development and improvement (GPS) and the Russian counterpart of modelling standards. Members GNSS data analysis and software GLONASS) processing system of all of the CODE group contribute or development. IGS product lines (with different laten- chair different IGS working groups, cies). CODE started with the inclusion e.g., the working group on Bias and Website of GLONASS in its regular processing Calibration and the antennae working scheme back in May 2003. For five group. With the ongoing modernisa- www.aiub.unibe.ch years it has been the only analysis tion programmes of the established

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GNSS and the upcoming GNSS, Abbreviations Publications e.g., the European Galileo, such work is highly relevant because of CODE Center for Orbit A list of recent publications is avail- the increasing manifold of signals that Determination in Europe able at: need to be consistently processed in GNSS Global Nav. Satellite Sys. a fully combined multi-GNSS analy- GPS Global Positioning System www.bernese.unibe.ch sis scheme. Other contributions from GLONASS Globalnaja Nawigazionnaja CODE are the derivation of calibration Sputnikowaja Sistema values for the GNSS satellite antenna IGS Int. GNSS Service phase center model, GLONASS am- ITRF Int. Terrestrial Ref. Frame biguity resolution, and the refinement LEO Low Earth Orbit of the CODE orbit model. QZSS Quasi-Zenith Satellite Sys.

94 96 98 00 02 04 06 08 10 12 14 16

80 GPS GLONASS 70 Galileo BeiDou 60 QZSS Total 50

40

30 Number of satellites 20

10

0 50000 52000 54000 56000 58000 MJD

Number of satellites in the operational orbit files provided by CODE.

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2.4 eSpace – EPFL Space Engineering Center

Mission projects and fundamental research. The center coordinates the minor in The EPFL Space Engineering Center Space Technologies which allows (eSpace) shall contribute to space master-level students to acquire exten- knowledge and exploration by provid- sive formal teaching in the field. These ing world-class education, leading theoretical classes are complemented space technology developments, co- by hands-on multidisciplinary projects ordinating multi-disciplinary learning which often lead to the construction projects and taking EPFL's laboratory of real hardware (e.g. SwissCube, with research to space. ~200 students involved).

The center possesses expertise Vision particularly in the field of system en- gineering, including Muriel Richard- To establish EPFL as a world re- Noca and Anton Ivanov as part of its nowned Center of Excellence in senior staff, two experienced scien- Space Engineering, and creating in- tists who worked at NASA-JPL prior telligent space systems in service to to joining EPFL. eSpace also relies humankind. on close collaborations with research laboratories and institutes at EPFL.

Description In many cases, the research and development activities performed The Space Engineering Center (eS- are carried out directly within these pace) is an interdisciplinary entity with entities, with support or coordination the mission of promoting space related from eSpace. In this way, the center research and development at EPFL. can lean on an extensive knowledge Institute eSpace was created in 2014 following base and state-of-the-art research a restructuring of the "Swiss Space in a number of areas, ranging from EPFL Space Engineering Center Center". eSpace is active in three robotics to computer vision, and help (eSpace) key areas: education, development take these technologies to space.

Director

J.- P. K n e i b hands on exploratory learning Staff projects education projects

5 Scientific, 1 Admin.

Contact Information

EPFL Space Engineering Center research flight EPFL – ENT – ESC, Station 13 at epfl projects CH-1015 Lausanne Tel: +41 (0) 21 693 6948 Fax: +41 (0) 21 693 6940 email: [email protected] technology URL: http://eSpace.epfl.ch demonstrations

10 Institutes and Observatories

2.5 SSA – International Space Situational Awareness

Purpose of Research by KIAM using the ISON telescopes, and the data from the AIUB/DLR The central aim of Space Situational SMARTnet sensor network, provide Awareness is to acquire information the data to maintain orbit catalogues about natural and artificial objects in of high-altitude space debris. These Earth's orbit. The growing number catalogues enable follow-up observa- of so-called space debris - artificial tions to further investigate the physi- non-functional objects - results in an cal properties of the debris and to increasing threat to operational satel- eventually discriminate sources of lites and manned spaceflight. small-size debris. Results from this research are used as key input data Graphical representation of the space debris population of Research in this domain aims at a for the European ESA meteoroid objects >10 cm as seen from 15 Earth radii (ESA). better understanding of the near and space debris reference model Earth environment: i) through extend- MASTER. The AIUB telescopes con- Institute ing the catalogues of “known” space stitute primary optical sensors in the objects toward smaller sizes, ii) by ESA Space Situational Awareness Astron. Inst. Univ. Bern (AIUB), Bern acquiring statistical orbit information preparatory programme. on small-size objects in support of In Cooperation with: statistical environment models, and Publications iii) by characterising objects to as- European Space Agency (ESA) sess their nature and to identify the 1. Šilha, J., J.-N. Pittet, T. Keldish Institute of Applied sources of space debris. Schildknecht, M. Hamara, (2018), Mathematics (KIAM), Moscow Apparent rotation properties International Scientific Optical The research is providing the scien- of space debris extracted from Observation Network (ISON) tific rationale to devise efficient space photometric measurements, Adv. DLR/German Space Operation debris mitigation and remediation Space Res., 61, 844-861, https:// Center (GSOC) measures enabling sustainable outer doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2017.10.048 space activities. Principal Investigators 2. Šilha, J., T. Schildknecht, A. Hinze, Past Achievements and Status T. Flohrer, A. Vananti, (2017), An T. Schildknecht (AIUB) optical survey for space debris This is an ongoing international col- on highly eccentric and inclined Co-Investigators laboration between the Astronomical MEO orbits, Adv. Space Res. 59, Institute of the University of Bern 181-192, https://doi.org/10.1016/j. I. Molotov (KIAM), H. Fiedler (DLR) (AIUB), the Keldish Institute of Applied asr.2016.08.027 Mathematics (KIAM), Moscow, ESA, Method and DLR. Optical surveys per- 3. Vananti, A., T. Schildknecht, H. formed by AIUB using its ZIMLAT Krag, (2017), Reflectance spec- Measurement, Compilation and ZimSMART telescopes at the troscopy characterization of space Zimmerwald Observatory and the debris, Adv. Space Res. 59, 2488- Observatories ESA telescope in Tenerife on behalf of 2500, https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ESA as well as the surveys performed asr.2017.02.033 Zimmerwald, Switzerland Sutherland, South Africa Abbreviations ESA, Tenerife ISON telescopes SSA Space Situational Awareness SMARTnet SMall Aperture Robotic Telescope network Website ZIMLAT Zimmerwald Laser and Astrometry Telescope ZimSMART Zimmerwald SMall Aperture Robotic Telescope www.aiub.unibe.ch

11 Institutes and Observatories

2.6 SSC – Swiss Space Center

Mission Members

The Swiss Space Center (SSC) pro- In 2017, the Swiss Space Center wel- vides a service supporting institu- comed four new industrial members tions, academia and industry to (Synopta, MPS, Picterra, and Thales access space missions and related Alenia Space Switzerland), one aca- Director applications, and promote interaction demic institution (University of Zürich) between these stakeholders. and one RTO (EAWAG). V. Gass (EPFL) Roles Apart from the founding members Staff which constitute the BoD (SSO, • To network Swiss research insti- EPFL, ETHZ), 32 members from each 3 Professors tutions and industries on national region of Switzerland representing 16 Scientific & Technical and international levels in order to all types of companies (large-sized, 2 Administrative establish focused areas of excellence medium and start-up), academies internationally recognised for both (Swiss Federal Institutes, Universities, Board of Directors space R&D and applications. Universities of Applied Sciences) and RTO (CSEM, EMPA, PMOD/WRC, R. Krpoun (SERI/SSO) • To facilitate access to and imple- EAWAG) are all part of the network. M. Gruber (EPFL) mentation of space projects for Swiss D. Günther (ETHZ) research institutions and industries. Activities 2017 Steering Committee • To provide education and training. During 2017, two important events M. Rothacher (ETHZ, chairman) • To promote public awareness of were organised by the Swiss Space M. Thémans (EPFL) space. Center, following the request of its U. Frei (SSO) network. U. Meier (Industry rep.) C. Schori (Industry rep.) A. Neels (RTO rep.) S. Krucker (Academic rep.)

Contact Information

Swiss Space Center EPFL, PPH338, Station 13 CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland Tel.: +41 21 693 69 48 [email protected]

ETH Zurich, c/o Inst. Geodesy and Photogrammetry, HIL C61.3, Stefano-Franscini Platz 5, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland Tel.: +41 44 633 30 56

Website A catalogue of Member competences entitled “Members’ Profiles” was edited in March 2017. www.spacecenter.ch This document is available for download on the SSC website.

12 Institutes and Observatories

a) Earth Observation in Switzerland months from November 2016 to – Needs and Vision January 2018. The main objectives of this call included the following The members of SSC’s working group aspects: on Earth Observation and Remote Sensing initiated and organised a first • To foster the development of inno- gathering of the Swiss EO commu- vative ideas and new products related nity on 16 March 2017 in Bern. The to the space sector. goal of the workshop was to bring Swiss Space Earth Observation and • To promote the collaboration be- Remote Sensing (EO) together and tween Swiss industrial and academic discuss the needs and future vision partners to obtain a more stable of the different players. and better structured Swiss space and strengthened as an instrument to landscape. identify and boost space innovations b) Roundtable on “COTS for Space in Switzerland. Mechanisms” • To better position Swiss industry with regard to future European and The main conclusions drawn from worldwide activities, so as to be ready Outreach to Secondary Schools the roundtable included: i) There is to submit competitive bids when the no way around COTS (cost, planning, respective calls are published. To inspire secondary school stu- availability), ii) it is not possible to use dents to become the explorers of COTS as is, iii) mechanical COTS very • To increase the technological matu- tomorrow, 1062 students, aged 11 often need to be adapted to the specific rity of ideas developed by academia to 16, and 100 teachers were invit- application, iv) COTS require a large and to promote competitive space ed to Lausanne to participate in an effort, v) one should not rush into a products thanks to partnerships with event with Claude Nicollier, French COTS approach with overly optimistic industry. astronaut Jean-François Clervoy, assumptions, and vi) the correct ratio Astrophysician Michel Mayor and between “traditional space-grade” and Moonwalker Charlie Duke. The audi- COTS must be found. Call for Ideas 2017 – Third Edition ence paid close attention and reacted with enthusiasm to the honor of hav- Call for Ideas to Foster Low ing such legends on stage. National Activities Technology Readiness Level (typically TRL 1-2; research and development “Mesures de Positionnement” (MdP) studies related to space activities) Call 2016 was launched in March 2017. Out of nearly 20 high-quality proposals, Twelve studies were selected by seven projects were short-listed in a SERI/SSO and carried out over 15 very competitive selection process.

During the implementation, the project teams studied their concepts from a space perspective and advanced on the maturity of the concepts for space applications. All projects were suc- cessfully concluded, and follow-up activities have been identified. With the second successful implementa- tion of this project opportunity, the Call for Ideas has been consolidated Outreach Event for Secondary Schools.

13 Institutes and Observatories

2.7 Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) at the Swiss Optical Ground Station and Geodynamics Obs. Zimmerwald

Purpose of Research The highly autonomous manage- ment of the SLR operations by the The Zimmerwald Geodynamics in-house developed control software Observatory is a station of the global is mainly responsible for Zimmerwald tracking network of the International Observatory evolving into one of the Laser Ranging Service (ILRS). SLR most productive SLR stations world- observations to satellites equipped wide in the last decade. This achieve- with laser retro-reflectors are ac- ment is remarkable when considering quired with the monostatic 1-m that weather conditions in Switzerland Laser beam transmitted from the 1-meter ZIMLAT telescope to multi-purpose Zimmerwald Laser only allow operations about two thirds measure high accuracy distances of artificial satellites. and Astrometric Telescope (ZIMLAT). of the time, and that observation time is shared during the night between Target scheduling, acquisition and SLR operations and the search for tracking, and signal optimisation may space debris with CCD cameras at- be performed fully autonomously tached to the multi-purpose telescope. whenever weather conditions per- mit. The collected data are delivered Publications in near real-time to the global ILRS data centers, while official products 1. Lauber, P., M. Ploner, M. Prohaska, P. are generated by the ILRS analysis Schlatter, P. Ruzek, T. Schildknecht, centers using data from the geodetic A. Jäggi, (2016), Trials and limits of satellites, LAGEOS and Etalon. SLR automation: experiences from the significantly contributes to the reali- Zimmerwald well characterised sation of the International Terrestrial and fully automated SLR-system, Institute Reference Frame (ITRF), especially Proc. 20th Int. Workshop on Laser with respect to the determination of Ranging, Potsdam, Germany, 2016. Astronomical Institute, the origin and scale of the ITRF. Univ. Bern (AIUB) 2. Andritsch, F., R. Dach, A. Grahsl, Past Achievements and Status T. Schildknecht, A. Jäggi, (2017), In Cooperation with: Comparing tracking scenarios to The design of the 100 Hz Nd:YAG la- LAGEOS and Etalon by simulating Bundesamt für Landestopographie ser system used at the Swiss Optical realistic SLR observations, EGU, (swisstopo), Wabern, Switzerland Ground Station and Geodynamics Vienna, Austria, 24–28 April, 2017. Observatory Zimmerwald enables a Principal Investigator high flexibility in the selection of the 3. Schildknecht, T., A. Jäggi, M. actual firing rate and epochs which also Ploner, E. Brockmann, (2015), T. Schildknecht (AIUB) allows for synchronous operation in The Swiss Optical Ground Station one-way laser ranging to spaceborne and Geodynamics Observatory Co-Investigators optical transponders such as the Lunar Zimmerwald, Swiss National Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Report on the Geodetic Activities P. Lauber, E. Cordelli (AIUB) in the years 2011– 2015.

Method Abbreviations

Measurement ILRS International Laser Ranging Service ITRF International Terrestrial Reference Frame Website LRO Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter SLR Satellite Laser Ranging www.aiub.unibe.ch ZIMLAT Zimmerwald Laser and Astrometry Telescope

14 Swiss Space Missions

3 Swiss Space Missions

3.1 CleanSpace One

Purpose of Research Past Achievements and Status

The collision between the American The project has identified industrial operational satellite Iridium and the partners and is in the process of se- Russian Cosmos in 2009 brought a curing funding. new emphasis to the orbital debris problem. Although most of the work had concentrated on avoidance pre- Publications diction and debris monitoring, all major space agencies are now claiming the 1. Richard-Noca, M., et al., (2016), SwissCube capture by CleanSpace One. Image credit: Jamani Caillet, EPFL. need for Active Debris Removal (ADR). Developing a reliable capture About 23 500 debris items of sizes system for CleanSpace One, IAC- Institute above 10 cm have been catalogued. 16-A6.5.2, 67th Int. Astronautical Roughly 2000 of these are remains of Congr., Guadalaraja, Mexico. EPFL Space Engineering Center launch vehicles, 3000 belong to de- (eSpace), EPFL funct satellites, and the rest are either 2. Chamot, B., et al., (2013), mission-generated or fragmentation Technology Combination Analysis In Cooperation with: debris. Tool (TCAT) for active debris re- moval, 6th Eur. Conf. on Space HES-SO/HEPIA; AIUB; The motivation behind the CleanSpace Debris, ESA/ESOC, Darmstadt, Fachhochschule NTB; ETHZ One project is to increase international Germany. awareness and start mitigating the Principal/Swiss Investigator impact on the space environment by 3. Richard, M., et al., (2013), acting responsibly and removing our Uncooperative rendezvous and M. Richard-Noca (EPFL) "debris" from orbit. The objectives of docking for MicroSats, The case the project are thus to demonstrate for CleanSpace One, 6th Int.Conf. Co-Investigator technologies related to ADR which on Recent Advances in Space are scalable for the removal of micro- Technol., RAST 2013, Istanbul, J.- P. K n e i b satellites, and to de-orbit SwissCube Turkey. or any similar Swiss satellite that com- Method plies with the launch constraints. Measurement This project will contribute to the Abbreviations Space Sustainability and Awareness Development & Constr. of Instrs. with ADR actions. ADR Active Debris Removal Mission design, sys. & sub-sys. design Current activities include development & validation, launch & flight operations. of the capture system, Guidance- Navigation and Control, and systems Industrial Hardware Contract to: related to the rendezvous sensors and image processing. Airbus, ClearSpace SA

Method

Time-Line From To Measurement Planning Oct. 2017 Jul. 2019 Construction Aug. 2019 Feb. 2022 Website Measurement Phase Mar. 2022 Nov. 2022 Data Evaluation Mar. 2022 Dec. 2022 espace.epfl.ch/CleanSpaceOne_1

15 Swiss Space Missions

3.2 CHEOPS – Characterising ExOPlanet Satellite

Purpose of Research • Bring new constraints on the at- mospheric properties of known CHEOPS is the first mission dedicat- hot Jupiters via phase curves. ed to search for transits of exoplanets by means of ultrahigh precision pho- • Provide unique targets for detailed tometry on bright stars already known atmospheric characterisation by to host planets. future ground (e.g. the European Extremely Large Telescope, It will provide the unique capability E-ELT) and space-based (e.g. the of determining accurate radii for a James Webb Space Telescope, subset of those planets for which the JWST) facilities with spectroscopic mass has already been estimated capabilities. The CHEOPS electronics boxes. On the right is the BEE (Back End Electr- from ground-based spectroscopic onics) housing the Data Processing Unit (DPU) and the power converter. surveys, providing on-the-fly char- In addition, 20% of the CHEOPS ob- On the left, the SEM (Sensor Electronics Module) which controls the acterisation of exoplanets located serving time will be made available to CCD as well as the temperature stabilisation of the focal plane mo- almost everywhere in the sky. the community through a selection dule. Both boxes will be housed in the body of the spacecraft. process carried out by ESA, in which It will also provide precise radii for a wide range of science topics may new planets discovered by the next be addressed. generation of ground or space-based transit surveys (Neptune-size and smaller).

Institute By unveiling transiting exoplanets Past Achievements and Status with high potential for in-depth char- Center for Space and Habitability & acterization, CHEOPS will also pro- - Mission selection: October 2012 Institute of Physics, vide prime targets for future instru- - Mission adoption: February 2014 Univ. Bern (UNIBE) ments suited to the spectroscopic - Instrument CDR: December 2015 characterisation of exoplanetary - Ground segment CDR: January In Cooperation with: atmospheres. 2016 - System CDR: May 2016 Institut für Weltraumforschung In particular, CHEOPS will: - Flight telescope arrives at the Graz, Austria University of Bern: April 2017 Center Spatial de Liege, Belgium • Determine the mass-radius rela- - SVT-1A: June 2017 ETH Zurich, CH tion in a planetary mass range for - SVT-1B: November 2017 Swiss Space Center, CH which only a handful of data exist - Instrument EMC test: December Observatoire Geneve, CH and to a precision not previously 2017 Lab. d’Astrophys. Marseille, France achieved. - Measurement of the center of DLR Inst. Planetary Res., Germany mass, and moment of inertia: DLR Inst. Opt. Sensor Sys., Germany • Identify planets with significant at- January 2018 Konkoly Observatory mospheres in a range of masses, - Telescope ready for calibration: INAF Osserv. Astrofisico di Catania distances from the host star, and March 2018 INAF Osserv. Astro. di Padova stellar parameters. Centro de Astro. da Univ. do Porto At present, the CHEOPS telescope Deimos Engenharia • Place constraints on possible is undergoing a thorough and exten- Onsala Space Observatory planet migration paths followed sive calibration testing phase at the Stockholm Univ., Sweden during the formation and evolution University of Bern which ended in Univ. Warwick, Univ. Cambridge, UK of planets. April 2018.

16 Swiss Space Missions

Publications Abbreviations Principal/Swiss Investigator

1. Cessa, V., et al., (2017), CHEOPS: CHEOPS CHaracterising ExOPlanet W. Benz (UNIBE) A space telescope for ultra-high Satellite precision photometry of exoplanet CDR Critical Design Review Co-Investigators transits, SPIE, 10563, 105631. E-ELT European Extremely Large Telescope T. Barczy, T. Beck, 2. Beck, T., et al., (2017), The CHEOPS EMC Electromag. Compatibility M. Davies, D. Ehrenreich, (CHaracterising ExOPlanet JWST James Webb Space M. Gillon, W. Baumjohann, Satellite) mission: telescope optical Telescope C. Broeg, M. Deleuil, design, development status and STM Structural Thermal Model A. Fortier, A. Gutierrez, main technical and programmatic SVT System Validation Test A. L.-d-Etangs, G. Piotto, challenges, SPIE, 10562, 1056218. D. Queloz, E. Renotte, T. Spohn, S. Udry, 3. Benz, W., D. Ehrenreich, K. Isaak, and the CHEOPS Team (2017), CHEOPS: CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite, Handbook of Method Exoplanets, Eds. H. J. Deeg, J. A. Belmonte, Springer Living Ref. Work, Measurement ISBN: 978-3-319-30648-3, id.84. Development & Constr. of Instrs. Time-Line From To Planning Mar. 2013 Feb. 2014 Switzerland is responsible for the de- Construction Mar. 2014 Apr. 2018 velopment, assembly, and verification Measurement Phase 2019 Mid 2022 of a 33 cm diameter telescope as well Data Evaluation 2019 Open as the development and operation of the mission's ground segment.

Industrial Hardware Contract to:

Almatech Connova AG Pfeiffer Vacuum AG P&P RUAG Space

Website

cheops.unibe.ch

The CHEOPS telescope completely assembled, integrated and ready for calibration at the University of Bern. Notice the prominent front baffle with its cover to protect the optics from dust contamination prior to launch. Also visible are the two white radiators on top which are part of the thermal stabilisation system of the read-out electronics. Standing next to the telescope is Dr. Thomas Beck, the CHEOPS system engineer.

17 Space Access Technology

4 Space Access Technology

4.1 ALTAIR – Air Launch Space Transportation Using an Automated Aircraft and an Innovative Rocket

Purpose of Research Zurich will lead the development of the launcher structure, leveraging ALTAIR’s strategic objective is to dem- the know-how in structural design, onstrate the economic and technical multi-disciplinary optimisation, numeri- viability of a novel European launch cal modelling and composite mate- service for the rapidly growing small rials manufacturing by CMASLab. satellites market. The system is spe- By exploiting advanced composite cially designed to launch satellites in materials, implementing novel and The ALTAIR carrier and launcher performing the separation manoeuvre. the 50 – 150 kg range into Low-Earth structurally optimised designs, and Orbits, in a reliable and cost-compet- tailoring the composite manufacturing Institute itive manner. processes, the structural performance of the vehicle will be increased. These CMASLab, Inst. Des. Mat. & Fabr., The ALTAIR system comprises an ex- state-of-the-art design techniques will D-MAVT, ETH Zurich, Switzerland pendable launch vehicle built around advance the technology of lightweight hybrid propulsion and lightweight composite systems and promote the In Cooperation with: composite structures which is air- use of composite materials in launch launched from an unmanned carrier vehicles, thereby expanding the cur- ONERA, France; Bertin Technol., aircraft at high altitudes. Following rent bounds of structural efficiency. France; Piaggio Aerospace, Italy; separation, the carrier aircraft returns GTD Sistemas de Inform., Spain; to the launch site, while the rocket pro- Past Achievements and Status Nammo Raufoss, Norway; SpaceTec pels the payload into orbit, making Partners, Belgium; CNES, France the entire launch system partly reus- The project, funded through the EU able and more versatile than exist- Horizon 2020 programme, started in Principal Investigator ing rideshare and piggyback launch December 2015 and will be concluded solutions. ALTAIR will hence provide in November 2018. Numerous design N. Bérend a dedicated launch service for small loops, involving constant improvement satellites, enabling on-demand and of the cost-per-kg performance of the Swiss Principal Investigator affordable space access to a large launcher, have led to an effective and spectrum of users, from communi- viable concept. The ongoing efforts P. Ermanni (ETHZ) cation and Earth observation satellite are geared towards the refinement of operators to academic and research the subsystems design, while flight Co-Investigators centers. tests performed on a scaled demon- strator of the entire system are planned G. Molinari (ETHZ), C. Karl (ETHZ) The key feature of the expendable to support the numerical analyses of rocket will be an advanced lightweight the crucial captive flight phase and Method composite structure, designed around release manoeuvre. environmentally green hybrid propul- Simulation sion stages. A versatile upper stage Publications and innovative avionics contribute to Developments mission flexibility and cost reduction, 1. Dupont C., et al., (2017), ALTAIR - paired with novel ground system ar- Design & Progress on the Space Feasibility demonstration of a satellite chitectures. All systems are developed Launch Vehicle Design, 7th Europ. launcher based on a semi-reusable by exploiting multi-disciplinary analysis Conf. Aeronautics & Space Sci. hybrid aircraft-rocket design for low- and optimisation techniques, and the (EUCASS). cost, low-Earth-orbit space access. resulting design will be supported by flight experiments to advance the ma- 2. Dupont, C., et al., (2017), ALTAIR Website turity of key technologies. orbital module preliminary mission and system design, 7th Europ. Conf. www.altair-h2020.eu Within the ALTAIR project, ETH Aeronautics & Space Sci. (EUCASS).

18 Astrophysics

5 Astrophysics

5.1 Gaia Variability Processing and Analysis

Purpose of Research Since late 2016, we have worked ex- tensively on 120 billion Gaia photo- The Gaia project is a cornerstone mis- metric measurements to provide the sion from ESA, performing a multi- first large catalogue of variable objects epoch survey of all stars in the Milky across the whole sky for the Second Way brighter than magnitude 20.7, Data Release planned in April 2018. Sky distribution in Galactic coordinates of the cross-matched RR Lyrae stars with astrometric, photometric, and We will release classification and vari- from the literature, colour-coded with apparent magnitude (generally: higher spectroscopic measurements. More ability information together with time means the stars are further away, though not accounting for extinction). The than 1.7 billion celestial objects are series for about half a million stars. Magellanic clouds and Sagittarius stream are clearly visible (Image credit: repeatedly measured. ESA/Gaia/DPAC). An unrivalled catalogue of RR Lyrae stars is provided in These catalogues are among the larg- Gaia Data Release-2. One of the duties of the Gaia con- est, if not the largest, ever published sortium is to detect and analyse the over the whole sky, and is the tip of the Institute variable celestial objects. This effort iceberg. The analysis of the first two is coordinated by the University of years of data makes us confident that Dept. Astron., Univ. Geneva (UNIGE) Geneva with an associated data pro- great science can be done with Gaia, cessing center of about 60 people. and that the integration of the software In Cooperation with: The task of this coordination unit is first pipelines of all Coordination Units is to statistically describe the time series working under real-data conditions. 17 institutes in Europe, USA, Israel and then classify the variable sources. (more than 60 people) Further specific analysis is done on a subset of sources to provide their Publications Principal Investigator astrophysical properties. 1. Gaia Collaboration, Brown, A.G.A., ESA Past Achievements and Status Vallenari, A., Prusti, T., et al., (2016), Gaia Data Release 1. Summary Swiss Principal Investigator The Gaia spacecraft has been gath- of the astrometric, photometric, ering data since Summer 2014. The and survey properties, Astron. L. Eyer (UNIGE) First Data Release was made pub- Astrophys., 595, 2. lic in September 2016, in which the Co-Investigators Gaia Data Processing and Analysis 2. Eyer, L., Mowlavi, N., Evans, D. W., et Consortium only released a small al., (2017), Gaia Data Release 1: The N. Mowlavi, B. Holl, M. Audard, fraction of the data. In particular, vari- variability processing & analysis and I. Lecoeur-Taibi, L. Rimoldini, L. able stars were released much earlier its application to the south ecliptic Guy, O. Marchal, J. Charnas, and than originally planned. We focused on pole region, arXiv170203295. K. Nienartowicz, G. Jevardat de Cepheid and RR Lyrae stars from the Fombelle (software co., SixSQ) South Ecliptic pole, a region near stars 3. Gaia Collaboration, Clementini, G., of the Large Magellanic Clouds, and Eyer, L., Ripepi, V., et al., (2017), Gaia Method variability information for 3,194 stars Data Release 1. Testing parallaxes was published of which ~10% were with local Cepheids and RR Lyrae Measurement new. This data release was more like a stars, Astron. Astrophys., 605, 79. showcase of the performance of Gaia. Development of Software for

The Gaia mission Time-Line From To Planning 2006 2022 Website Construction Cyclic development 2022 Measurement Phase 2014 2020 www.unige.ch/sciences/astro/ Data Evaluation Cyclic 2022/2023 variability

19 Astrophysics

5.2 POLAR

Purpose of Research and gave POLAR a sensitivity com- parable to the FERMI GBM detector. POLAR is a compact polarimeter This also allowed us to extend our that was launched on 15 September, research to monitoring of the Crab 2016 at 14:04 UTC on the Tiangong-2 pulsar timing and made POLAR one Chinese space laboratory. It is dedi- of the most sensitive instruments for cated to measurement of the polari- the search of potential electromag- sation of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) netic counterparts of gravitational POLAR can be seen integrated on Tiangong-2 which is attached to the in hard X-ray energies. GRBs belong wave events. "Long March" rocket just before the fairing is definitely closed. to the most important subjects of contemporary astrophysics, and are Unfortunately in April 2017, after six linked with explosive births of black months of excellent data, POLAR holes. The polarisation of the high suffered a fatal flaw of the high volt- energy component of the emission age system shortly after leaving the of these extragalactic events is one South Atlantic Anomaly. Despite all of the most important parameters to our efforts, we were unable to switch understand the GRB phenomenon. on the power supply again, putting Institute These parameters have not yet been an end to the science exploitation of measured with adequate statistics POLAR. It is still possible to commu- Data Center for Astrophysics and controlled systematics. nicate with POLAR, and the health (ISDC), Univ. Geneva status of all other instrumentation POLAR is a wide field-of-view besides the high voltage system is Dépt. de Physique Nucléaire Compton polarimeter which uses periodically checked to raise the et Corpusculaire (DPNC), Univ. light scintillation material. It covers TRL level qualification of the other Geneva an energy range from a few tens components. up to several hundred keV. The po- Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), larisation detection capability is 10 During the six months of the scien- Villigen GRBs per year with a polarisation tific mission, we collected more data precision on the polarisation degree than we envisaged for the full three In Cooperation with: better than 10%. year mission and half the number of foreseen GRBs. The scientific Institute for High Energy Physics Past Achievements and Status data exploitation has just started. (IHEP), Beijing, China To date, several papers about the After a week in space, POLAR performance and the calibration of Nuclear Research Institute of started gathering data which was the instrument have been published. Poland (NCBJ), Warsaw, Poland of such good quality that the Chinese authorities gradually increased the The first GRB polarisation results Principal Investigator allocated data bandwidth. At its high will be published in mid-2018. Our point, the allocated bandwidth was Chinese colleagues have proposed S. Nan Zhang (IHEP) up to ten times higher than initially a POLAR successor for the future foreseen. The first GRB was ob- Chinese space station. First designs Swiss Principal Investigator served on the 28 September 2016, and tests of the new components are less than two weeks after the launch. currently ongoing. N. Produit (ISDC) Subsequently, GRBs were observed every 3 to 4 days. Co-Investigators The increase in allocated band- M. Kole (DPNC) width allowed the minimum energy Wojtek Hajdas (PSI) threshold to be drastically lowered

20 Astrophysics

Publications Abbreviations Method

1. Produit, N., et al., (2018), Nucl. CSU Tech. Engineering Center Measurement Instrum. Meth., A 877, 259. for Space Utilization GBM Gamma-ray Burst Monitor Research Based on Existing 2. Kole, M., et al., (2017), Nucl. GRB Gamma-Ray Bursts Instruments Instrum. Meth., A 872, 28. POLAR POLAR is a compact gamma-ray polarimeter POLAR was designed, constructed 3. Produit, N., et al., (2005), Nucl. TRL Technology Readiness and qualified by a Swiss collabora- Instrum. Meth., A 550, 616. Level tion. POLAR was launched as part of Tiangong-2 by the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilisation (CSU, China).

Time-Line From To Website Addresses Planning 2009 2011 Construction 2012 2014 isdc.unige.ch/polar/ Qualification 2014 2016 Measurement Phase 2016 2017 polar.ihep.ac.cn/en/ Data Evaluation 2017 2019

POLAR flight model ready to be integrated on Tiangong-2 at the Jiuquan Chinese space center.

21 Astrophysics

5.3 DAMPE – DArk Matter Particle Explorer

Purpose of Research capability of DAMPE, was proposed by the Geneva-DPNC group. An inter- DAMPE (Dark Matter Particle national collaboration led by DPNC, Explorer) is a satellite mission of the including INFN (Perugia, Bari, and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Lecce )and IHEP (Beijing), is respon- dedicated to high energy cosmic sible for the development, construc- ray detection. Since its successful tion, qualification, on-ground cali- launch on 17 December 2015, a large bration, and in-orbit calibration and A sketch of the DAMPE payload showing the sub-detector systems. amount of cosmic ray data has been monitoring of the STK. collected. The DPNC group played a leading With a relatively large acceptance, role both in the hardware construction DAMPE is designed to detect elec- of the DAMPE payload, and currently trons (and positrons) up to 10 TeV with is a major contributor to the science unprecedented energy resolution to data processing and analysis. search for new features in the cosmic ray electron plus positron spectrum. Past Achievements and Status It will also study cosmic ray nuclei up to 100 TeV with good precision which The development and the construc- will bring new input to the study of tion of the STK was completed after 3 their still unknown origin and their years of intensive effort. The final as- propagation through the Galaxy. sembly was completed at the DPNC, delivered to China in April 2015 and DAMPE consists of a plastic scintil- integrated in to the satellite in May lator strip detector (two layers) that 2015. The DAMPE satellite was suc- serves as an anti-coincidence de- cessfully launched on 17 December tector, followed by a silicon-tung- 2015. All sub-systems of DAMPE are sten tracker-converter (STK) which functioning well. is made of six tracking double lay- ers. Each consists of two layers of The STK is performing above expec- single-sided silicon strip detectors tation. In-orbit mechanical, thermal measuring the two orthogonal views and electronic conditions have been Institute perpendicular to the pointing direc- very stable. More than 99.7% of the tion of the apparatus. STK 73728 readout channels are Dépt. de Physique Nucléaire functioning well after >26 months in et Corpusculaire (DPNC), Univ. Three layers of Tungsten plates with a orbit. The DPNC group has major Geneva (UNIGE) 1 mm thickness are inserted in front responsibilities for the ground science of tracking layers 2, 3 and 4 for pho- data operation, including periodic In Cooperation with: ton conversion. The STK is followed monitoring, calibration and alignment by an imaging calorimeter of about of the STK as well as the development INFN, Perugia, Italy 31 radiation lengths thickness, made and the operation of the STK track INFN, Bari, Italy up of 14 layers of bismuth germanium reconstruction software. The goup INFN, Lecce, Italy oxide bars in a hodoscopic arrange- is also coordinating the Monte Carlo IHEP, Beijing, China ment. Finally a layer of neutron detec- simulation of the DAMPE detector. PMO, Nanjing, China tors is situated at the bottom of the calorimeter. First results published in Nature Principal Investigator (Ambrosi et al., 2017), concerned The STK which greatly improves the most precisely measured CRE J. Chang (PMO, China) the tracking and photon detection spectrum in the multi-TeV range, and

22 Astrophysics

the detection of a break of the CRE Publications Swiss Principal Investigator spectral index at ~1 TeV, providing a new input to understand the orgin(s) 1. Ambrosi, G., et al., (2017), Direct de- X. Wu (UNIGE) of these particles. The DPNC group tection of a break in the teraelectron- played a leading role in the electron volt cosmic-ray spectrum of elec- Method analysis. trons and positrons, Nature 552, 63. Measurement DAMPE will continue to operate for at 2. Chang, J., et al., (2017), The DArk least 3 more years. The DPNC group Matter Particle Explorer mission, Industrial Hardware Contract to: is involved in several major science Astroparticle Physics, 95, 6–24. data analysis projects, including pro- Composite Design SA, Crissier ton and Helium flux measurements, 3. Wu, X., et al., (2015), The Silicon- Hybrid SA, Chez-le-Bart and studies of high energy gamma- Tungsten Tracker of the DAMPE Meca-Test SA, Geneva ray sources. Mission, PoS, ICRC2015, 1192. Website

Broken power law 10-4 Single power law dpnc.unige.ch/dampe/index.html DAMPE (2017)

-6 ] 10

-1 GeV

-1 sr

-1 s -2

Flux [m Flux 10-8

10-10 103 Energy [GeV]

The Cosmic Ray Electron spectrum measured by DAMPE in the 100 GeV - 4.5 TeV range, showing the spectral break at about 1 TeV.

Abbreviations

DAMPE DArk Matter Particle Explorer STK Silicon-Tungsten Tracker

Time-Line From To Planning 2012 2013 Construction 2013 2015 Measurement Phase 2016 2021 Data Evaluation 2016 2025

23 Astrophysics

5.4 LPF – LISA Pathfinder

Purpose of Research binary systems, ii) the coalescences of supermassive black holes brought The LISA Pathfinder Mission (LPF) together by galaxy mergers, iii) the was a technology mission in view of coalescences of stellar mass black ESA's planned L3 mission LISA (Laser holes months in advance to ground- Interferometer Space Antenna). based detectors, iv) the inspiral of stellar-mass black holes and com- LPF has demonstrated the readi- pact stars into central galactic black ness of the LISA required technol- holes (so-called EMRI), v) and to gain ogy including, gravitational reference unique information about the behav- Inertial Sensor Assembly with both test masses, enclosed by the Electrode sensor, laser interferometry and iour, structure and early history of the Housings. The optical bench is situated between both test masses. spacecraft platform stability. Its key Universe. objective was to test the key ideas behind gravitational wave detectors LISA will complement/enhance that free falling particles follow geo- earth-based interferometers such as desics in space-time. LPF placed LIGO and VIRGO and will open the two proof masses (solid cubes of gravitational wave window in space gold-platinum alloy, ~4.6 cm edge measuring gravitational radiation over length, 2 kg mass) in a nearly per- a broad band of frequencies, from fect gravitational free-fall, and con- about 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz, a band where trolled and measured their motion the Universe is richly populated by with unprecedented accuracy and strong sources of gravitational waves. Institute resolution. This has been achieved through state-of-the-art space tech- The LISA Pathfinder science opera- Inst. Geophysics, ETH Zurich nology and extremely careful design. tion has demonstrated proof mass (ETHZ) free-fall well beyond the requirements The Swiss contribution to LPF for the realisation of LISA. Physics Institute, consisted of the development of a Univ. Zurich (UNIZH) Gravitational Reference Sensor Front- End Electronics (GRS FEE) which Past Achievements and Status In Cooperation with: sensed and controlled the position and attitude of the proof mass with The involvement of the Institute of Univ. Trento, Italy respect to its frame and the space- Geophysics, ETH Zurich, and the craft respectively, using ultra-stable Institute of Physics, University of Principal Investigators capacitive sensing and electrostatic Zurich, goes back to the year 2003. actuation techniques. The measure- A technical team from the Institute of S. Vitale (Univ. Trento) ment and actuation required nano- Geophysics ETHZ established the K. Danzmann, (Albert Einstein Inst.) meter resolution and stability in the requirements, specifications and the low-frequency band from 1 Hz down concept of the GRS FEE in colabora- Swiss Principal Investigator to 0.1 mHz. The GRS FEE was built tion with the international partners, fully redundant due to its criticality for in particular with the University of D. Giardini (ETHZ) the mission success. Trento (Principal Investigator of LPF) and Airbus Defence and Space, Co-Investigators The LISA mission will be dedicated to Friedrichshafen (Prime). It prepared measure gravitational waves - for the the necessary specification docu- P. Jetzer (UNIZH) first time in space - and thus to enable ments for the industrial work. The L. Ferraioli (ETHZ) direct observation of a broad variety industrial contract with RUAG Space D. Mance (ETHZ) of systems and events throughout and thus the development of the GRS P. Zweifel (ETHZ) the Universe. This includes: i) galactic FEE started in April 2005. Furthermore

24 Astrophysics

the ETHZ group supervised the devel- Publications Method opment process at RUAG together with the ESA Prodex office. The GRS 1. Armano, M., et al., (2018), Beyond Measurement FEE flight hardware was delivered the required LISA free-fall perfor- by RUAG to Airbus, Friedrichshafen, mance: New LISA Pathfinder re- Development and Germany, in December 2010. sults down to 20 μHz, Phys. Rev. Construction of Instruments Letts., 120, 061101. The LISA Pathfinder mission was even- Gravitational Reference Sensor Front- tually launched on 3 December 2015 2. Armano, M., et al., (2017), Capacitive End Electronics (GRS FEE) for the by a VEGA launcher from Europe's sensing of test mass motion with LISA Pathfinder mission. space port, Kourou, in French Guiana. nanometer precision over millimeter- After several progressively expanded wide sensing gaps for space-borne Industrial Hardware Contract to: Earth orbits using its own propul- gravitational reference sensors, sion module, the satellite has finally Phys. Rev. D, 96, 062004. RUAG Space, Zurich reached the L1 Lagrange point, 1.5 HES-SO (Haute Ecole Spécialisée Mio kilometer away from Earth. 3. Armano, M., et al., (2016), Sub- de Suisse Occidentale), Sion Femto-g free fall for space-based The LPF satellite was controlled by the gravitational wave observatories: Website European Space Operations Center LISA Pathfinder results, Phys. Rev. (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. The Letts., 116, 231101. http://spaceserv1.ethz.ch/aeil/ Science and Technology Operations projects-ltp.html Center was located at the European Space Astronomy Center (ESAC) at Abbreviations Villaneuva de la Cañada in Spain and was re-located to ESOC during LISA EMRI Extreme Mass Ratio Pathfinder operations. Inspiral GRS FEE Gravitational Reference The satellite and payload commission- Sensor Front-End ing took place starting from December Electronics 2015 and was successfully completed IS FEE Inertial Sensor Front-End by the end of February 2016. Science Electronics operations began in March 2016, and LISA Laser Interferometer the first results were presented in June Space Antenna 2016. The mission was finally deacti- LPF LISA Pathfinder vated on 30 June 2017. The Institute SAU Sensing and Actuation of Geophysics ETHZ has been directly Units involved in the experiments as part of SSU Switching Unit the LISA Pathfinder data analysis team as well as in the monitoring of the GRS FEE hardware during the mission.

The IS FEE, consisting of two fully redundant Sensing and Actuation Units (SAU) and the switching unit (SSU), was designed and built by RUAG Space AG in Zurich and HES-SO in Sion (sensing and actuation boards). Time-Line From To The Power Control Unit was developed by ASP GmbH in Salem-Neufrach. Planning 2003 2005 The picture shows the flight hardware without cabling, with the SAUs in Construction 2005 2010 the back and the SSU in front. The SSU connects the highly sensitive Measurement Phase 2016 2017 sensing and actuation channels from the nominal or redundant SAU to Data Evaluation 2016 open the Inertial Sensor head.

25 Astrophysics

5.5 IBEX – Interstellar Boundary Explorer

Purpose of Research Publications

The IBEX mission (NASA SMEX class) 1. Galli, A., P. Wurz, N. A. Schwadron, is designed to record energetic neu- H. Kucharek, E. Möbius, M. tral atoms (ENAs) arriving from the Bzowski, J. M. Sokół, M. A. Kubiak, interface of our heliosphere with the S. A. Fuselier, H. Funsten, and D. J. neighbouring interstellar medium in McComas, (2017), The downwind an energy range from 10 eV to 6 keV. hemisphere of the heliosphere as IBEX-Lo flight instrument in the MEFISTO calibration facility, Univ. Bern. seen with IBEX-Lo during 8 years, This energy range is covered by two Astrophys. J., 851, 16pp. sensors, IBEX-Lo measuring from 10 eV to 2 keV, and IBEX-Hi measuring 2. Galli, A., P. Wurz, N. A. Schwadron, from 500 eV to 6 keV. For each en- H. Kucharek, E. Möbius, M. ergy channel a full-sky map is com- Bzowski, J. M. Sokół, M. A. Kubiak, Institute piled every half year which allows the H. Funsten, S. A. Fuselier, and D. J. plasma physical processes at the in- McComas, (2016), The roll-over of Space Research and Planetology, terface between the heliosphere and heliospheric neutral hydrogen below Physics Inst., Univ. Bern (UNIBE) the interstellar medium to be studied. 100 eV: observations and implica- tions, Astrophys. J., 821, 107, 10pp. In Cooperation with: Past Achievements and Status 3. Rodríguez Moreno, D. F., P. Wurz, SwRI, Austin, USA L. Saul, M. Bzowski, M. A. Kubiak, Lockheed Martin, Palo Alto, USA IBEX was successfully launched in J. M. Sokół, P. Frisch, S. A. Fuselier, Space Res. Cen., Warsaw, Poland October 2008 and brought into a D. J. McComas, E. Möbius, and Univ. New Hampshire, Durham, USA highly elliptical orbit around the Earth. N. Schwadron, (2013), Evidence In June 2011, the orbit was changed of direct detection of interstel- Principal Investigator so that it was in resonance with the lar deuterium in the local inter- Moon which tremendously extends stellar medium by IBEX, Astron. D. McComas, Princeton Univ., USA the orbital life-time of the spacecraft Astrophys., 557, A125, 1–13, doi: and thus allows the mission life to 10.1051/0004-6361/201321420. Swiss Principal Investigator cover more than a solar cycle of 11 years with minimal fuel consumption. P. Wurz (UNIBE) IBEX continues to take nominal Abbreviations Co-Investigator measurements of ENAs originating from the interface region between ENA Energetic Neutral Atom A. Galli our heliosphere and the surrounding IBEX Interstellar Boundary Explorer interstellar matter. MEFISTO MEsskammer für Flugzeit- Method InStrumente u. Time-Of-Flight

Measurement

Development & Constr. of Instrs.

IBEX-Lo Instrument on IBEX Time-Line From To Planning Jan. 2005 May 2006 Industrial Hardware Contract to: Construction Jun. 2006 Aug. 2008 Measurement Phase Oct. 2008 ongoing Sulzer Innotec Data Evaluation Oct. 2008 ongoing

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5.6 Swiss Contribution to ATHENA

Purpose of Research objects (O, B stars) to be blocked, and to reduce the X-ray count rate for very ESA has selected "The Hot and bright objects in order to prevent deg- Energetic Universe" as the science radation of the detector performance. theme of the second Large Mission of The filter wheel will also drive active the Cosmic Vision programme. As a X-ray sources which can generate response, a large European consortium mono-energetic photons for the gain has gathered to propose and develop calibrations of the detector simultane- the ATHENA (Advanced Telescope ously during the scientific observation, for High Energy Astrophysics) mis- to reach optimal calibration stability. Artist's impression of ATHENA. Image credit: ESA. sion, a large X-ray observatory and an The filter wheel relies heavily on the evolution of former proposals: XEUS, heritage from the Swiss contribution International X-ray Observatory and to the JAXA ASTRO-H/Hitomi mission. Institute ATHENA L1. Thanks to its two instru- ments, a large-field-of-view fast im- UNIGE is preparing a significant par- Dept. Astron. Univ. Geneva (UNIGE) ager (Wide FIeld Imager, WFI), and a ticipation in the ATHENA ground-seg- cryogenic imaging calorimeter (X-ray ment, both in the development phase In Cooperation with: Integral Field Unit, X-IFU), ATHENA will and during scientific operations. The provide tremendous improvements model under discussion involves two European Space Agency (ESA) over the current generation of X-ray separate Instrument Science Centers telescopes for high spatial and spectral (ISC) attached to each of the two instru- Inst. Rech. en Astrophys. et Planét. resolution spectro-imaging and for sur- ments. UNIGE will play a significant role (IRAP), Toulouse, France vey grasp (effective area x field-of-view). in both the X-IFU and the WFI ISCs. Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterr. The WFI will be equipped with a 2 x 2 Past Achievements and Status Physik (MPE), Garching, Germany mosaic of DEPFET (depleted p-chan- nel field-effect transistor) 512 x 512 pix- The ATHENA proto-consortium is Principal Investigators el matrices, covering a field-of-view of currently preparing for the Preliminary 40' x 40' with a time resolution better Requirement Review which will be K. Nandra (MPE), D. Barret (IRAP) than 5 ms, while a smaller, 64 x 64 ma- concluded by the end of 2018. A large trix will reach a time resolution better effort has been made recently to fit Swiss Principal Investigator than 80 µs. The X-IFU will perform the mission into the mass and budget imaging with ~ 2 eV resolution, i.e. an boundary conditions. Adoption is fore- S. Paltani (UNIGE) improvement of a factor 50 over cur- seen for 2021, around the same time as rent imaging instruments. X-IFU uses the Preliminary Design Review. Method Transition Edge Sensors and operates at cryogenic (50 mK) temperatures. Publications Measurement This will be achieved by a complex, multi-stage mechanical cooling chain. 1. Barret, D., et al., (2016), Proc. SPIE, Developments 9905, id. 99052F. Switzerland is leading the development Development and construction of the of the X-IFU Filter Wheel subsystem. 2. Meidinger, N., (2017), Proc. SPIE, X-IFU instr. Filter Wheel subsystem. This will allow optical light from bright 10397, id. 103970V. Development of data center activities for the WFI and X-IFU instruments. Time-Line From To Planning 2021 Website Construction 2022 2026 Measurement Phase 2028 2033 sci.esa.int/athena/59896- Data Evaluation 2028 2040 mission-summary

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5.7 Swiss Contribution to Euclid

Purpose of Research On the software and algorithms level, the EPFL is active in the development Euclid is an ESA mission designed to of algorithms for the measurement of understand the origin and evolution the galaxy shear (weak lensing) as well of the Universe by investigating the as the detection of strong gravitational nature of its most mysterious compo- lenses, for which it plays the role of nents: dark energy and dark matter, coordinator in the so-called Shear and by testing the nature of gravity. Organisation Unit. FHNW is contrib- Euclid will achieve its scientific goal uting to the so-called system team by combining a number of cosmologi- which provides the overall infrastruc- The Euclid Flagship simulation run on the CSCS super- cal probes, among which the primary ture binding the different components computer Piz Dain. Image credit: J. Stadel 2017. ones are weak gravitational lensing of the Euclid data centers. and baryonic acoustic oscillations. UNIGE is in charge of the coordination The Euclid payload consists of a 1.2 m of the development of algorithms and Korsch telescope designed to provide software for the determination of pho- a large field-of-view. The Euclid survey tometric redshifts which is a central will cover 15,000 deg2 of the extra- component of one of the main science galactic sky with its two instruments: goals of Euclid, weak lensing. UNIGE the VISual imager (VIS) and the Near- also hosts the Swiss Euclid Science Infrared Spectrometer Photometer Data Center and is in charge of the instr. (NISP) which includes a slitless implementation of the algorithms for spectrometer and a 3-band photom- the determination of the photometric Institute eter. Euclid is the second Medium redshifts and the detection of strong Class mission of the ESA Cosmic lenses. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Vision 2015 – 2025 programme, with Lausanne (EPFL) a foreseen launch in 2021. The Euclid data processing is a large distributed effort which will have to Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz Switzerland is playing an important operate a multi-petabyte archive and (FHNW) role in Euclid, with participation at all a commensurate processing power. levels, from the science definition, to UNIGE also develops the Read-out Univ. Geneva, (UNIGE) the building of space hardware, the Shutter Unit (RSU), a cryogenics shut- development of analysis algorithms, ter for the VIS instrument which it has Univ. Zurich, (UNIZH) participation in the data processing started to design and is now being and science exploitation. Several manufactured by the Swiss company, In Cooperation with: Swiss institutes are strongly involved APCO Technologies SA. All participat- in Euclid: EPFL, FHNW, UNIGE and ing institutes will partake in the science ESA and about 100 European UNIZH. At the science level, the EPFL of Euclid, whether for the main science institutes (strong lensing), UNIGE (theory) and goals or for the very rich secondary UNIZH (cosmological simulations) are science that will result from the huge NASA participating in the coordination of the Euclid survey. respective Science Working Groups. >1000 astronomers and engineers worldwide Time-Line From To Principal Investigator Planning 2012 Construction 2012 2019(HW)/2020(SW) Y. Mellier, Inst. d’Astrophysique de Measurement Phase 2021 2027 Paris, France Data Evaluation 2021 2030

28 Astrophysics

Past Achievements and Status SPV2's goal is to estimate whether Co-Investigators the Euclid mission (and science APCO has manufactured the ground-segment in particular) is on Swiss consortium members with Breadboard Model (BM) which has track to meet its scientific objectives. lead responsibilities only: been used to de-risk the mechanism SPV2 is based on the Euclid Flagship development in all its critical aspects, Simulation which has produced the F. Courbin (EPFL) in particular lifetime and vibration lev- largest simulated galaxy catalogue to P. Dubath (UNIGE) els. All tests of the RSU BM were suc- date. The Euclid Flagship Simulation J.-P. Kneib (EPFL) cessfully passed, allowing the Swiss which used a record-setting two trillion M. Kunz (UNIGE) team to proceed with the Qualification dark-matter particles, was run on Piz S. Paltani (UNIGE) Model programme, whose assembly Daint, the third most powerful com- R. Teyssier (UNIZH) and test campaigns are on-going. The puter in the World at the end of 2017. Flight Model programme is expected Method to begin after Summer 2018 and to be Publications concluded by mid-2019. Measurement 1. Laureijs, R., et al., (2011), Euclid On the ground-segment side, Euclid Definition Study Report, Euclid Red Developments is currently undergoing the Design Book, ESA/SRE(2011)12, eprint Review. The ground-segment devel- arXiv: 1110.3193. Development and construction of the opment is structured with Infrastructure Read-Out Shutter Unit (RSU) of the Challenges and Scientific Challenges. 2. Cropper, M., et al., (2016), VIS: VIS instrument. Development of algo- The Swiss Science Data Center has the visible imager for Euclid, Proc. rithms for photometric redshifts, weak participated in several Infrastructure SPIE, 9904, Article ID. 99040Q. and strong lensing. Euclid Flagship Challenges; the last one, IC7, involves simulation. Development of the Swiss the deployment of the analysis pipeline 3. Potter, D., et al., (2017), PKDGRAV3: Euclid Science Data Center. on nine data centers, together with the Comp. Astrophys. Cosmol., 4, 2, orchestration and job distribution soft- doi:10.1186/s40668-017-0021-1 Industrial Hardware Contract to: ware. It will then re-run (part of) the Scientific Challenge 3 which goes from Abbreviations APCO Technologies the raw images up to the source cata- (VIS RSU Phase C/D) logue, in a completely distributed way. NISP Near-Infrared Spectrometer Photometer instrument Website The Science Performance Verification RSU Read-out Shutter Unit 2 is being conducted in parallel. VIS VISible imager sci.esa.int/euclid/

The VIS RSU Breadboard Model. Image credit: APCO Technologies SA.

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5.8 XARM – The Swiss Contribution to the X-ray Astronomy Recovery Mission

Purpose of Research well as to protect the detector from micro-meteorites. It also supports XARM is a mission of the Japan and commands active X-ray calibra- Aerospace Exploration Agency tion sources which are provided by (JAXA) planned to recover the most SRON, and assembled on top of the ambitious scientific objectives of the filter wheel. Hitomi mission which was success- fully launched on 17 February, 2016, The Filter Wheel consists of two but experienced a failure after six separate units: the Filter Wheel weeks in operation. Electronics (FWE) and the Filter The Hitomi Filter Wheel Mechanism ready for the Wheel Mechanism (FWM). For vibration test. Image credit: Ruag Space AG. Hitomi was an essential mission for Hitomi, the control and power elec- high-energy astrophysics, between tronics module, the FWE, was de- the current generation of facilities signed by Micro-Cameras & Space with XMM-Newton, INTEGRAL, Exploration and assembled and Chandra and Suzaku, and ATHENA, qualified by UNIGE. the future Large Mission of ESA‘s Cosmic Vision program dedicated The filter wheel mechanism (FWM) to the study of the hot and energetic was built and qualified by Ruag Universe. Space, Switzerland. The Flight Models were successfully deliv- UNIGE participated in the Hitomi ered to SRON and then to JAXA in mission, together with the Dutch Autumn 2013. Both sub-systems space research institute, SRON, by operated nominally after launch. developing a filter wheel for the Soft X-ray Spectrometer (SXS). A rebuild of the Swiss contribution to Hitomi is Past Achievements and Status planned for the Resolve spectrom- eter on XARM. Despite its extremely short life, Hitomi was incredibly successful Like the SXS, Resolve uses a cryo- thanks to its new-generation SXS genic silicon detector working at 50 instrument. Among a handful of sci- mK, with the aim of providing out- entific goals, the observation of the Institute standing energy resolution (about 4 Perseus galaxy cluster resulted in eV) in the 0.3-10 keV energy range, two major discoveries published in Dept. Astronomy, while preserving some imaging ca- the journal Nature. Univ. Geneva (UNIGE) pabilities and high throughput. The first major result is related to In Cooperation with: The purpose of the filter wheel is to the first direct measurement of the select different optical elements, ei- turbulence in the intra-cluster gas Netherlands Institute for Space, ther to reduce the X-ray count rate or which has been found to be too low Research (SRON) the optical load on the detector as to be the main mechanism of energy

European Space Agency (ESA) Time-Line From To Principal Investigator Planning 2017 2017 Construction 2018 2019 Japan Aerospace Exploration Measurement Phase 2021 2026 Agency (JAXA) Data Evaluation 2021 2031

30 Astrophysics

transport from the central active ga- Publications Swiss Principal Investigator lactic nucleus to the inner regions of the cluster. 1. The Hitomi Collaboration, 2017, S. Paltani (UNIGE) Nature, 551, 478. The second result concerns the Method determination of the process of en- 2. Takahashi, T., et al., (2016), The richment of the intra-cluster medium ASTRO-H (Hitomi) X-ray astron- Measurement which has been found to be con- omy satellite, Proc. SPIE, 9905, sistent with that in the Solar neigh- id. 99050U. Development and Construction borhood, setting constraints on the of Instruments nature of the supernova progenitors. 3. The Hitomi Collaboration, 2016, Nature, 535, 117. Manufacturer of the Filter Wheel Both results necessitated the op- Mechanism and Electronics. eration of the Filter Wheel in order to reach a sufficient level of knowl- edge of the energy calibration of the Abbreviations SXS. In addition, more than ten other papers are in the process of being FWE Filter Wheel Electronics published/have been published, in FWM Filter Wheel Mechanism refereed journals. JAXA Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency The process to rebuild the FWE and SRON Netherlands Institute for Space FWM subsystems for the Resolve Research instrument on board XARM has just SXS Soft X-ray Spectrometer started, and the industrial contracts XARM X-Ray Astronomy Recovery will be announced soon. Mission

The Hitomi spectrum of the Perseus cluster (black) compared to the state-of-the-art CCD spectrum of Suzaku (red), revealing the huge step forward achieved by the SXS. Image credit: Nature.

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5.9 XIPE – The X-Ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer

Purpose of Research effective area of 1100 cm2 at 2 keV (the total operating energy range is XIPE, the X-ray Imaging Polarimetry 2 – 8 keV), translating into a minimum Explorer, is a newly proposed space detectable polarisation lower than mission concept competing with two 10% in 100 ks of observations for a other candidates for a launch op- source with the intensity of 1 mCrab. portunity in 2026 within the context of the ESA M4 call. The mission was It has been argued from theoretical selected in 2015 for an assessment considerations that X-ray radiation phase study that lasted until July 2017. from many astrophysical sources The down-selection of the M4 mis- must be significantly polarised be- sions was expected around late 2017, cause it often originates in highly Artist's impression of XIPE. Image credit: INAF-IAPS. but was then postponed to mid-2018. aspherical emission and scattering geometries or from regions with XIPE will be entirely dedicated to structured magnetic fields. The wider measurements of X-ray polarisation set of observations provided by XIPE, from celestial Galactic and extra- compared to any previously flown Galactic X-ray sources. Polarimetric X-ray instruments, will thus help in X-ray measurements are long known breaking degeneracies in the X-ray to be the key to probe, in-situ, the modelling of a wide range of astro- details and geometry of many poorly physical objects. understood emission mechanisms, but have so far remained an unde- The induced observable polarisation veloped tool due to the lack of tech- can solve long-standing problems in nology required to build a sufficiently both astrophysics and fundamental sensitive instrument. XIPE will finally physics. For instance: cover this gap and provide the possi- bility of performing spatially-resolved • What is the structure of mag- polarimetric measurements of a large netic fields close to the site of sample of Galactic and extragalactic particle acceleration in pulsar X-ray sources. wind nebulae, supernovae or extragalactic jets? XIPE is equipped with three focus- Institute ing Wolter I X-ray telescopes and • Where do the seed photons for the latest generation of the Gas Pixel the Comptonised emission in Dept. of Astronomy, Detectors (GPD) developed by INFN- extra-galactic jets come from? Univ. Geneva (UNIGE) Pisa in collaboration with INAF-IAPS. These innovative detectors permit the • What is the nature of the repro- In Cooperation with: recording of not only the spectral, cessed emission we observe spatial and timing information of the from the molecular clouds in the INAF-IAPS, Italy X-ray intensity from celestial sources, Galactic Center? but also permit recording of the two Principal Investigator additional Stokes parameters, Q and • What is the accretion geometry U, thus measuring the polarisation in accreting X-ray pulsars? P. S of fi t t a of the X-ray emission as a function of position, photon energy and time. • Can the theoretically predicted Swiss Principal Investigator QED vacuum birefringence in the The combination of the selected atmospheres of magnetars be S. Paltani (UNIGE) optics and detectors achieve an confirmed?

32 Astrophysics

• What is the angular momentum candidates was organised by ESA Co-Investigators of accreting black holes in X-ray in Paris and attended by scientists binaries? from different disciplines. At the T. Courvoisier end of March 2018, XIPE was un- E. Bozzo (UNIGE) • Is the theory of Loop Quantum fortunately not selected by ESA as Gravity correct? Can we detect an M4 mission to be implemented. Method axion-like particles that would Nevertheless, the experience gained constitute dark matter? through this project has consolidated Measurement the leading role of the University of The Swiss XIPE team, based at the Geneva in coordinating the early Development and Department of Astronomy of the development and ground segment Construction of Instruments University of Geneva, has been in design of similar missions. charge of the overall mission project Leading role in the mission management as well as the defini- science ground segment. tion of the mission science ground segment (in collaboration with ESA). Publications Website

A number of scientists from different 1. Soffitta, P., et al., (2016), Proc. SPIE www.isdc.unige.ch/xipe Swiss institutions have been directly 9905, 990515. involved in the XIPE science working groups, whose tasks have been to 2. Zane, S., et al., (2016), Proc. SPIE define and shape the mission sci- 9905, 99054H. ence goals. 3. Soffitta, P., et al., (2013), Nuclear Instr. Meth. Phys., 700, 99.

Past Achievements and Status 4. Soffitta, P., et al., (2012), Proc. SPIE 8443, 84431F. XIPE has successfully completed the assessment phase which finished in 5. Costa, E., et al., (2001), Nature, July 2017 at the end of the Mission 411, 662. Selection Review. The XIPE consor- tium, under the overall coordination of the project office at the University of Geneva, has delivered over 700 Abbreviations pages of documentation to ESA. GPD Gas Pixel Detector In July 2017, a public presenta- XIPE X-ray Imaging Polarimetry tion event of all three M4 mission Explorer

Time-Line From To Planning Sep. 2015 Jul. 2017 Construction Oct. 2017 Jun. 2026 Measurement Phase Jan. 2027 Jan. 2030 Data Evaluation open open

33 Astrophysics

5.10 eXTP – The Enhanced X-Ray Timing and Polarimetry Mission

Purpose of Research Silicon Drift Detectors, each covering a 90° x 90° field-of-view. eXTP is a science mission designed to study the state of matter under The eXTP international consortium extreme conditions of density, grav- includes mostly major institutions of ity and magnetism. Primary targets the Chinese Academy of Sciences include isolated and binary neutron and Universities in China as well as stars, strong magnetic field systems major institutions in several European such as magnetars, and stellar-mass countries and the United States. and supermassive black holes. Artist's impression of eXTP. Image credit: IHEP. The Swiss eXTP team comprises sci- The mission carries a unique and un- entists at the DPNC and Astronomy Institute precedented suite of state-of-the-art departments of the University of scientific instruments enabling simul- Geneva. The DPNC is leading the Particle Physics Dept. (DPNC), and taneous spectral-timing polarimetry design of the front-end electronics Dept. Astron., Univ. Geneva (UNIGE) studies of cosmic sources in the for the LAD instrument, together with energy range from 0.5-30 keV (and the definition of the chain of assembly In Cooperation with: beyond) to be studied for the first of the front-end electronics with the time ever. SDD detectors and the ASICs. The IHEP, Beijing, China Astronomy department is involved in Key elements of the payload are: the design of the science ground seg- Principal Investigator ment of the mission. • The Spectroscopic Focussing Array S-N. Zhang (IHEP) (SFA) - a set of 11 X-ray optics for a to- Past Achievements and Status tal effective area of about 0.9 m2 and Swiss Principal Investigator 0.6 m2 at 2 keV and 6 keV respectively, The eXTP mission has been approved equipped with Silicon Drift Detectors by China for an extended assessment X. Wu (DPNC) offering <180 eV spectral resolution. phase A and phase B, during which all interfaces between the Chinese Co-Investigators • The Large Area Detector (LAD) - a platform/payload and the European deployable set of 640 Silicon Drift provided payload elements will be Stephane Paltani (UNIGE) Detectors, for a total effective area worked out and finalised. Phase B, Enrico Bozzo (UNIGE) of about 3.4 m2, between 6 and 10 preceding implementation, is expect- keV, and spectral resolution <250 eV. ed to be concluded by 2020. The Method launch is expected in 2025. • The Polarimetry Focussing Array Measurement (PFA) - a set of two X-ray telescopes, Abbreviations for a total effective area of 250 cm2 Development and at 2 keV, equipped with imaging gas ASIC Application-Specific Construction of Instruments pixel photoelectric polarimeters. Integrated Circuit LAD Large Area Detector LAD front-end electronics, LAD de- • The Wide-Field Monitor (WFM) - a PFA Polarimetry Focussing Array tectors, ASICs, front-end electronics set of three coded mask wide-field SFA Spec. Focussing Array assembly, contribution to the mission units, equipped with position-sensitive WFM Wide-Field Monitor science ground segment. Time-Line From To Website Planning Jan. 2017 Dec. 2018 Construction Jan. 2019 Dec. 2024 www.isdc.unige.ch/extp Measurement Phase Jan. 2025 Jan. 2030

34 Astrophysics

5.11 SPICA – Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics

Purpose of Research Past Achievements and Status

SPICA is a joint European-Japanese SPICA was proposed as an ESA-led project for an infrared space observa- mission under Cosmic Vision M5. If tory with a 2.5-meter, actively cooled the mission is selected, JAXA will as- telescope (below 8K) and with a new sume a partner Space Agency role. generation of ultra-sensitive detector Within the Japanese space agency arrays. SPICA will cover the 12 – 350 selection process for future missions, μm spectral range, capable of making SPICA is expected to be assigned a deep and wide surveys to unprece- Strategic L-class mission allocation, dented depths in spectroscopy. SPICA with an implementation schedule carries two instruments, SAFARI, a joint foreseeing launch in the late 2020s. The SPICA satellite (Planck configuration, 2.5m@8K telescope). European-Canadian-US contribution, SPICA has passed the ESA pro- and SMI from Japan. They provide grammatic and technical screening. imaging and spectroscopy in differ- The M5 selection process resumed Institute ent modes of operation, together with immediately after the ESA Science imaging polarimetry in the far infrared. Programme Committee in March Dept. Astron., Univ. Geneva (UNIGE) 2018, and SPICA was selected as The three main goals of SPICA are: one of three missions for further study. In Cooperation with: 1) To reveal the physical processes that govern the formation and evolution of Publications SRON, Netherlands galaxies and black holes over time. ISAS, Japan 2) To resolve for the first time the 1. Jellema, W., et al., (2017), Safari: and the SPICA Consortium far-infrared polarization, and there- instrument design of the far-infrared fore the magnetic field, of star- imaging spectrometer for SPICA, Principal Investigator forming regions in the Milky Way. Proc. SPIE, 10563, id. 105631K. 3) To understand the formation and P. Roelfsema (SRON) evolution of planetary systems. 2. Sibthorpe, B., et al., (2015), The SPICA mission, EAS Publications Swiss Principal Investigator While the SPICA payload is primar- Series, 75–76, 411–417. ily driven by these top-level science M. Audard (UNIGE) goals, SPICA is designed to operate 3. Goicochea, J. R., et al., (2013), The as an observatory. UNIGE aims to far-IR view of star and planet form- Co-Investigators lead the development and operations ing regions, Proc. of the SPICA’s of the SAFARI Instrument Control New Window on the 'Cool Universe' D. Schaerer, S. Paltani (UNIGE) Center (ICC). The ICCs will maintain conference, arXiv: 1310.1683. instrument commands and develop Method the relevant data reduction software. Abbreviations In routine operations the ICCs moni- Measurement tor the instrument health, carry out ICC Instrument Control Center flight calibration and maintain the data SAFARI SpicA FAR-infrared Instr. Development of Software for reduction software. SMI SPICA Mid-Infrared Instr. Instrument Control Center for the SAFARI instrument onboard the Time-Line From To SPICA mission. Planning 2019 2022 Construction 2022 2030 Website Measurement Phase 2030 2035 Data Evaluation 2030 2040 www.spica-mission.org

35 Astrophysics

5.12 HERD – High Energy Radiation Detection Facility

Purpose of Research collaboration established in October 2012, and has been playing a major HERD is a space mission proposed role in the HERD mission develop- by an international collaboration to be ment ever since. installed onboard the future Chinese Space Station that aims to achieve The Geneva group’s focus is on the the ambitious goal of performing development of the tracking detector cosmic ray measurements with 1 for HERD. In particular, it is devel- m2.steradian of acceptance at PeV oping a large area tracker made of energies, the so -called "knee" region. scintillating fibres read out by arrays It will also be an excellent detector to of silicon photomultipliers. This is the search for Dark Matter using elec- first time that such technology will be trons and photons at high energy (TeV used in space. The Geneva group Sketch of the HERD detector: the 3-dimensional LYSO calorimeter (CALO) and above). is also coordinating the activities of in the center, is surrounded by the 4-sided scintillating fibre tracker (FIT) on-ground tests and calibrations with and surmounted by the silicon-tungsten tracker (STK). The tracker is en- HERD will lead to ground-breaking particle beams at CERN. capsulated in the 5-sided plastic scintillator detector (PSD). measurements in high energy cosmic rays that will shed new light on some of The HERD proposal is currently under the fundamental questions concerning review by the Chinese Manned Space the Universe, such as: i) the nature of Agency (CMSA) and the Italian Space the Dark Matter, ii) the origin of cosmic Agency (ASI) which coordinates the rays and iii) the physics of extreme European participation in HERD. energetic processes in the Universe.

Past Achievements and Status Publications

The main feature of the mission is 1. Zhang, S., et al., (2014), HERD col- a 5-side sensitive detector that al- laboration, The High Energy cos- Institute lows the acceptance with a reason- mic-Radiation Detection (HERD) able mass budget to be increased. A Facility onboard China’s Future DPNC, Univ. Geneva (UNIGE) central calorimeter, made of ~7500 Space Station, Proc. SPIE Int. Soc. LYSO crystal cubes (3 x 3 x 3 cm3), Opt. Eng. 9144, 91440X. In Cooperation with: is covered on five sides by high preci- sion trackers, using silicon micro-strip IHEP, Beiing, China technology (top) and scintillating fibre Abbreviations INFN, Perugia, Italy technology (4 sides). The total weight EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland of the HERD payload is about 4 tons, AMI Italian Space Agency within a dimension envelope of 2.3 x CMSA Chinese Manned Space Principal Investigator 2.3 x 2.6 m3. Agency HERD High Energy Radiation S-N. Zhang (IHEP) The Geneva group is a founding Detection Facility member of the HERD international LYSO Lutetium-yttrium Swiss Principal Investigator oxyorthosilicate

X. Wu (DPNC) Time-Line From To Planning 2012 2018 Method Construction 2019 2025 Measurement Phase 2025 2035 Measurement Data Evaluation 2025 2040

36 Astrophysics

5.13 THESEUS – The Transient High Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor

Purpose of Research transients and variable sources, col- lecting also prompt follow-up data in THESEUS is a space mission con- the IR. These observations will pro- cept developed by a large interna- vide a wealth of unique science op- tional collaboration in response to portunities, by revealing the violent the 5th call for M-class missions by Universe as it occurs in real-time, and ESA. THESEUS is designed to vastly by exploiting an all-sky X-ray monitor- increase the discovery space of high ing of extraordinary grasp and sen- energy transient phenomena over the sitivity carried out at high cadence. entirety of cosmic history. Its driving THESEUS will be able to locate and science goals aim to find answers to identify the electromagnetic counter- many fundamental questions of mod- parts to sources of gravitational ra- Artist's impression of THESEUS. Image credit: INAF-IASF Bologna. ern cosmology and astrophysics, by diation and neutrinos which will be exploiting the unique capabilities of routinely detected in the late ’20s / the mission to: a) explore the physical early ’30s by next generation facilities conditions of the Early Universe (the such as aLIGO/ aVirgo, eLISA, ET, and Institute cosmic dawn and re-ionisation era) by Km3NET. In addition, the provision of unveiling the Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) a high cadence soft X-ray monitoring Dept. Astronomy, Univ. Geneva population in the first billion years and, capability in the 2020s together with a (UNIGE) b) to perform an unprecedented deep 0.7 m IRT in orbit will enable a strong monitoring of the soft X-ray transient synergy with transient phenomena In Cooperation with: Universe, thus providing a fundamen- observed with the large facilities that tal synergy with the next generation of will be operating in the EM domain INAF-IASF, Bologna, Italy gravitational wave and neutrino detec- (e.g., ELT, SKA, CTA, JWST, ATHENA). tors (multi-messenger astrophysics) Principal Investigator as well as future electromagnetic (EM) Past Achievements and Status facilities. L. Amati The THESEUS proposal, submitted The most critical THESEUS targets, i.e. for the ESA M5 call, was selected in Swiss Principal Investigator GRBs, are unique and powerful tools mid-May 2018 as one of three mis- for cosmology, especially because of sions to enter an assessment phase S. Paltani (UNIGE) their huge luminosities, mostly emit- study that will be conducted in 2021. ted as X-rays and gamma-rays, their Co-Investigators redshift (z) distribution (extending at Publications least to z<10), and their association Enrico Bozzo (UNIGE) with the explosive death of massive 1. Amati, L., et al., (2017), The stars. In particular, GRBs represent a THESEUS Workshop 2017, Method unique tool to study the early Universe arXiv:1802.01673. up to the re-ionisation era. Measurement 2. Amati, L., et al., (2017), Adv. Space Besides high-redshift GRBs, Res. (in press; arXiv:1710.04638). Development and THESEUS will serendipitously de- Construction of Instruments tect and localise, during regular ob- 3. Stratta, G., et al., (2017), Adv. Space servations, a large number of X-ray Res. (in press; arXiv:1712.08153). Contribution to the IRT instrument and the mission science ground segment. Time-Line From To Planning Jul. 2018 Jul. 2019 Website Construction Oct. 2019 Dec. 2027 Measurement Phase Jan. 2028 Jan. 2031 www.isdc.unige.ch/theseus

37 Solar Physics

6 Solar Physics

6.1 VIRGO – Variability of Irradiance and Global Oscilla- tions on SoHO

Purpose of Research Publications

VIRGO provides continuous high- 1. Dudok de Wit, T., et al., (2017), precision measurements of the total Methodology to create a new to- and spectral solar irradiance. The total tal solar irradiance record: Making solar irradiance (TSI) measurements a composite out of multiple data are used to estimate a potential solar records, Geophys. Res. Lett., influence on terrestrial climate change. doi:10.1002/2016GL071866.

The spectral solar irradiance (SSI) 2. Haberreiter, M., et al., (2017), A VIRGO on the SoHO spacecraft. Image credit: ESA. measurements contribute to the SSI new observational solar irradiance data base which is used to model the composite, JGR Space Phys. 122, chemistry and dynamics in the upper 5910, doi:10.1002/2016JA023492. Institute atmosphere of the Earth. 3. Fröhlich, C., (2016), Determination Physikalisch-Meteorol. Obs. Davos Past Achievements and Status of time-dependent uncertainty of und Weltstrahlungszentrum the total solar irradiance records (PMOD/WRC), Davos, Switzerland VIRGO has provided the longest con- from 1978 to present, J. Space tinuous time series of TSI and SSI. Weather Space Clim., 6, 11p, In Cooperation with: doi:10.1051/swsc/2016012.

Institut Royal Météorologique de Belgique (IRMB), Brussels, Belgium 1364 TSI [Wm HF HF HF

ESTEC, Noordwijk, VIRGO ACRIM I ACRIM I 1368 ACRIM II The Netherlands

1362 -2 ] new VIRGO scale 1366 Principal Investigator 1360 Min21/22 Min22/23 Min23/24 ] original VIRGO scale 1364 Claus Fröhlich (PMOD/WRC) -2 1358

Co-Investigators TSI [Wm 1362 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 Wolfgang Finsterle (PMOD/WRC) Year Werner Schmutz (PMOD/WRC) The PMOD/WRC TSI composite for the indicated space experiments. The new absolute VIRGO scale Benjamin Walter (PMOD/WRC) is indicated on the right, and the original scale on the left.

Method Abbreviations Measurement SoHO Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Research Based on Existing Instrs. SSI Spectral Solar Irradiance TSI Total Solar Irradiance VIRGO/SoHO VIRGO Variability of Solar Irradi. and Gravity Oscillations

Website Time-Line From To www.pmodwrc.ch/en/ Measurement Phase 1996 ongoing research-development/space/ Data Evaluation 1996 ongoing

38 Solar Physics

6.2 Probing Solar X-Ray Nanoflares with NuSTAR

Purpose of Research Past Achievements and Status

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Tele- NuSTAR was successfully launched scope Array (NuSTAR) is a NASA in June 2012. First solar observations Small Explorer satellite using true were performed in September 2014, focusing optics and pixellated X-ray with 12 different observation runs for detectors to achieve unprecedented a total of about three days of expo- First NuSTAR image of the Sun (NASA press release) which illustrates bluish sensitivity in the medium to hard X-ray sure time. Future solar obserations colors superposed on an extreme UV image (around 171 Å) taken by SDO/ band (2 – 80 keV). While NuSTAR is are being considered as a Target of AIA shown in red. While the EUV image represents ‘cold’ coronal plasma an astrophysics mission, it also oc- Opportunity. The best observation around 1 MK, the NuSTAR image outlines the location of the hottest casionally points at the Sun. conditions for our main science goal plasma (typically 4 – 5 MK during non-flaring times). (nanoflare heating) will occur around NuSTAR is 200 times more sensi- the solar minimum (~2018 – 2021) at tive than the Reuven Ramaty High times of lowest solar activity to mini- Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager mise contamination from unfocused (RHESSI), the current state-of-the- X-rays ('ghost-rays') from outside of art satellite for solar hard X-ray stud- NuSTARs field-of-view. ies. With the extraordinary increase Institute in sensitivity provided by NuSTAR, Publications we will be able to test the so-called Institute for Data Science, FHNW "nanoflare heating" theory, predict- 1. Fiona, A., et al., (2013), Astrophys. ing that many tiny explosions seen J., 770, 103. In Cooperation with: in X-rays provide enough energy to keep the solar atmosphere at its ex- 2. Kuhar, M., et al., (2017), Astrophys. Caltech, USA; UC Santa Cruz, USA traordinarily hot temperature (million J. Lett., 835, 1, article id. 6, 8. U. Glasgow, UK; U. Minnesota, USA degree range). Principal Investigator

F. Harrison (Caltech) 0 Flare loops as seen with NuSTAR above 2.5 keV Swiss Principal Investigator are shown on an ex- treme UV 171 Å image. S. Krucker (FHNW) -100 The NusTAR image is taken a full day after Co-Investigator the flare onset, reveal- Y [arcsec] ing that the release of M. Kuhar (FHNW) -200 magnetic energy is still ongoing even well after Method the flare peak time. >2.5 keV (5, 15, 30, 50, 70, 90%) Measurement -300 900 1000 1100 1200 X [arcsec] Research Based on Existing Instrs.

NuSTAR, launched in June 2012, is Abbreviations currently the leading X-ray observatory. NuSTAR's unprecedented sensitivity NuSTAR Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array opens up entirely new views on astro- RHESSI Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager physical X-ray objects including our Sun.

39 Solar Physics

6.3 CLARA – Compact Lightweight Absolute Radiometer on NorSat-1

Purpose of Research in solar irradiance on the terrestrial climate, it is therefore essential that Space Climate monitoring of solar irradiance con- tinues on an accuracy level that is The Compact Lightweight Absolute capable of capturing any variations Radiometer (CLARA) CLARA is a that could have a significant impact payload onboard the Norwegian on the terrestrial climate. CLARA's NorSat-1 micro-satellite and is a new performance will be sufficient to mea- generation of radiometer to measure sure any climate-significant variation. the Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) which is the energy input from the Sun to Radiometry CLARA (with red cap) mounted on the NorSat-1 structure. the Earth. The main science goal of CLARA is to measure TSI with an un- The CLARA experiment sets new certainty better than 0.4 W m-2 on an standards for TSI radiometers in absolute irradiance level and a relative terms of a reduction in weight and stability of 5 mW m-2 yr -1 (0.0004% size, without compromising accuracy of the TSI per year). Along with its and stability (Finsterle et al. 2014). forerunners, VIRGO and PREMOS, The radiometer is fully character- CLARA continues the long-term in- ised on the component level as well volvement of the PMOD/WRC in solar as calibrated end-to-end at the TSI Institute research. Radiometer Facility (Walter et al., 2017). The measuring cadence is 30 PMOD/WRC, Davos Any significant long-term variation of sec which is the highest cadence of Switzerland TSI will directly translate into a change an absolute radiometer in space. This of the terrestrial climate. Solar irradi- allows the study of solar irradiance In Cooperation with: ance measurements in space have variations to be extended at its high been conducted since 1979 by vari- frequency end. Norwegian Space Center (NSC), ous institutes, and have an average Oslo, Norway value of about 1361 W m-2. During these last 36 years, TSI has varied Past Achievements and Status LASP, Boulder CO, USA in-phase with the 11-year solar cy- cle by about ±0.6 W m-2 (±0.04%). Instrument Development Principal/Swiss Investigator An uncertainty of a trend of the TSI composite is difficult to assess but One engineering and two CLARA W. Schmutz (PMOD/WRC) is of the order of 0.5 W m-2 over the flight units were built by PMOD/WRC. TSI composite time. It is unknown The institute was responsible for the Co-Investigators and controversially discussed in the mechanical and thermal design of the science community whether the so- hardware, development of the elec- B. Anderson (NSC, Norway) lar irradiance has a long-term trend tronics, and in-house manufacture. and whether climate variations within Swiss industry supported the project T. Leifsen (UiO, Norway) the past 10,000 years are related by: developing software, manufactur- to changes in solar irradiance (see ing several hardware components, G. Kopp (LASP, USA) Schmutz 2016). This is why the World running mechanical and thermal Meteorological Organisation lists TSI simulations, and conducting environ- A. Fehlmann (IfA, USA) as an essential climate variable (see mental testing. CLARA was assem- GCOS Essential Climate Variables). bled at PMOD/WRC and calibrated W. Finsterle (PMOD/WRC) at the Laboratory for Atmospheric In view of the unknown role of sus- and Space Physics (LASP) in Boulder B. Walter (PMOD/WRC) pected (and predicted) variability Colorado, USA.

40 Solar Physics

The NorSat-1 mission parameter. CLARA is now operational Method and is continuously monitoring TSI. The Norwegian Space Center select- Incoming data are followed by PMOD/ Measurement ed the NorSat-1 mission as an afford- WRC scientists. At the next solar cycle able approach to science in space, as minimum in about 2020, a comparison Research Based on Existing Instrs. part of the National Space Program. to previously observed minima might NorSat-1 was launched on 14 July reveal a long term trend of the TSI. CLARA was developed and 2017 on a Soyuz rocket from the constructed by PMOD/WRC Baikonur Space Center, Kasachstan. Publications from 2013 to 2015. The satellite is investigating solar ra- diation, space weather, and detecting 1. Finsterle, W., et al., (2014), The Website ship traffic with an AIS transponder. new TSI radiometer CLARA, SPIE, 9264, eid. 92641S-5, doi: www.pmodwrc.ch/en/research- The science payload covers two as- 10.1117/12.2069614. development/space/clara-NorSat-1 pects of scientific research focusing on the sun, including measuring solar 2. Schmutz, W., (2016), Chapter irradiance with CLARA, and measur- 3.2 in: Our Space Environment: ing electron plasma around the Earth Opportunities, Stakes, and with Langmuir probes (University of Dangers, Eds. C. Nicollier, Oslo, Norway). The satellite platform V. Gass, EPFL Press, ISBN has dimensions of 23 x 33 x 44 cm and 978-2-940222-88-9. was built by the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies/Space 3. Walter, B., et al., (2017), The Flight Lab, Canada. Norway kindly CLARA/NorSat-1 solar absolute provided payload space aboard radiometer: Instrument design, NorSat-1 to Switzerland. characterisation and calibra- tion, Metrologia, 54, 674, doi: On 21 July 2017, CLARA was suc- /10.1088/1681-7575/aa7a63. cessfully switched on. The TSI value from these "First-Light" measure- Abbreviations ments on 25 August 2017 was mea- sured at 1359.8 ±0.7 W m-2 which is CLARA Compact Lighweight very close to the predicted value. This Absolute Radiometer is a pleasing verification of the robust- LASP Lab. Atmos. Space Physics, ness of the new CLARA design. Boulder CO, USA NorSat-1 Norwegian Satellite Commissioning experiments which NSC Norwegian Space Center are now finished, included measure- TRF TSI Radiometer Facility ment of the deep space background Boulder, CO, USA radiation, determination of the point- UiO University in Oslo, Norway ing sensitivity, and adjustment of UTIAS/SFL Univ. Toronto, Inst. Aero./ the so-called CLARA shutter-delay Space Flight Lab., Canada

Time-Line From To Planning 2013

Construction 2014 2016 The CLARA Commissioning Team (left to right): B. Walter (PMOD/ Measurement Phase 14 Jun. 2017 (launch) open WRC), A. Beattie (UTIAS/SFL), D. Pfiffner (PMOD/WRC) in the st Data Evaluation 25 Aug. 2017 (1 light) ongoing NorSat-1 Mission Control Room, Oslo, Norway.

41 Solar Physics

6.4 FLARECAST – Flare Likelihood and Region Eruption Forecasting

Purpose of Research Past Achievements and Status

Solar flares are the main drivers of FLARECAST is in its finalisation state. space weather. They may affect hu- Flare predictors have been identi- man assets in space and on Earth. fied. The infrastructure for storing A reliable prediction system will allow and processing data has been set mitigation measures to be initiated on up. Machine learning prediction al- time. The three main objectives of the gorithms have been developed and X6.9 flare, 9 August 2011, SDO. Image credit: NASA/SDO. EU-H2020 project, FLARECAST, are: implemented.

Institute • To understand the drivers of so- In the mean time, more than 200 lar flare activity and improve flare TB of data has been collected, pro- Institute for Data Science, FHNW prediction. cessed and partially validated. End- user needs have been discussed In Cooperation with: • To provide a globally and openly ac- with stakeholders from the fields of cessible flare prediction service that satellite operations, navigation, com- Academy of Athens (AA), Greece facilitates evolution and expansion. munication, defence and aviation. Northumbria Univ. (NU), UK Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland • To engage in a dialogue with space- Publications Univ. Di Genova (UNIGEN), Italy weather stakeholders, policy makers CNR, Italy; CNRS, France and the public on the societal benefits 1. Florios, et al., (2009), Forecasting Univ. Paris-Sud, (PSUD), France of reliable solar flare predictions. solar flares using magnetogram- Met. Office, UK based predictors and machine FLARECAST aims to provide an ad- learning, Solar Physics, 293, 28, Principal Investigator vanced solar flare prediction system doi: 10.1007/s11207-018-1250-4. based on automatically extracted M. Georgoulis (RCAAM), Athens physical properties of solar active 2. Guerra, et al., (2018), Active region regions, coupled with state-of-the photospheric magnetic properties Swiss Principal Investigator art flare prediction methods vali- derived from line-of-sight and radial dated using the most appropriated fields, Solar Physics, 293, 0, doi: A. Csillaghy forecast prediction measurements. 10.1007/s11207-017-1231-z. FLARECAST forms the basis of the Co-Investigators first quantitative, physically motivated 3. Benvenuto, et al., (2018), A hybrid and autonomous active-region moni- supervised/unsupervised ma- H. Sathiapal, M. Soldati (FHNW) toring and flare-forecasting system chine learning approach to solar which is available to space-weath- flare prediction, Astrophys. J., 853, Method er researchers and forecasters in article id.1. Europe and around the globe. Measurement Abbreviations Research Based on Existing Instrs. FLARECAST Flare Likelihood & Region Eruption Forecasting FLARECAST is an automated solar-flare HMI Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager forecasting system. SDO Solar Dynamics Observatory

Website Time-Line From To www.fhnw.ch/de/die-fhnw/ Measurement Phase 2016 open hochschulen/ht/institute Data Evaluation 2017 open

42 Solar Physics

6.5 DARA – Digital Absolute Radiometer on PROBA-3

Purpose of Research layout. This engineering model was as- sembled in late 2016, and was used for The Sun is the primary energy source first vibration tests in December 2016. for the Earth's climate system. The ex- The results of these tests showed the istence of a potentially long-term trend need for design adaptations to achieve in the Sun's activity and whether or not stiffness improvements, higher eigen- this could affect the climate is still a mode frequencies and less amplifica- matter of debate. Continuous and pre- tion of these modes. cise TSI measurements are indispens- able to monitor the short and long-term These modifications were made in solar radiative emission variations. The early 2017. Parallel to the re-design, a PROBA-3 is an ESA formation-flying technology demonstration. Two satel- Digital Absolute Radiometer (DARA) on shutter mechanism life-cycle test and a lites will fly with a 150 m separation on a highly elliptical orbit (600 x 60530 the ESA PROBA-3 mission is one of radiation test (ionising radiation) with a km). DARA is mounted on the front platform. Image credit: ESA. PMOD/WRC’s future contributions to DARA/PROBA-3 controller board were the almost seamless series of space- conducted. The shutter mechanism Institute borne TSI measurements since 1978. underwent four million movements un- der vacuum conditions. The mecha- PMOD/WRC, Davos DARA is a 3-channel active cavity nism can be considered as reliable, electrial substitution radiometer (ESR), since none of the five test items failed In Cooperation with: comprising the latest radiometer devel- or led to any other issues. The controller opments at PMOD/WRC to achieve board was exposed to a total dose of ESA long-term stability and high accuracy. 40 krad without any shielding. The test Calibration of DARA against a NIST indicated which components are most Principal Investigator calibrated cryogenic radiometer will susceptible, and consequently we will guarantee full SI-traceability of the ir- apply some spot-shielding on certain W. Schmutz (PMOD/WRC) radiance measurements. PROBA-3 components. In addition, the alumini- has a nominal mission duration of two um housing of the instrument and the Co-Investigators years, and will be the world’s first preci- spacecraft itself will provide additional sion formation flying mission. A pair of shielding against harmful radiation. By W. Finsterle, B. Walter (PMOD/WRC) satellites will fly together maintaining the end of 2017, the preparation for the A. Zhukov (Royal Obs. Belgium) a fixed configuration as a "large rigid next milestone CDR was in progress. structure" in space, representing a co- Method ronagraph configuration. Publications Measurement Past Achievements and Status 1. Walter, B., et al., (2017), Metrologia, 54, 674– 682. Development & Constr. of Instr. A major part of the design and engi- neering tasks was conducted in 2016, Abbreviations DARA is PMOD/WRC’s contribution including the mechanical design, de- to the ESA PROBA-3 mission. velopment of mechanical and thermal CDR Critical Design Review models, electronics schematics design, ESR Elec. Substitution Radiometer Industrial Contract to: components selection and the board TSI Total Solar Irradiance Almatech, Lausanne; dlab GmbH, Winterthur; else/Astorcast SA, Ecublens Time-Line From To Planning end of 2013 mid 2016 Website Construction end of 2016 (EM) end 2018 (EQM/FS) Measurement Phase late 2020 2023 www.pmodwrc.ch/en/research Data Evaluation 2021 2024 -development/space/dara-proba-3/

43 Solar Physics

6.6 STIX – Spectrometer/Telescope for Imaging X-Rays Onboard Solar Orbiter

Purpose of Research Past Achievements and Status

STIX is a Swiss-led instrument on- In October 2012, Solar Orbiter was board ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission selected as the first medium-class to be launched in Feb. 2020. STIX is mission of ESA's Cosmic Vision a hard X-ray imaging spectrometer 2015-2025. STIX was previously based on a Fourier-imaging tech- selected as one of the 10 instru- nique similar to that used success- ments onboard Solar Orbiter. The fully by the Hard X-ray Telescope STIX Flight Model was delivered to The STIX Flight Model. (HXT) on the Japanese Yohkoh mis- ESA in July 2017. Launch of the Solar Institute sion, and related to that used for the Orbiter mission is currently foreseen Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar for February 2020. Institute for Data Science, FHNW Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) NASA SMEX mission. In Cooperation with: Solar Orbiter is a joint ESA-NASA col- Publications SRC, PL; CEA, Sacaly, F; AIP, laboration that will address the central Potsdam, D; Czech Space Office, CZ; question of heliophysics: How does 1. Benz, A. O., S. Krucker, G. J. Univ. Graz, A; Trinity College Dublin, the Sun create and control the helio- Hurford, N. G. Arnold, P. Orleanski, IRL; LESIA, F; Univ. Genova, I sphere? To achieve this goal, Solar H.-P. Gröbelbauer, S. Klober, L. Iseli, Orbiter carries a set of 10 instruments H. J. Wiehl, A. Csillaghy, and 50 co- Principal Investigator for joint observations. Through hard authors, (2012), Space telescopes X-ray imaging and spectroscopy, STIX and instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet S. Krucker (FHNW) provides information about heated (>10 to gamma ray, Proc. SPIE, 8443, MK) plasma and accelerated electrons article id. 84433L, 15 pp. Co-Investigators that are produced as magnetic energy is released during solar flares. By using J. Sylwester (SRC), O. Limousin (CEA) this set of diagnostics, STIX plays a Abbreviations G. Mann (AIP), N. Vilmer (LESIA) crucial role in enabling Solar Orbiter A. Vernonig (U. Graz), F. Farnik (CSO) to achieve two of its major science HXT Hard X-ray Telescope P. Gallagher (TCD), M. Piana (Genova) goals which include: RHESSI Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectr. Imager Method • Understanding the accelera- STIX Spectrometer/Telescope tion of electrons at the Sun and for Imaging X-Rays Measurement their transport into interplanetary space. Develop. & Constr. of Instruments • Determining the magnetic con- STIX is a Swiss-led instrument on- nection of the Solar Orbiter back board ESA’s Solar Orbiter mission. to the Sun. In this way, STIX pro- vides a crucial link between the Industrial Hardware Contract to: remote and in-situ instruments of Solar Orbiter. Almatech; Art of Tech, AG; Syderal SA Time-Line From To Website Planning 2010 2014 Construction 2014 2017 www.fhnw.ch/de/die-fhnw/ Measurement Phase 2020 2027 hochschulen/ht/institute Data Evaluation 2020 open

44 Solar Physics

6.7 MiSolFA – The Micro Solar-Flare Apparatus

Purpose of Research Past Achievements and Status

Operating at the same time as the STIX The Engineering Model of the MiSolFA instrument on the ESA Solar Orbiter gratings passed the space qualifica- mission during the next solar maximum tion tests with flying colors. The final- (~2023), MiSolFa and STIX will have ised design will be manufactured into the unique opportunity to observe the the Qualification and Flight Models, same flare from two different direc- bringing the finest X-ray gratings tions: Solar Orbiter will be very close ever used to study the Sun, closer to the Sun with a significant orbital to launch. inclination, while MiSolFA will be in a near-Earth orbit.

MiSolFA will use the same photon de- Abbreviations tectors as STIX, precisely quantifying the anisotropy of solar hard X-ray emis- MiSolFA The Micro Solar-Flare sions for the first time to investigate Apparatus particle acceleration in solar flares. STIX Spectrometer/Telescope The MiSolFA Engineering Model is prepared for the first for Imaging X-rays X-ray measurement of its Moiré inteference pattern.

Institute

Institute for Data Science, FHNW

Principal Investigator

D. Casadei (FHNW)

Co-Investigators

E. Lastufka, S. Krucker (FHNW)

Method

Measurement

Success! The first X-ray images of the Moiré pattern show clear dark and bright Develop. & Construction of Instrs. stripes from coarse and fine gratings alike. MiSolFA is a compact X-ray spec- trometer that fits into a micro-satelite Time-Line From To (30 x 20 x 10 cm, ie a 6-unit cubsat). Planning 2015 2019 Construction 2019 2020 Industrial Hardware Contract to: Measurement Phase 2023 2024 Data Evaluation 2023 open Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI)

45 Solar Physics

6.8 SPICE and EUI Instruments Onboard Solar Orbiter

Purpose of Research and temperatures, flow velocities, the presence of plasma turbulence and EUI is designed to investigate struc- the composition of the source region tures in the solar atmosphere from the plasma. It will observe the energetics, chromosphere to the corona, thereby dynamics and fine-scale structure of linking the solar surface and the out- the Sun’s magnetised atmosphere at ermost layers of the solar atmosphere all latitudes. that ultimately influence the charac- teristics of the interplanetary medium. EUI and SPICE EUI will significant- The FM of the Low Voltage Power Supply (LVPS) for the SPICE ly contribute to the following Solar instrument built at PMOD/WRC and as delivered to ADS. EUI has an instrument suite com- Orbiter scientific themes: posed of a Full Sun Imager (FSI) and two High Resolution Imagers (HRI). • What drives the solar wind and Institute HRI and FSI have spatial resolutions where does the coronal mag- of 1 and 9 arc seconds, respectively. netic field originate from? Physikalisch-Meteorologisches The HRI cadence depends on the Observatorium Davos & World target and can reach sub-second • How do solar transients drive he- Radiation Center (PMOD/WRC), values to observe the fast dynamics liospheric variability? Davos of small-scale features. • How do solar eruptions produce In Cooperation with: The FSI cadence will be ~10 min- energetic particle radiation that utes in each passband, but can also fills the heliosphere? SPICE and EUI consortia achieve low cadences of ~10 s. The Rutherford Appleton Lab. (RAL), UK FSI works alternately in two pass- • How does the solar dynamo work Goddard Space Flight Center bands, 174 Å and 304 Å, while the and drive connections between (GSFC), USA two HRI passbands observe in the the Sun and the heliosphere? Inst. Theor. Astrophys. (ITA), Norway hydrogen Lyman a (1216 Å) and the Southwest Res. Inst. (SwRI), USA extreme UV (174 Å). About 3 years after the launch, the Center Spatiale de Liège (CSL), spacecraft will initiate an out-of- Belgium SPICE is a high resolution imaging ecliptic phase where the inclination Royal Obs. Belgium (ROB), Belgium spectrometer operating at extreme will increase in relation to the solar Institut d'Optique (IO), France ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths, 70.4 equatorial plane by up to 33°. During Mullard Space Sci. Lab. (MSSL), UK – 79.0 nm and 97.3 – 104.9 nm. It the mission phase, the spacecraft will Inst. d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), is a facility instrument on the Solar have the closest perihelion at 0.28 France Orbiter mission. AU, while the aphelion will range from Max Planck Inst. Solar Sys. Res. 0.78 to 1.13 AU. (MPS), Germany The EUV wavelength region observed ESA by SPICE is dominated by emission NASA lines from a wide range of ions formed in the solar atmosphere at tempera- Principal Investigators tures from 10000 to 10 Million Kelvin. SPICE will measure plasma densities A. Fludra (RAL), UK (SPICE) F. Auchère (IAS), France (SPICE) P. Rochus (CSL), Belgium (EUI) Time-Line From To Planning 2008 2010 Swiss Principal Investigator Construction 2010 2017 Measurement Phase 2023 2029 W. Schmutz (PMOD/WRC) Data Evaluation 2023 2030 and beyond

46 Solar Physics

Past Achievements and Status orbiter: optical design and detector Co-Investigators performances, Proc. SPIE, 10564, The EUI FM was delivered to Astrium id. 105643V 6 pp. SPICE: Defence and Space on 9 June 2017, E. Buchlin, A. Gabriel, S. Parenti, and the SPICE FM on 1 August 2017. 3. Caldwell, M. E., et al., (2017), The VUV J.-C. Vial (IAS, France) The launch date of Solar Orbiter is instrument SPICE for Solar Orbiter: M. Carlsson (ITA, Norway) foreseen for February 2020. performance ground testing, Proc. W. Curdt, H. Peter, U. Schuhle, L. SPIE, 10397, id. 1039708 13 pp. Teriaca (MPS, Germany) The SPICE LVPS was built at PMOD/ R. Wimmer-Schweingruber WRC. Together with APCO, PMOD/ 4. Fludra, A., et al., (2016), The SPICE (Univ. Kiel, Germany) WRC was responsible for the EUI Spectral Imager on Solar Orbiter: M. Haberreiter (PMOD/WRC, CH) Optical Bench Structure (OBS). In Linking the Sun to the Heliosphere, M. Cladwell, R. Harrison, addition, the SPICE Slit Change COSPAR Abstract id.# D2.2-5-16. A. Giunta, N. Waltham (RAL, UK) Mechanism (SCM) was provid- W. Thompson, J. Davila (GSFC, USA) ed by Almatech, and the SPICE 5. Halain, J.-P., et al., (2016), The D. Hassler, C. de Forest (SWRI, USA) Contamination Door (SCD) by APCO qualification campaign of the EUI Technologies, both managed by instrument of Solar Orbiter, Proc. EUI: PMOD/WRC. SPIE, 9905, id. 99052X 7 pp. D. Berghmans, A. Zhukov, E. Buchlin, S. Parenti (IAS, France) Publications Abbreviations F. Verbeeck (ROB, Belgium) F. Delmotte (IO, Paris-Saclay, France) 1. Guerreiro, N., M. Haberreiter, V. EUI Extreme UV Imager L. Harra, L. van Dreiel-Gesztelyi Hansteen, W. Schmutz, (2017), FSI Full Sun Imager (MSSL), UK Small-scale heating events in the HRI High Resolution Imager U. Schuhle, J. Buchner, L. Teriaca, solar atmosphere. II. Lifetime, total LVPS Low Voltage Power Supply S. Solanki (MPS, Germany) energy, and magnetic properties, OBS Optical Bench Structure W. Finsterle, M. Haberreiter, Astrophys. J., 603, id.A103. SCD SPICE Contamination Door N. Guerreiro (PMOD/WRC, CH) SCM Split Change Mechanism 2. Halain, J.-P., et al., (2017), EUV high SPICE Spectral Imaging of the Method resolution imager on-board solar Coronal Environment Instr. Measurement

Development & Constr. of Instrs.

SPICE and EUI are part of the pay- load on the Solar Orbiter mission.

Industrial Hardware Contract to:

APCO Technologies; Almatech

Website

www.pmodwrc.ch/en/research -development/space/eui-solarorbiter

www.pmodwrc.ch/en/research The EUI flight model just after successfully passing the acceptance vibration test at CSL. From -development/space/spice-solarorbiter left to right: Sébastien Brunel (APCO), Manfred Gyo (PMOD/WRC) and Lionel Jacques (CSL).

47 Solar Physics

6.9 JTSIM-DARA

Joint Total Solar Irradiance Monitoring and Digital Absolute Radiometer on the Chinese FengYun-3E Satellite

Purpose of Research is new to the community. Based on the status of the DARA/PROBA-3 mission, Continuous and precise TSI measure- a Proto Flight Model (PFM) only-ap- ments are indispensable to evaluate proach is followed. The JTSIM-DARA/ the influence of short and long-term FY-3E radiometer design is based on Artist's impression of FY-3E satellite. Image credit: CMA. solar radiative emission variations on the DARA/PROBA-3 and CLARA/ the Earth’s climate. The JTSIM-DARA NorSat-1 instruments. absolute radiometer on the FY-3E mis- sion is one of PMOD/WRC's future The manufacturing and testing of the contributions to the almost seamless PFM took place during 2017 and is now series of spaceborne TSI measure- in the final phase. The flight electronics ments since 1978. were fully designed, manufactured and tested at PMOD/WRC. Due to resourc- The JTSIM-DARA/FY-3E experiment es and complexity of some parts, the is a cooperation with the Chinese construction of the mechanics was split Institute CIOMP Institute. Key aspects of the between PMOD/WRC and an external FY-3 satellite series include collect- manufacturer. At the end of Q2 2018, Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Obs. ing atmospheric data for intermedi- the PFM will be handed over to CIOMP. Davos, and World Radiation Center, ate and long-term weather forecast- A comprehensive test and qualification (PMOD/WRC), Davos ing and global climate research. The process is planned for Q3 2018 before idea is to operate a standard group of the final instrument is integrated on the In Cooperation with: (originally) three electrical substitution satellite. The launch of FY-3E is cur- radiometers of a different make and rently planned for early 2019. Changchun Inst. Optics, Fine model on one satellite, similar to the Mechanics & Physics (CIOMP), China ground-based World Standard Group Publications (WSG) located in Davos, to provide Principal/Swiss Investigator improved long-term stability of TSI 1. Walter, B., et al., (2017), The CLARA/ measurements. The first realisation NorSat-1 solar absolute radiometer: W. Finsterle (PMOD/WRC) of a space standard group will consist instrument design, characterization of a JTSIM-DARA radiometer, and a and calibration, Metrologia, 54, Co-Investigators SIAR radiometer designed by CIOMP. 674– 682.

W. Schmutz (PMOD/WRC) Past Achievements and Status 2. Schmutz, W., et al., (2009), The B. Walter (PMOD/WRC) PREMOS/PICARD instrument cali- The JTSIM-DARA/FY-3E project be- bration, Metrologia, 46, S202–S206, Method gan in late 2015. After a successful doi: 10.1088/00261394/46/4/S13. feasibility study, a PRODEX proposal Measurement for Phase B and C/D was approved. Abbreviations The challenge with the JTSIM-DARA/ Development & Constr. of Instrs. FY-3E project lies in a different kind of DARA Digital Absolute Radiometer industry contract, requiring an adapted SIAR Solar Irrad. Abs. Radiometer The JTSIM-DARA experiment is a approach as the Chinese collaboration TSI Total Solar Irradiance 3-channel digital absolute radiometer to measure TSI. Time-Line From To Planning late 2013 early 2015 Industrial Hardware Contract to: Construction late 2015 (EM) May 2018 (FM) Measurement Phase 2019 open dlab GmbH, Winterthur Data Evaluation 2019 open

48 Solar Physics

49 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

7 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

7.1 APEX – Airborne Prism Experiment

Purpose of Research allow the reprocessing of data ac- quired since 2009 using the latest ESA’s Airborne Imaging Spectrometer processing algorithms. In parallel, APEX (Airborne Prism Experiment) RSL manages the flights for Swiss was developed under the PRODEX partners within Switzerland and oc- (PROgramme de Développement casional special campaigns with part- d'EXpériences scientifiques) pro- ner institutes abroad. General opera- gramme by a Swiss-Belgian con- tions are carried out by our partner sortium and entered its operational organisation, VITO. phase at the end of 2010 (Schaepman APEX in the calibration laboratory. et al., 2015). It collects spectral data in the VNIR – SWIR range from 385 Publications nm to 2500 nm. APEX is designed Institute to collect imaging spectroscopy data 1. Schaepman, M., et al., (2015), at a regional scale, serving as a data Advanced radiometry measure- Remote Sensing Labs (RSL) source to answer questions in Earth ments and Earth science appli- Dept. Geography, Univ. Zurich System Sciences, and to simulate, cations with the airborne prism calibrate and validate optical airborne experiment (APEX), Rem. Sens. In Cooperation with: and satellite-based sensors. Environ., 158, 207–219.

ESA/PRODEX 2. Hueni, A., et al., (2014), Impacts ESA/Earth Observation Envelope Past Achievements and Status of dichroic prism coatings on ra- Programme (EOEP) diometry of the airborne imaging Vlaamse Instelling voor Technologisch RSL is responsible for a number of spectrometer APEX, Appl. Opt., Onderzoek (VITO), Belgium tasks, including: i) the scientific man- 53, 5344–5352. agement of the project, ii) added Principal/Swiss Investigator value within the calibration chain of 3. Hueni, A., et al., (2013), The APEX the APEX instrument, iii) generation (Airborne Prism Experiment - M. E. Schaepman (RSL) of products, and iv) to extend and Imaging Spectrometer) calibration maintain the Processing and Archiving information system, IEEE Trans. Co-Investigators Facility. The latter is a universal, da- Geo. Rem. Sens. 51, 5169–5180. tabase driven system supporting the K. Meuleman (VITO), A. Hueni (RSL) processing and distribution of all APEX raw data acquisitions. Sophisticated Abbreviations Method information technology tools are used for a versatile processing system APEX Airborne Prism Experiment Measurement which is designed to be persistent PRODEX PROg. de Dev. throughout the operational phase of d’EXperiences Scient. Research Based on Existing Instrs. the instrument. SWIR Short Wave Infrared VNIR Visible and Near-Infrared Use of APEX during extensive mea- The processing and archiving facil- surement campaigns in the calibra- ity is being continuously updated to tion home base and during airborne imaging campaigns to support Earth System Sciences. Time-Line From To Planning 1997 2000 Website Construction 2002 2010 Measurement Phase 2011 ongoing www.apex-esa.org Data Evaluation 2011 ongoing

50 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

7.2 HYLIGHT – Integrated Use of Airborne Hyperspec- 724

tral Imaging Data and Airborne Laser Scanning Data 704

Height asl [m] 684 Purpose of Research and geo-sciences so that European Number of occluded pulses Number of laser returns scientists can obtain access to air- 1 8 16 4 12 20

The Joint Research Activity (JRA) borne facilities on "equal terms" 724 HYLIGHT developed methodologies which is most suited to their scientific 704 and tools for the integrated use of objectives.

Height asl [m] 684 airborne hyperspectral imaging (HSI) 669700 669800 669900 data and airborne laser scanning (ALS) Easting [m] data in order to produce improved HSI Past Achievements and Status Occlusion mapping of an ALS system in a temperate mixed forest, and ALS vegetation information. for "leaf-on" state (top) and "leaf-off" state (bottom). The EUFAR2 JRA "HYLIGHT" started The developed methodologies, pro- in 2014 and finished in 2018. The tools Institute totypes and tools were tested by the can be found under http://eufar.net/ involved data processing facilities to cms/development-hylight-tools/ Remote Sensing Labs (RSL) improve the quality of both HSI and Dept. Geography, Univ. Zurich ALS data products for scientific us- ers. RSL contributes by providing ad- Publications In Cooperation with: vanced, ray-tracing based vegetation layers from ALS data to be used in 1. Morsdorf F., et al., (2018), Close- VITO, Belgium radiative transfer modelling. range laser scanning in forests: to- ONERA, France wards physically based semantics DLR, Germany HYLIGHT tools and datasets are freely across scales, Interface Focus, 8, INTA, Spain available via the EUFAR toolbox and 10pp. PML, UK handbook. In addition, RSL provides CVGZ, Czech Republic access to HSI and ALS data gath- 2. Kükenbrink D., et al., (2017), TAU, Israel ered over the calibration supersite, Quantification of hidden canopy TU Wien, Austria Lägeren, established in the ESA STSE volume of airborne laser scanning project '3D Vegetation Laboratory'. data using a voxel traversal algo- Principal Investigator EUFAR (www.eufar.net) was an rithm, Rem. Sens. Environ. 194, Integrating Activity funded by the EC 424–436. I. Reusen (VITO) 7th Framework Programme. 3. Schneider, F. D., et al., (2014), Swiss Principal Investigator The activity was extended as EUFAR2 Simulating imaging spectrometer to run from 2014 – 2018 (24 partners). data: 3d forest modeling based on F. Morsdorf (RSL) It aims to provide and improve the lidar and in situ data, Rem. Sens. access to airborne facilities (i.e. air- Environ. 152, 235–250. Co-Investigators craft, airborne instruments, data processing centers) for researchers A. Hueni (RSL) in environmental and geo-sciences Abbreviations M. Kneubühler (RSL) through Networking Activities (NA), D. Kükenbrink (RSL) Trans-national Access (TA) Activities ALS Airborne Laser Scanning M. E. Schaepman (RSL) and JRAs. The long-term objectives EUFAR2 FP-7 Integrating Activity of EUFAR are to lay the groundwork of JRA Joint Research Activity Method a European distributed infrastructure HSI Hyperspectral Imaging for airborne research in environmental Simulation

Research Based on Existing Instrs. Time-Line From To Measurement Phase 2014 2018 Airborne hyperspectral sensors Data Evaluation 2014 2018 and laser scanners.

51 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

7.3 SPECCHIO – Spectral Information System

Purpose of Research 2018 within the framework of Digital Earth Australia. Scientific efforts to observe the state of natural systems over time, allowing To date, SPECCHIO is the most ad- the prediction of future states, have vanced spectral information system led to a burgeoning interest in the or- within the domain of Earth observing ganised storage of spectral field data remote sensing. and associated metadata. This is seen as being key to the successful and SPECCHIO is also open source and efficient modelling of such systems. has been made available as a vir- tual machine image in 2015 which Institute A centralised system for such data, allows anyone to run the full system established for the remote sensing on their personal laptop, thus sup- Remote Sensing Labs (RSL) community, aims to standardise porting its full functionality under field Dept. Geography, Univ. Zurich storage parameters and metadata, conditions. thus fostering best practice proto- In Cooperation with: cols and collaborative research. The For further information please refer to development of a spectral informa- www.specchio.ch and http://optimise. Geoscience Australia (GA) tion system will not only ensure the dcs.aber.ac.uk/working-groups/ Australian Nat. Data Service (ANDS) long-term storage of data but support wg1-spectral-information-system/ CSIRO (Australia) scientists in data analysis activities, OPTIMSE COST Action essentially leading to improved re- Specnet Spectral Network peatability of results, superior repro- Publications EcoSIS cessing capabilities, and promotion of best practice. 1. Hueni, A., L. Chisholm, L. Suarez, C. Principal/Swiss Investigator Ong, and M. Wyatt, (2012), Spectral information system development for A. Hueni (RSL) Past Achievements and Status Australia, in Geospatial Sci. Res. Symp. Melbourne, Australia. Co-Investigators SPECCHIO remains under active de- velopment. Major contributions have 2. Hueni, A., T. Malthus, M. Kneu­ L. Chisholm (UoW, Australia) been made to the system in the past buehler, and M. Schaepman, (2011), M. E. Schaepman (RSL) via funding provided by the Australian Data exchange between distributed M. Thankappan (GA) National Data Service (ANDS), the spectral databases, Computers & Swiss Commission on Remote Geosci., 37, 861–873. Method Sensing and the EuroSpec COST Action ES0903. SPECCHIO also 3. Hueni, A., J. Nieke, J. Schopfer, M. Measurement serves as the Spectral Information Kneubühler, and K. Itten, (2009), System component, fostered and The spectral database SPECCHIO Development of Software developed within the working group for improved long term usability and 1 of OPTIMSE ES1309 COST Action. data sharing, Computers & Geosci., Development of a Spectral Inform- 35, 557–565. ation System for the storage of spec- SPECCHIO is installed in some 40 tral field and laboratory data and as- research institutions world-wide and sociated metadata. is also used in teaching activities at the Remote Sensing Laboratories, Website University of Zurich. The Australian instance of SPECCHIO will be hosted www.specchio.ch by Geoscience Australia starting in

52 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

7.4 FLEX – FLuorescence EXplorer Mission

Purpose of Research At the beginning of 2016, the FLEX Mission Advisory Group (MAG) was The FLuorescence EXplorer satellite established. Together with eight other mission will map Sun-Induced chlo- experts from European countries as rophyll Fluorescence (SIF) emitted well as Canada, Alexander Damm by vegetation on a global scale. SIF (Univ. Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland) is the most direct measurement of became a member of the MAG ad- photosynthesis at scale. visory group. The launch of FLEX is foreseen for 2022. The Key objectives of FLEX are to measure several properties of emitted SIF signals, including: Publications Mission concept of ESA’s 8th Earth Explorer Mission, FLEX. • SIF emitted around the two oxy- 1. Drusch, M., et al., (2017), The Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab. gen absorption features O2-A FLuorescence EXplorer Mission and O2-B, Concept-ESA's Earth Explorer 8, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Rem. Sens. • SIF emissions at the two emis- 55, 1273–1284. sion peaks at 685 and 740 nm, 2. ESA, (2015), Report for Mission • Total fluorescence integrated Selection: FLEX. ESA SP-1330/2 over the full emission spectrum, (2 volume series), ESA, Noordwijk, Institute and The Netherlands. Remote Sensing Labs (RSL) • The individual contributions from 3. Rascher, U., et al., (2015), Sun- Dept. Geography, Univ. Zurich photosystem I and II. induced fluorescence – a new probe of photosynthesis: First In Cooperation with: The FLEX mission will have significant maps from the imaging spec- implications for ecosystem research trometer HyPlant, Global Change ESA, Netherlands and food security in the context of Biology, 21, 4673–4684. Univ. Valencia, Spain environmental change. SIF is a com- Forschungszent. Jülich, Germany plementary measurement of vegeta- CNR, Inst. Biometeorology, Italy tion status and health, and offers new Abbreviations Lab. Met. Dyn., France pathways to assess, e.g., ecosystem P&M Technologies, Canada functioning, gas and energy exchang- FLEX FLuorescence EXplorer Univ. Twente, Netherlands es of terrestrial ecosystems as well Mission Univ. Milano Bicocca, Italy as biodiversity. FLORIS Fluorescence imaging Spectrometer Principal Investigator MAG Mission Advisory Group Past Achievements and Status SIF Sun-Induced chlorophyll J. Moreno Fluorescence In November 2015, FLEX was select- Method ed for implementation as an outcome of ESA's user consultation meeting in Measurement Krakow, Poland. After several prepa- ratory studies in the frame of Phase 0 Development of Software of ESA's Earth Explorer 7 and Phase A/B1 of ESA's Earth Explorer 8 activi- Development of tandem satellite ties, FLEX has now entered Phase B2. FLEX/Sentinel-3, incl. FLORIS.

53 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

7.5 Wet Snow Monitoring with Spaceborne SAR

Purpose of Research Each sensor is typically characterised by the single orbital repeat period The University of Zurich Remote chosen at launch and the set of beam Sensing Laboratories (UZH-RSL) modes on offer. Building algorithms works with ESA and other partners that are open to multiple sensors to develop a novel spaceborne SAR therefore implies by necessity, open- image product whereby many of the ness to differing tracks, modes, and effects of topography on radar image nominal incident angles. brightness are modelled and correct- ed before estimating the backscatter Not being open to multiple tracks, The image shows composite backscatter images from the Sentinel-1A/B coefficient at each image coordinate. triggers (in the absence of terrain- radar satellites of the European Alps - the composite backscatter values flattening) incompatibility with mean- were calculated using data from 6-day periods. Red is from early Jan. The new type of product offers sev- ingful short-term comparisons or 2017, green from late April, and blue from late June. Dry snow shows eral benefits. Comparisons of back- quick revisits when monitoring large up brightly, while melting snow returns low backscatter, hence the scatter from image acquisitions made regions. Only terrain-flattened back- highest mountains appear yellow (red+green), as they only began from differing orbital tracks become scatter, a product we call terrain- melting in June. possible. Flattening the terrain-in- flattened gamma nought, offers the duced effects on radar brightness possibility of combining data from enables significantly more frequent multiple SAR sensors acquired over revisits to a specific point on the rolling terrain. Earth, in particular, given the avail- ability of a wide swath mode such as The ESA Sentinel-1 radar satellites, C-band Sentinel-1, Radarsat-2 SCN the first of which was launched in April & SCW, L-band ALOS PALSAR WB 2014, are acquiring regular images (wide beam), or the wide ScanSAR of Europe at a resolution of 20 m. modes from the X-band sensors RSL has been generating composite Institute CosmoSkymed, TSX, TDX, and PAZ. backscatter images of the European Alps as well as other regions to Remote Sensing Labs (RSL), Use of the new products enables a test a new method for snow-melt Dept. Geography, Univ. Zurich great improvement in temporal res- monitoring. olution, a parameter of critical im- In Cooperation with: portance in land-cover monitoring Given the complex topography of to lower the probability of missing the Alps in Switzerland, construc- European Space Agency (ESA) events of brief duration. Data-rich tion of backscatter time-series re- time-series can be built up for a cho- quires rigorous radiometric calibration Canadian Space Agency (CSA) sen area much more quickly from that accounts for track-dependent a single sensor given a wider vari- terrain-induced effects. If a standard WSL Institute for Snow and ety of tracks (even combinations of terrain-flattened backscatter product Avalanche Research (SLF) ascending and descending passes), could be offered by ESA, this would and especially to integrate backscat- simplify interpretation of SAR imagery Principal/Swiss Investigator ter measurements from a diversity of not only in Switzerland, but through- sensors. out the world. D. Small (RSL)

Co-Investigators Time-Line From To Planning ongoing C. Rohner (RSL) Construction - - Measurement Phase 2014 ongoing A. Schubert (RSL) Data Evaluation 2015 ongoing

54 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

Past Achievements and Status Publications Method

A terrain-normalisation method for 1. Rüetschi M., M. Schaepman, D. Measurement SAR imagery covering steep ter- Small D., (2018), Using multitempo- rain has been developed and tested ral Sentinel-1 C-band backscatter Research Based on Existing Instrs. using data from major spaceborne to monitor phenology and classify SAR sensors. Further tests are un- deciduous and coniferous forests Sentinel-1, Radarsat-2 der way using data from Sentinel-1, in Northern Switzerland, Remote TerraSAR-X, Cosmo-Skymed Radarsat-2, and TerraSAR-X. In the Sensing, 10(55), 30p. case of wide-swath C-band data cov- Website ering Switzerland, seasonal trends 2. Schubert A., N. Miranda, D. are established (see image on left). Geudtner, D. Small, (2017), www.geo.uzh.ch/en/research- Springtime melting in the Swiss Alps Sentinel-1A/B combined product groups/David-Small.html is clearly visible: terrain-flattened geolocation Accuracy, Remote backscatter makes monitoring of the Sensing, 9(607), 16p. snow melt theoretically possible with multiple observations per week using 3. Small D., (2011), IEEE Trans. Sentinel-1 data. Geosci. Rem. Sens., Aug. 2011, 49(8), pp. 3081–3093. The companion satellite to Sentinel- 1A, Sentinel-1B, was launched in April 2016. We were able to show that C-band sensors can monitor forest phenology, given accurate geometric and radiometric calibra- tion. Deciduous and coniferous forest can be classified with terrain-flattened C-band backscatter.

Wet snow measurements have been evaluated qualitatively and are being compared with state-of-the-art op- erational methodologies. Harmonised data acquisition strategies for the dif- ferent spaceborne SAR sensors are being coordinated through the World Meteorological Organisation Polar Space Task Group (WMO-PSTG).

Abbreviations

PALSAR Phased Array L – band Synthetic Aperture Radar SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar The image shows melting in the Canadian high arctic, with coverage of Ellesmere Island and northwestern Greenland. SCN RADARSAT ScanSAR Three radar 2-day composites from Sentinel-1A and 1B are superimposed as an RGB overlay. The red channel Narrow comes from 11 – 12 May 2017, green from 8 – 9 August 2017, and blue from 15 – 16 July 2017. The ice caps were SCW RADARSAT ScanSAR Wide initially dry and cold in May, but began to progressively melt in early to mid–July, causing lower backscatter in their TSX/TDX/PAZ TerraSAR–X satell. (X–band) margins, and therefore appearing in red tones.

55 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

7.6 Moving Target Tracking in SAR Images

Purpose of Research yielded a detection rate of 60.4% and a false alarm rate of 21.4%. Ground Moving Target Indication Vice-versa, exo-clutter processing (GMTI) in synthetic aperture radar reached a detection rate of 97.8%, (SAR) data addresses the task of whereas the false alarm rate was extracting information about moving quantified at 12.3%. objects. SAR-GMTI allows moving objects to be indicated while simul- To properly interprete such results, taneously imaging the area of interest several considerations must be kept and works independently of weather in mind. The signatures of moving conditions and daytime. targets are frequently displaced on Exo-clutter processing: Upper panel: geocoded focussed SAR im- bright stationary targets, thus mak- age with moving target indications. Lower panel: optical ref. image. However, since SAR was originally ing their detection a much more developed for use in static scenes, challenging task. ATI, for instance, the problem of extracting information is substantially affected by such sce- Institute from moving objects is a challeng- narios, whereas exo-clutter process- ing task which has evolved over the ing is not. Remote Sensing Labs (RSL), last decade and demands state-of- Dept. Geography, Univ. Zurich the-art processing techniques, such To tackle this problem, two-dimen- as Along-Track Interferometry (ATI), sional filtering techniques (i.e., STAP) In Cooperation with: displaced-phase-center antenna, will be implemented and adapted for Space-Time Adaptive Processing FMCW SAR systems. This is now armasuisse (CH); (STAP), and exo-clutter process- possible as the new 2017 data were Fraunhofer Inst. High Freq. Physics ing techniques or temporal track- collected with an innovative multi- and Radar Tech. (FHR), Germany; ing algorithms. In this project, these channel sensor. German Aerospace Center methods are refined and adapted to (DLR), Germany innovative SAR technologies such as Publications Frequency-Modulated Continuous- Principal/Swiss Investigator Wave (FMCW) SAR systems which 1. Henke, D., et al., (2018), Moving have become increasingly popular in target tracking in SAR data using D. Henke (RSL) the last years due to their particular combined exo-and endo-clutter features. processing, IEEE Trans. on Geosci. Co-Investigators Rem. Sens., 56, 251-263. Past Achievements and Status E. Casalini (RSL), E. Meier (RSL) 2. Casalini, E., D. Henke, and E. Meier, M. E. Schaepman (RSL) In 2016 and 2017, various data-sets (2016), GMTI in circular SAR data were recorded with the Fraunhofer using STAP, In IEEE Sensor Signal Method FHR MIRANDA35 sensor which is an Processing for Defence (SSPD). FMCW SAR system in the Ka-band. Measurement A test site for the 2016 SAR-GMTI Abbreviations campaign was chosen with traffic Research Based on Existing Instrs. flows on a highway outside the city ATI Along-Track Interferometry of Koblenz, Germany. Different SAR- FMCW Frequency-Modulated Airborne SAR sensors. GMTI methods were tested and com- Continuous-Wave pared to evaluate the performance GMTI Ground Moving Target Website of each of the specific techniques of Indication FMCW SAR systems. SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar www.geo.uzh.ch/en/units/rsl/ STAP Space-Time Adaptive Research/SAR_Lab.html More specifically, ATI processing Processing

56 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

7.7 Calibration Targets for MetOp-SG Instruments MWS and ICI

Purpose of Research provide a cryogenic and an accu- rately controlled variable brightness The second generation of the temperature under thermal-vacuum Meteorological Operational Satellite conditions. Since they have to meet (MetOp-SG) programme is a series more challenging performance re- of polar orbiting satellites to pro- quirements than the flight targets, a vide atmospheric remote sensing wedged cavity design has been se- observations for numerical weather lected and optimised using physical prediction. Two of the instruments optics simulations. to be flown on MetOp-SG are the CAD model of the ICI on-ground calibration targets. Microwave Sounder (MWS) and Ice Past Achievements and Status Cloud Imager (ICI). The state-of-the- art MWS instrument includes radiom- The Critical Design Reviews (CDR) of Institute eters between 23 GHz and 230 GHz the on-board and on-ground calibra- for measuring atmospheric tempera- tion targets were successfully passed Inst. Appl. Phys., Univ. Bern (UNIBE) ture and humidity profiles. The novel in January and April 2018, respec- ICI instrument includes radiometers tively. Delivery of the first flight models In Cooperation with: between 175 GHz and 668 GHz for and of the ground support equipment imaging and profiling of ice clouds. is scheduled by the end of 2018. TK Instruments, UK Airbus Space and Defence, UK A key component of MWS and ICI Publications Airbus Space and Defence, Spain are their blackbody targets which are IABG, Germany required for the accurate radiometric 1. Schröder, A., et al., (2017), Electro- ESA calibration of the instruments. The Inst. magnetic design of calibration Applied Physics (IAP) is responsible targets for MetOp-SG microwave Swiss Principal Investigator for the electromagnetic design and instruments, IEEE Trans. THz Sci. the experimental verification of the on- Technol., 7, 677–685. A. Murk (UNIBE) board calibration targets of MWS and ICI. These targets have a pyramidal 2. Schröder, A., et al., (2017), Brightness Co-Investigators shape with a tapered profile and multi- temperature computation of micro- layer absorber coating which were op- wave calibration targets, IEEE Trans. A. Schröder, M. Kotiranta timised to provide the best trade-off Geo. Rem. Sens., 55, 7104–7112. between a high temperature uniformity Method and a low microwave reflectivity. 3. Kotiranta, M., et al., (2017), 5th Work. Adv. RF Sens. & Rem. Sensing Measurement The IAP is also working on the devel- Instrs., ESTEC, Noordwijk, NL. opment of the on-ground calibration Developments targets for the ICI instrument which Abbreviations will be used prior to launch for verifi- Development of on-board and on- cation of the radiometric performance ICI Ice Cloud Imager ground calibration equipment. of ICI at instrument and satellite level. MetOp Met. Operational Satellite The two on-ground targets have to MWS Microwave Sounder Industrial Hardware Contract to:

TK Instrs., UK Time-Line From To IABG, Germany Planning 2013 2015 Construction 2016 2018 Website Measurement Phase 2018 2019 Data Evaluation 2018 2019 www.iapmw.unibe.ch

57 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

7.8 EGSIEM – European Gravity Service for Improved Emergency Management

Purpose of Research Information (ZKI, operated by the German Aerospace Center). EGSIEM Earth observation satellites yield a has unified the combined knowledge wealth of data for scientific, opera- of the entire European GRACE com- tional and commercial exploitation. munity and has established a total of However, the redistribution of en- three prototype services: vironmental mass is not yet part of the standard Earth observation data 1) A scientific combination service. products to date. These observa- tions, derived between 2002 and 2) A near real-time service. 2017 from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), and 3) A hydrological/early warning from 2018 onwards by GRACE-FO service. (Follow-on), deliver fundamental in- sights into the global water cycle.

Changes in continental water storage Past Achievements and Status control the regional water budget and can, in extreme cases, result in floods Starting in January 2015, EGSIEM and droughts that often claim a high received funding from the European toll on infrastructure, economy and Commission (EC) for three years until Institute human lives. The aim of the European the end of 2017. EGSIEM unified the Gravity Service for Improved knowledge of the entire European Astronomical Institute, Emergency Management (EGSIEM) GRACE community to pave the way Univ. Bern (AIUB) was to provide consolidated mass for a long awaited standardisation of redistribution products and to dem- gravity-derived products. Combining In Cooperation with: onstrate that gravity products open the results obtained from different the door for innovative approaches analysis centers of the EGSIEM con- EGSIEM Consortium to flood and drought monitoring and sortium, each of which performing forecast. independent analysis methods but Swiss Principal Investigator employing consistent processing The timeliness and reliability of in- standards, has significantly increased A. Jäggi (AIUB) formation is the primary concern for the quality, robustness and reliabil- any early-warning system. EGSIEM ity of these data. The successful Co-Investigators has increased the temporal resolution work of the scientific combination from one month, typical for GRACE service will be continued after the U. Meyer products, to one day and provided EC-funded prototype phase as the gravity field information within 5 days International Combination Service for Y. Jean (near real-time). Time-variable Gravity Field Solutions (COST-G) under the umbrella of the Andreja Sušnik Early warning indicators derived from International Association of Geodesy these products were demonstrated (IAG). Specifically, COST-G will be the Method to have the potential to improve Product Center for time-variable grav- the timely awareness of potentially ity fields of IAG's International Gravity Measurement evolving hydrological extremes and Field Service (IGFS). The near real- may help in the scheduling of high- time and hydrological services will be Website resolution follow-up observations continued on a best effort basis as as performed at centers such as soon as GRACE-FO data becomes http://egsiem.eu/ the Center for Satellite Based Crisis available.

58 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

Publications Abbreviations

1. Jäggi, A., M. Weigelt, F. Flechtner, A. Kvas, B. Klinger, J.-M. Lemoine, EGSIEM European Gravity Service Güntner, T. Mayer-Gürr, S. Martinis, R. Biancale, H. Zwenzner, T. for Improved Emergency S. Bruinsma, J. Flury, S. Bourgogne, Bandikova, A. Shabanloui, (2018), Management H. Steffen, U. Meyer, Y. Jean, A. European Gravity Service for GRACE Gravity Recovery And Sušnik, A. Grahsl, D. Arnold, K. Improved Emergency Management Climate Experiment Cann-Guthauser, R. Dach, Z. Li, (EGSIEM) - from concept to imple- GRACE-FO GRACE Follow-On Q. Chen, T. van Dam, C. Gruber, mentation. J. Geodesy, submitted L. Poropat, B. Gouweleeuw, A. in March 2018.

-30 -24 -18 -12 -6 0 6 12 18 24 30 Water storage from EGSIEM solution in EWH [cm]

Post-processed grids of equivalent water heights for hydrological applications for an example month (January 2008).

59 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

7.9 Copernicus Precise Orbit Determination Service

Purpose of Research Sentinel-2B were launched on 22 June 2015 and on 7 March 2017, Copernicus is the European respectively. No stringent accuracy Programme for the establishment requirement has to be fulfilled for the of a European capacity for Earth Sentinel-2 orbit solutions. Observation. Based on satellite and in-situ observations, the Copernicus Sentinel-3 provides high-accuracy services deliver near-real-time data on optical, radar and altimetry data for a global level to improve the under- marine and land services. The twin standing of our planet and to sustain- satellites, Sentinel-3A and Sentinel- ably manage our environment. 3B were launched on 16 February 2016 and on 25 April 2018, respec- The core of the Copernicus pro- tively. The official, non-time-critical gramme consists of Earth observa- Sentinel-3 orbit solutions need to fulfill tion satellites. The so-called Sentinel an accuracy requirement of 2 cm in satellites are developed for the specific the radial component. needs of the Copernicus programme. Sentinel-1 provides all-weather, day As part of ESA's Copernicus Precise and night radar imagery for land and Orbit Determination (CPOD) Service, ocean services. The twin satellites the CPOD Quality Working Group Institute Sentinel-1A and Sentinel-1B were (QWG) regularly delivers independent launched on 3 April 2014 and on 25 orbit solutions for Sentinel 1A/B, 2A/B Astronomical Institute, April 2016, respectively. The official, and 3A/B, generated with different Univ. Bern (AIUB) non-time-critical Sentinel-1 orbit solu- state-of-the-art software packages tions are expected to fulfill an accuracy and based on different reduced-dy- In Cooperation with: requirement of 5 cm 3D RMS. namic orbit determination techniques. These alternative orbit solutions are ESA's CPOD Quality Working Sentinel-2 provides high-resolution used to check the quality and to im- Group optical imagery for land services. prove the official, non-time-critical The twin satellites Sentinel-2A and orbit solutions of the CPOD Service. Principal Investigator

J. Fernandez

Swiss Principal Investigator

A. Jäggi (AIUB)

Co-Investigator

D. Arnold

Method

Measurement

Website

www.copernicus.eu Artist’s impression of the Sentinel-1A satellite. Image credit: ESA.

60 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

Past Achievements and Status

Starting with Sentinel-1A, the rigorous orbit comparisons revealed a system- atic radial offset between various orbit solutions of about 3 cm. Due to the different parameterisation and orbit models used for the orbit determina- tion by the different QWG members, this systematic orbit offset was identi- fied as erroneous information in the satellite geometry despite the lack of any independent orbit validation techniques onboard Sentinel-1A.

Based on the corrected geometry, long-term comparisons have been performed, and the consistency between the orbit solutions was as- sessed to be well within the required orbital accuracy of 5 cm 3D RMS.

Similar comparisons are currently be- Artist’s impression of the Sentinel-3A satellite. Image credit: ESA. ing performed for all other Sentinel satellites. For Sentinel-3, it is possible to not only use the Global Positioning Publications System (GPS) but also other satellite tracking techniques such as Doppler 1. Peter, H., et al., (2017), Sentinel- Orbitography and Radiopositioning 1A – First precise orbit determi- Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) and nation results, Adv. Space Res., Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) to com- 60(5), 879–892, doi: 10.1016/j. pute and validate the precise orbit asr.2017.05.034. solutions of the CPOD Service. 2. Montenbruck, O., S. Hackel, A. Adopting a refined strategy for genera- Jäggi, (2017), Precise orbit deter- tion of the GPS carrier phase data of mination of the Sentinel-3A altim- the Sentinel-3 GPS receiver, has re- etry satellite using ambiguity-fixed cently allowed half-cycle ambiguities in GPS carrier phase observations. GPS data to be handled that have so J. Geodesy, doi: 10.1007/s00190- far inhibited ambiguity-fixed orbit solu- 017-1090-2, in press. tions. Based on single-receiver ambi- guity resolution techniques, improved Abbreviations orbit precision from about 9 to 5 mm standard deviation was demonstrated CPOD Service Copernicus Precise Orbit due to the availability of independent Determination Service SLR data. With respect to altimetry, CPOD QWG CPOD Quality Working Grp. the improved orbit precision will be DORIS Doppler Orbitogr. & Radio- beneficial for the global consistency positioning Int. by Satellite of sea surface height data. SLR Satellite Laser Ranging

61 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

7.10 EMRP MetEOC-3

Purpose of Research Past Achievements and Status

The Earth’s climate is changing. The The capacity to work on uncertainty scale of impact on future society and calibration at a level applicable remains uncertain and with it, gov- to National Measurement Institutes ernment’s ability to confidently take (NMIs) has been established in past Institute necessary mitigation/adaptation in a projects (MetEOC-1 and MetEOC-2). timely manner. A key limitation is the Remote Sensing Labs. (RSL), performance of forecasting models Consequently, the APEX Raw to Univ Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland and the quality of the data that drive Radiance Processor has been up- them. Remote sensing from space dated to produce uncertainty cubes In Cooperation with: is the main method of obtaining the for imaging cubes acquired in flight. global data needed. These uncertainty cubes contain the National Physical Lab. (NPL), UK radiometric uncertainties for all pixels The harshness of launch and environ- of the image cubes and can be used Principal Investigator ment of space severely limits accu- to inform probabilistic models to allow racy and traceability. MetEOC-3 will optimised estimates. N. Fox (NPL) improve pre-and post-launch calibra- tion/validation (Cal/Val) of observa- Swiss Principal Investigator tions (land, ocean and atmosphere) Publications to enable trustworthy information on A. Hueni (RSL) the state-of-the-planet to be delivered 1. Hueni, A., D. Schlaepfer, M. Jehle, to policymakers. M. E. Schaepman, (2014), Impacts Co-Investigator of dichroic prism coatings on ra- Key aspects to validate airborne and diometry of the Airborne Imaging M. E. Schaepman (RSL) satellite-based products with associ- Spectrometer APEX, Appl. Opt., ated uncertainty budgets include: 53, 5344–5352. Method • Improvement of spectro-radio- 2. Hueni, A., A. Damm, M. Measurement metric calibration methods to Kneubuehler, D. Schläpfer, M. improve both calibration speed Schaepman, (2017), Field and Research Based on Existing Instrs. and accuracy. airborne spectroscopy cross-val- idation - some considerations, IEEE Improvement of the APEX sensor • Paving the pathway to trace- J. Selected Topics in Appl. Earth model and test of new spectral cali- able spectral ground control Obs. Remote Sens, 10, 1117–1135. bration methods. Establishment of point data through supporting uncertainty budget support within uncertainty budgets within spec- spectral databases (SPECCHIO tral information systems. system). Calibration support for new CWIS-II imaging spectrometer (built in Based on the APEX Calibration Abbreviations collaboration with NASA/JPL). Information System, a similar sys- tem will be established to enable the APEX Airborne Prism Experiment Industrial Hardware Contract to: operational calibration of the new CWIS Compact Wide-Swathe CWIS-II imaging spectrometer. All Imaging Spectrometer NASA/JPL these efforts are geared to provid- EMRP European Metrology ing traceable measurements with Research Programme Website uncertainty budgets, and support- MetEOC Metrology for Earth ing high-precision monitoring of the Observation and Climate www.meteoc.org Earth System. SPECCHIO Spectral Information System

62 Earth Observation, Remote Sensing

7.11 ARES – Airborne Research Facility for the Earth System

Purpose of Research Past Achievements and Status

ARES is an airborne research facility The University of Zurich group will to predominantly address research keep operating the APEX airborne questions within the Earth System imaging spectrometer and also coor- Sciences. dinate European flight missions with NASA/JPL airborne sensor systems. The main components of ARES are: These efforts are designed to main- • An aircraft, leased or contracted tain airborne operational capabilities, ARES during air operations. during flight periods. keep the scientific momentum of air- borne spectroscopy, and prepare the • An instrument package con- user community for the type of data sisting of an imaging spectrom- to be expected from the upcoming Institute eter (IS), a multispectral LiDAR, ARES sensor suite. and a high-performance photo- Remote Sensing Labs. (RSL), grammetric camera (hpPC). Univ Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

• A flight management, instru- Abbreviations In Cooperation with: ment control and navigational system giving attitude and APEX Airborne Prism Experiment ETHZ; Inst. Math., UZH; IAC, ETHZ; positional information allowing ARES Airborne Research Facility IAS, ETHZ; IGP, ETHZ; EMPA; an automated georectification for the Earth System EAWAG; EPFL ENAC; UniFr; UniL of data products. hpPC high-performance Photo- grammetric Camera Principal Investigator The goal of this 4-year project is to IS Imaging Spectrometer establish the ARES infrastructure, LiDAR Light Detection and M. E. Schaepman including purchase/development of Ranging hardware and software, integration Co-Investigators of the components, airworthiness certifications, acceptance tests and A. Hueni (RSL), R. Furrer (UZH) establishment of payload specific S. Seneviratne (IAC, ETHZ) processing and archiving facilities. N. Buchmann (IAS, ETHZ) K. Schindler (IGP, ETHZ) B. Buchmann (EMPA) A. Wüest (EAWAG), M. Hoelzle (UniFr) R. Veron (EPFL), G. Mariethoz (UniL)

Method

Measurement

Development & Constr. of Instrs.

Time-Line From To ARES is an airborne research facility. Planning 2017 2018 Construction 2018 2020 Industrial Hardware Contract to: Measurement Phase 2020 open Data Evaluation 2020 open NASA/JPL (develop. IS with UZH)

63 Comets, Planets

8 Comets, Planets

8.1 ROSINA – Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis

Purpose of Research al., 2017; Rubin et al., 2017) which in turn indicates that the early solar In September 2016, the European system was rather inhomogeneous in Space Agency’s Rosetta mission the region where the comet formed. came to its conclusion. The final ROSINA detected many species plunge of the spacecraft onto comet for the first time in comets, includ- 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (here- ing molecular oxygen (Bieler et al., after 67P) marked the end of a two- 2015), nitrogen (Rubin et al., 2015), The ROSINA Zoo of volatile species detected by Rosetta/ year thorough investigation of the and halogens (Dhooghe et al., 2017). ROSINA in coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet. As part of the payload, the (Image Credit: ESA, more details: http://blogs.esa.int/ Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion In addition, the comet is very rich in rosetta/2016/09/29/the-cometary-zoo/). and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) moni- organics (Altwegg et al., 2017b) and tored the volatile species in the coma contains many elements and mol- of the comet. ROSINA contained two ecules relevant to life as we know it Institute complementing mass spectrometers (Altwegg et al., 2016; Fayolle et al., and a pressure sensor (Balsiger et 2017) – material that could have been Institute of Physics, al., 2007). brought to Earth through impacts in Univ. Bern (UNIBE) the early days of the solar system ROSINA was dedicated to the anal- (Marty et al., 2016). In Cooperation with:: ysis of cometary material, and to obtain insight into the physical and ESA; MPS; chemical conditions at the time of Past Achievements and Status TUB; BIRA; formation in our early solar system. CESR; IPSL; The active part of the mission is now LMM; UMich., (USA); Crucial measurements included the finished. ROSINA collected numerous SwRI, USA isotopes of hydrogen in water which mass spectra and current work in- indicated that comets such as 67P cludes data archiving, i.e. the assimila- Principal Investigator are most likely not the origin of the tion of these data into ESA’s Planetary majority of water on Earth (Altwegg et Science Archive and NASA’s Planetary K. Altwegg (UNIBE) al., 2015; 2017a). The isotopes of the Data System. In the meantime, sci- noble gas xenon, on the other hand, ence investigations are ongoing. Co-Investigators indicated that the terrestrial atmo- sphere could indeed be partially of H. Balsiger, E. Kopp cometary origin (Marty et al., 2017). M. Rubin, P. Wurz Abbreviations In other species, comet 67P also Method showed remarkable differences in ROSINA Rosetta Orbiter its isotopic composition compared Spectrometer for Ion and Measurement to solar abundances (Calmonte et Neutral Analysis

Industrial Hardware Contract to:

Contraves (Ruag) Space APCO Time-Line From To Montena etc. Planning 1995 1996 Construction 1996 2002 Website Measurement Phase launch 2004, asteroid flyby’s 2008 & 2010 Comet phase 2014 2016 www.space.unibe.ch/ Data Evaluation 2014 ongoing

64 Comets, Planets

Publications 9. Fayolle, E., et al., (2017), Protostellar contributed to Earth’s atmosphere, and cometary detections of or- Science, 356, 1069. 1. Altwegg, K., et al., (2015), Cometary ganohalogens, Nature Astron., 1, science. 67P/Churyumov- 703–708. 12. Rubin, M., et al., (2015), Molecular Gerasimenko, a Jupiter family com- nitrogen in comet 67P/Churyumov- et with a high D/H ratio, Science, 10. Marty, B., et al., (2016), Origins of Gerasimenko indicates a low for- 3 47, 12619 52. volatile elements (H, C, N, noble mation temperature, Science, 348, gases) on Earth and Mars in light 232–235. 2. Altwegg, K., et al., (2016), Prebiotic of recent results from the ROSETTA chemicals-amino acid and phos- cometary mission, Earth Planet. Sci. 13. Rubin, M., et al., (2017), Evidence phorus-in the coma of comet 67P/ Lett. 441, 91–102. for depletion of heavy silicon iso- Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Sci Adv., topes at comet 67P/Churyumov- 2, e1600285. 11. Marty, B., et al., (2017), Xenon Gerasimenko, Astron. Astrophys., isotopes in 67P/Churyumov- 601, A123.

3. Altwegg, K., et al., (2017a), D2O Gerasimenko show that comets and HDS in the coma of 67P/ Churyumov–Gerasimenko, Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. A, Math., Phys. Eng. Sci., 375.

4. Altwegg, K., et al., (2017b), Organics in comet 67P – a first compara- tive analysis of mass spectra from ROSINA–DFMS, COSAC and Ptolemy, Monthly Notices Royal Astronom. Soc., 469, S130–S141.

5. Balsiger, H., et al., (2007), Rosina - Rosetta orbiter spectrometer for ion and neutral analysis, Space Sci. Rev. 128, 745–801.

6. Bieler, A., et al., (2015), Abundant mo- lecular oxygen in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Nature, 526, 678–681.

7. Calmonte, U., et al., (2017), Sulphur isotope mass-independent frac- tionation observed in Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Geras. by Rosetta/ ROSINA, Monthly Notices Royal Astronom. Soc., 469, S787–S803.

8. Dhooghe, F., et al., (2017), Halogens as tracers of protosolar nebula ma- Vital statistics of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (Image Credit: ESA, more details: http://sci.esa.int/ terial in comet 67P/Churyumov- rosetta/55304-comet-67p-vital-statistics/). Gerasimenko, Monthly Notices Royal Astronom. Soc., 472, 1336–1345.

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8.2 Seismometer Instrument for the NASA InSight Mission

Purpose of Research clues about the evolution of not just Mars, but also all the terrestrial plan- The SEIS instrument (Seismic ets. The mission is under the lead of Experiment for Interior Structure) on- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory board the NASA Mars mission InSight (JPL) in Pasadena, USA, and the SEIS (Interior exploration using Seismology, instrument is under the lead of CNES Geodesy, and Heat Transfer) will ad- (Center National d'Etudes Spatiales) in vance the planetary seismometry Toulouse, France. beyond the Viking experiments with a much higher sensitivity over a broader The SEIS instrument consists of the frequency band. SEIS will measure sensor assembly, the wind shield, a InSight Mars lander with open solar arrays during assembly seismic waves travelling through the tether, and the acquisition and control and integration at Lockheed Martin. interior structure and composition of electronics. The sensor assembly com- the planet Mars. The science objectives prises of two 3-axial sensor assemblies are defined as follows: mounted on a levelling mechanism: a 3-axis very broad band (VBB) oblique • Understand the formation and evolu- seismometer, and an independent tion of the terrestrial planets through 3-axis short period (SP) seismometer. investigation of the interior structure Institute and processes of Mars. The Institute of Geophysics, ETH Zurich is in charge of the Electronics Inst. Geophysics, • Determine the size, composition, and Box which consists of all electronics ETH Zurich (ETHZ) physical state (liquid/solid) of the core. including the modules of the partners. It provides: In Cooperation with:: • Determine the thickness and struc- ture of the crust. • The acquisition electronics which Inst. Physique du Globe, continuously acquires the seismic Paris, France • Determine the composition and sensor outputs and a set of house- structure of the mantle. keeping signals. Imperial College, London, England 2. Determine the present level of tec- • The control electronics which control tonic activity and impact rate at Mars. the instrument's levelling mechanism MPS, Göttingen, as well as the sensor configuration and Germany • Measure the magnitude, rate and re-centering. geographical distribution of internal Jet Propulsion Lab., seismic activity. • The power conditioning electronics Pasadena, USA for the whole instrument. • Measure the rate of meteorite impacts Center National d'Études Spatiales on the surface. The SEIS acquisition and control elec- (CNES), Toulouse, France tronics are redundantly built as SEIS The InSight Lander will carry three in- is the InSight core instrument, provid- Principal Investigator struments to the surface of Mars to ing most of the scientific return, and is take the first-ever in-depth look at the therefore mission critical. It was built P. Lognonné planet's 'vital stats': its pulse, or internal by Syderal SA (Switzerland), and was (Inst. Physique du Globe, Paris) activity, as measured by the SEIS in- delivered to CNES (Toulouse, France) strument; its temperature as measured for the SEIS instrument integration. Swiss Principal Investigator by the HP3 instrument; and its reflexes as measured by the RISE instrument. Building on the expertise and infra- D. Giardini (ETHZ) Together, the data will provide essential structure of the Swiss Seismological

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Service at ETH, the Earthquake Operations) process. Simu-SEIS is Co-Investigators Monitoring group is taking the lead role used to validate FSW with respect to in the Marsquake Service that will build certain instrument processes (sensor J. Clinton, D. Mance, P. Zweifel a catalogue of seismic events from re-centering and levelling). SEIS data. The Marsquake Service will Method include both automatic and reviewed The integration and test of the instru- event detection and the characterisa- ments on the spacecraft was suc- Measurement tion of local seismicity and teleseismic cessfully completed in March 2018. events as well as meteor impacts. The The spacecraft was moved from Development and goal of this service is to create a com- Lockheed Martin to the launch pad in Construction of Instruments prehensive high-quality event cata- Vandenberg, California. A final check- logue for Mars, itself a critical target up of the instrument was performed at Electronics box, including instrument for the InSight mission, and provide key the end of April 2018. The launch took power conditioning and acquisition, input for the development of Martian place on 5 May 2018, with a Mars land- and control electronics for SEIS on- crustal and deep-structure models. ing six months later on 26 November board NASA's InSight mission. The group will adapt advanced sin- 2018. gle-seismometer analytic techniques Industrial Hardware Contract to: developed for applications on Earth Publications to make them suitable for characteris- Syderal SA (Switzerland) ing Martian seismicity. Furthermore the 1. Dandonneau, P-A., et al., (2013), Seismology and Geodynamics group The SEIS InSight VBB Experiment, Website of the Institute of Geophysics has an 44th Lunar and Planetary Sci. Conf. active research team engaged in mod- www.insight.ethz.ch/home elling planetary structure. 2. Böse, M., et al., (2017), Phys Earth Planet. Int., 262, 48–65, doi:10.1016/j. Past Achievements and Status pepi.2016.11.003.

The InSight mission was selected by 3. Khan, A., et al., (2016), Phys. Earth NASA in 2012 in the frame of the NASA Planet Int., 258, 28–42, doi:10.1016/j. Discovery Programme. Under a chal- pepi.2016.05.017. lenging schedule, the Swiss contribu- tion (the Electronics Box flight hard- 4. Ceylan, S., et al., (2017), Space Sci. ware) was delivered in March 2017 to Rev., doi:10.1007/s11214-017-0380-6. CNES for further instrument integra- tion. Apart from the flight electronics, a 5. Clinton, J. F., et al., (2017), Seis. Res. qualification model (QM), an electrical Lett., doi:10.1785/0220170094, 2017. model (ELM) and a hardware simulator (Simu-SEIS) were delivered to CNES Abbreviations and JPL/Lockheed Martin. The ELM is used in the Spacecraft Test Lab ATLO Assembly, Test and for FSW validation. The QM was in- Launch Operations tegrated on the lander to support the FSW Flight Software ATLO (Assembly, Test and Launch SEIS Seismic Exp. Interior Struct.

Time-Line From To Planning 2010 2012 Construction Sep. 2012 Mar. 2015 Measurement Phase Nov. 2018 Oct. 2020

Data Evaluation Nov. 2018 > 2020 SEIS sensor assembly during integration at CNES.

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8.3 Investigation of the Chemical Composition of Lunar Soils (Luna-Glob and Luna-Resurs Missions)

Purpose of Research Publications

The Russian Space Agency will launch 1. Tulej, M., A. Riedo, M. B. Neuland, two lunar landers to land near the lunar S. Meyer, D. Lasi, D. Piazza, N. South and North Poles, Luna-Glob Thomas, and P. Wurz, (2014), A and Luna-Resurs. miniature instrument suite for in situ investigation of the compo- LASMA, a laser ablation mass sition and morphology of extra- spectrometer which is part of the terrestrial materials, Geostand. LASMA Engineering Model. scientific payload of both landers, Geoanalyt. Res., 38, 441–466. will perform direct elemental analy- Institute sis of soil samples collected in the 2. Wurz, P., D. Abplanalp, M. Tulej, vicinity of the spacecraft landing site M. Iakovleva, V. A. Fernandes, A. Space Res. & Planet., U. Bern (UNIBE) as well as from the sub-surface by Chumikov, and G. Managadze, means of a drill (Luna-Resurs only). (2012), Mass spectrometric In Cooperation with: Elemental and isotopic analysis will analysis in planetary science: be performed on 12 soil samples. Investigation of the surface and Inst. Sp. Res., IKI, Moscow, Russia, the atmosphere, Sol. Sys. Res., (G. Managadze, A. Chumikov) 46, 408–422. Past Achievements and Status Principal Investigators 3. Rohner, U., J. Whitby, P. Wurz, The spacecraft is currently under de- and S. Barabash, (2004), A highly G. Managadze, P. Wurz (Co-PI, UNIBE) velopment while the LASMA instru- miniaturised laser ablation time- ment was delivered for integration of-flight mass spectrometer for Swiss Principal Investigator onto the spacecraft in Autumn 2017. planetary rover, Rev. Sci. Instr., 75(5), 1314–1322. P. Wurz (UNIBE) The launch of Luna-Glob is foreseen in early 2020, and Luna-Resurs will Abbreviations Co-Investigators launch in 2022. The LASMA instru- ment is a copy of the same instrument LASMA Laser Ablation Mass M. Tulej, R. Fausch that was part of the Phobos-Grunt Spectrometer mission. Method

Measurement

Development & Constr. of Instrs.

LASMA instrument for direct meas. of elemental composition of solid materials.

Industrial Hardware Contract to:

WaveLab Engineering AG; Montena Technology SA; nanoTRONIC GmbH

Website Time-Line From To Measurement Phase 2020 2020 www.space.unibe.ch Data Evaluation 2020 2022

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8.4 Investigation of the Volatiles Contained in Lunar Soils (Luna-Resurs Mission)

Purpose of Research Publications

The Russian Space Agency will 1. Hofer, L., P. Wurz, A. Buch, M. launch a lunar lander to land near Cabane, P. Coll, D. Coscia, M. the lunar South Pole, Luna-Resurs. Gerasimov, D. Lasi, A. Sapgir, The Gas-Chromatography Mass C. Szopa, and M. Tulej, (2015), Spectrometer complex (GC-MS) Prototype of the gas chromato- which is part of the scientific payload graph – mass spectrometer to of this lander, will perform detailed investigate volatile species in the investigations of the volatile content of lunar soil for the Luna-Resurs mis- NGMS Flight Model of Luna-Resurs. soil samples collected in the vicinity of sion, Planet. Sp. Sci., 111, 126 –133. the spacecraft landing site and from Institute the sub-surface by means of a drill. 2. Wurz, P., D. Abplanalp, M. Tulej, and H. Lammer, (2012), A neutral Space Res. & Planet., U. Bern (UNIBE) The GC-MS consists of a thermal gas mass spectrometer for the in- differential analyser, a gas chro- vestigation of lunar volatiles, Planet. In Cooperation with: matograph and a Neutral Gas Mass Sp. Sci, 74, 264–269. Spectrometer (NGMS) which is pro- Inst. Sp. Res., IKI, Moscow, Russia, vided by the University of Bern. 3. Abplanalp, D., P. Wurz, L. Huber, (M. Gerasimov, A. Sapgir, D. Rodinov) I. Leya, E. Kopp, U. Rohner, M. Univ. Pierre, Marie Curie, Paris, France Wieser, L. Kalla, and S. Barabash, (M. Cabane, D. Coscia) Past Achievements and Status (2009), A neutral gas mass spec- trometer to measure the chemical Principal Investigators The Luna-Resurs spacecraft and composition of the stratosphere, scientific instruments are currently Adv. Space Res., 44, 870–878. M. Gerasimov, P. Wurz (Co-PI; UNIBE) under development. Launch of Luna- Resurs is foreseen in 2022. The Proto Swiss Principal Investigator Flight Model (PFM) of the NGMS was Abbreviations finished at the end of 2017, and the P. Wurz (UNIBE) flight spare model will be finished NGMS Neutral Gas Mass in mid-2018. The NGMS design is Spectrometer Co-Investigators based on an earlier design used for PFM Proto Flight Model stratospheric research. M. Tulej, R. Fausch

Method

Measurement

Development & Constr. of Instrs.

NGMS to measure volatiles.

Industrial Hardware Contract to:

Time-Line From To EMPA, Dübendorf Planning Sep. 2010 Jun. 2011 Construction Jul. 2011 Jun. 2018 Website Measurement Phase 2022 2022 Data Evaluation 2022 2024 www.space.unibe.ch

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8.5 CaSSIS – The Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System

Purpose of Research A portion of NE Syrtis Major has re- cently been approved for priority MRO CaSSIS is onboard ESA's ExoMars coverage as a candidate landing site; Trace Gas Orbiter (EMTGO) mission this site is at the margin of the Syrtis launched in March 2016. The imag- Major methane plume. It is likely that ing system has the following main a pair of NASA/ESA landers in 2020 objectives. will also consider methane areas for landing sites. At the ‘Habitability and Clouds over lava flows on Mars are seen in this false-colour composite • Image and analyse surface features Landing Sites’ workshop, the surfaces image from CaSSIS. Image credit: ESA/CaSSIS/Roscosmos possibly related to trace gas sources associated with methane plumes were and sinks in order to better understand identified as high priority exploration the broad range of processes that targets. However, the best locations Institute might be related to trace gases. The will presumably be found by EMTGO, science team will compile and prioritise and MRO/HiRISE may or may not be Space Research and Planetology a list of observation targets needed to able to certify new landing sites post Division, Univ. Bern (UNIBE) test specific hypotheses concerning 2018/9. CaSSIS cannot identify meter- active surface processes on Mars. We scale hazards, but it can provide the 5 In Cooperation with: will begin to address this objective early m scale slope information needed to in the mission, prior to new trace-gas complete certification of thousands of Astronomical Obs., Padova, Italy discoveries from EMTGO. Unusual or locations imaged by HiRISE (but not in Space Res. Center, Warsaw, Poland changing colours indicate active pro- stereo). CaSSIS will therefore play a role cesses, perhaps linked to methane in defining new landing sites. Swiss Principal Investigator formation or release. Past Achievements and Status N. Thomas (UNIBE) • Map regions of trace gas origination as determined by other experiments to The instrument has been shown to be Co-Investigators test hypotheses. EMTGO experiments fully functional in Mars orbit. The TGO are designed to discover trace gases has just completed its aerobraking 24 scientists from Europe and US and study atmospheric dynamics to phase and is now ready for its prime trace the gases back to their source mission. During orbit capture and the Method regions (perhaps to tens of km). Once initial manoeuvres, data were taken these discoveries are made (if that goal demonstrating the capabilities and Measurement is realised), CaSSIS will place top prior- calibration of the instrument. ity on imaging these regions to formu- Development & Constr. Instrs. late and test specific hypotheses for Publications the origin and/or release of trace gases. The University of Bern developed 1. Thomas, N., and 60 colleagues, and built CaSSIS with parts sup- • Search for and help certify the safety (2017), Space Sci. Rev., 212, plied by Italy, Poland and Hungary. of new candidate landing sites driven 1897–1944. by EMTGO discoveries. The discovery Industrial Hardware Contract to: of methane has helped stimulate ex- 2. Roloff, V., and 24 colleagues, (2017), ploration plans in Europe and the U.S. Space Sci. Rev., 212, 1871–1896. RUAG (now Thales-Alenia Space Switzerland) in Zurich Time-Line From To Planning Apr. 2010 Oct. 2013 Website Construction Oct. 2013 Nov. 2015 Measurement Phase Apr. 2018 2020 and beyond www.cassis.unibe.ch/ Data Evaluation 2018 2022 and beyond

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8.6 SERENA/STROFIO on BepiColombo

Composition of Crust, Exosphere, Surface Evolution, Formation and Evolution of Planet Mercury

Purpose of Research Past Achievements and Status

The European Space Agency (ESA) The BepiColombo spacecraft are cur- has defined the Cornerstone Mission, rently under development and have named BepiColombo, for the de- a launch scheduled in late 2018. tailed exploration of planet Mercury. Scientific instruments were delivered Because of observational difficulties, for integration on the spacecraft in Mercury is a largely unknown planet Autumn 2014, while the calibration of The STROFIO instrument (part of SERENA experiment) on BepiColombo. and therefore a high scientific return flight spare instruments is ongoing. is expected from such an exploratory Institute mission. Publications Space Res. & Planet., U. Bern (UNIBE) The launch of BepiColombo is fore- seen in late 2018 (launch window 1. Pfleger, M., et al., (2015), 3D-modeling In Cooperation with: spans from 5 October to 29 November) of Mercury's solar wind sputtered and the transfer to Mercury will take surface-exosphere environment, Inst. Fisica Sp. Interpl., Rome, Italy until late 2025. Thus the data phase Planet. Sp. Sci., 115, 90–101. (S. Orsini, A. Milillo) will start in late 2026 at the earliest, SSRI, Sweden (S. Barabash, M. Wieser) and will last for one year with a pos- 2. Wurz, P., et al., (2010), Self- SwRI, San Antonio, USA, (S. Livi) sible extension of an additional year. consistent modelling of Mercury's exosphere by sputtering, micro- Principal Investigators We are participating, within an in- meteorite impact and photon-stim- ternational collaboration, in the ulated desorption, Planet. Sp. Sci., S. Orsini, S. Barabash BepiColombo mission by developing 58, 1599–1616. two mass spectrometers. One mass Swiss Principal Investigator spectrometer is on the BepiColombo 3. Wurz P. and H. Lammer, (2003), Mercury Magnetosphere Orbiter Monte-Carlo simulation of Mercury’s P. Wurz (UNIBE) (MMO) spacecraft to perform exosphere, Icarus, 164, 1–13. Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) imag- Co-Investigators ing of the interaction of the solar wind with the magnetosphere of Mercury. Abbreviations A. Vorburger, D. Gamborino

The second instrument is on the ENA Energetic Neutral Atom Method BepiColombo Mercury Planetary MMO Mercury Magnetosph. Orb. Orbiter (MPO) spacecraft to measure MPO Mercury Planetary Orbiter Measurement the elemental, chemical, and isotopic MPPE Mercury Plasma Part Exp. composition of Mercury’s exosphere SERENA Search Exopheric Refilling & Research Based on Existing Instrs. with a sensitive neutral gas mass Emitted Nat. Abundances spectrometer. With these two instru- STROFIO Start from a Rotating FIeld SERENA and MPPE instruments. ments, we will substantially contribute mass spectrOmeter to three out of the six main scientific Industrial Hardware Contract to: goals set for BepiColombo. EMPA, Rekolas, Sulzer Innotec, SWSTech AG

Time-Line From To Website Measurement Phase 2026 2028 Data Evaluation 2026 2030 www.space.unibe.ch

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8.7 BELA – BepiColombo Laser Altimeter

Purpose of Research of the surface: geological, physical, and chemical. The BepiColombo laser altimeter (BELA) is a joint Swiss-German The topography is needed to de- project with a smaller involvement velop digital terrain models that al- from Spain. The scientific objectives low quantitative explorations of the of BELA onboard BepiColombo are geology, the tectonics, and the age to measure: of the planet surface. The topogra- phy is further needed for a reduc- • The figure parameters of Mercury tion of the gravity field data because to establish accurate reference topographical contributions to gravity The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA) flight model. surfaces. must first be removed before using gravity anomalies for the investigation • The topographic variations relative of sub-surface structures. to the reference figures and a geo- detic network based on accurately The use of topography together with measured positions of prominent gravity data will constrain, by an ad- topographic features. mittance analysis between the two and with the help of a flexure model • Tidal deformations of the surface. for the lithosphere, lithosphere and crust properties. Examples here • The surface roughness, local slopes would include the lithosphere elas- Institute and albedo variations, also in perma- tic thickness (essential for the re- nently shaded craters near the poles. construction of the thermal history Space Research and Planetology, of Mercury) and the crustal density Univ. Bern (UNIBE) BELA will form an integral part of a (essential for the construction of a larger geodesy and geophysics pack- Hermean internal model). In Cooperation with: age, incorporating radio science and stereo imaging. Although stand-alone In addition to the moments of inertia DLR, Berlin, Germany instruments in their right, only the syn- which will be provided by the radio ergy between these will make full use science experiment, the tidal defor- MPS, Göttingen, Germany of present-day technology and scien- mations measured by BELA and the tific capability. radio science instrument will place IAA, Granada, Spain further constraints on global models The synergy will cover the problems of the interior structure. BELA will Principal Investigators of planetary figure and gravity field contribute by providing the defor- determination, interior structure ex- mation of the surface while the radio N. Thomas (Co-PI) ploration, surface morphology and science package will measure the geology, and extend into the mea- mass relocations. Under favourable H. Hussmann (Co-PI) surements of tidal deformations. The conditions, it will even be possible to reference surfaces and the geodetic constrain the rheology of the interior Swiss Principal Investigator network will provide the coordinate of the planet by measuring the time system for any detailed exploration lag between the motion of the tidal N. Thomas (UNIBE) Time-Line From To Co-Investigators Planning 2004 2008 Construction 2008 2016 30 leading geophysicists Measurement Phase 2024 2027 from Europe Data Evaluation 2024 2028

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bulge and the disturbing potential. Performance analyses indicate ex- Method cellent results should be obtained The instrument comprises a transmit- with the present instrument status. Measurement ter producing a 50 mJ laser pulse at 1064 nm. The laser passes through a Publications Development & Constr. Instrs. beam expander to collimate the beam before exiting to the planet through a 1. Gunderson, K. and N. Thomas, UNIBE developed and built BELA with baffle. The return pulse is captured by (2010), BELA receiver performance parts from Germany and Spain. a 20 cm beryllium telescope which is modeling over BepiColombo mis- protected by a novel reflective baffle. sion lifetime, Planet. Sp. Sci., 58, Industrial Hardware Contract to: 309–318. The light then passes through a trans- RUAG Space (now Thales-Alenia fer optic containing a 1064 nm filter 2. Seiferlin, K., et al., (2007), Design and Space), Switzerland before collection on an avalanche manufacture of a lightweight reflec- photodiode detector. Conversion to a tive baffle for the BepiColombo laser Syderal SA, Switzerland range is performed by using a time-of- altimeter, Opt. Eng., 46, 043003-1. flight electronics within an electronics FISBA Optik, Switzerland box which also houses the instrument 3. Thomas, N., et al., (2007), The Bepi computer and power supply. Colombo Laser Altimeter (BELA): Cassidian Optronik, Germany, Concept and baseline design, Planet. Past Achievements and Status Sp. Sci., 55, 1398–1413. CRISA, Spain

The flight model has been deliv- Abbreviations Website ered to ESA and is integrated on the spacecraft. The instrument has BELA BepiColombo Laser Altimeter www.bela.space.unibe.ch passed flight acceptance review.

The picture shows PhD student, Julian Gouman, with the BELA Engineering Qualification Model in the thermal vacuum chamber at the Univ. Bern.

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8.8 PEP – Particle Environment Package on JUICE

Purpose of Research Publications

The European Space Agency select- 1. Vorburger, A., and P. Wurz, (2018), ed the JUICE mission as an L – class Europa's ice-related atmosphere: mission to explore Jupiter and its icy The sputter contribution, Icarus, moons in great detail, with particular 311, 135 –145. emphasis on the moon Ganymede. The Particle Environment Package 2. Plainaki, C., T. Cassidy, V. NIM prototype model for PEP/JUICE, mounted in calibration setup. (PEP) investigates all particle popu- Shematovich, A. Milillo, P. Wurz, lations in Jupiter's magnetosphere A. Vorburger, L. Roth, A. Galli, M. Institute and at its moons in the energy range Rubin, A. Blöcker, P. Brandt, F. from thermal energies to beyond the Crary, I. Dandouras, D. Grassi, P. Space Res. & Planet., U. Bern (UNIBE) MeV range. Hartogh, X. Jia, A. Lucchetti, M. McGrath, V. Mangano, A. Mura, S. In Cooperation with: The Neutral and Ion Mass spectrometer Orsini, C. Paranicas, A. Radioti, K. (NIM) will measure the chemical com- Retherford, J. Saur, and B. Teolis, SSRI, Kiruna, S; J. H. Univ., Laurel, position of the neutral atmospheres of (2018), Towards a global unified USA; MPS, Göttingen, D; FMI, the icy moons and their thermal ion model of Europa's tenuous atmo- Helsinki, Fi; Univ. Wales, Aber., UK population. JUICE is scheduled for sphere, Sp. Sci. Rev., 214, 40, 71 pp. launch in May 2022 and will arrive in Principal Investigators the Jupiter system in 2030. 3. Galli, A., A. Vorburger, P. Wurz, A. Pommerol, R. Cerubini, B. Jost, O. S. Barabash (PI, SSRI) Poch, M. Tulej, and N. Thomas, P. Wurz (Co-PI, UNIBE) Past Achievements and Status (2017), 0.2 to 10 keV electrons in- teracting with water ice: radiolysis, Swiss Principal Investigator The JUICE mission is currently in the sputtering, and sublimation, Icarus implementation phase. The JUICE 291, 36–45. P. Wurz (UNIBE) mission was adopted by ESA in November 2014, and the industrial 4. Vorburger, A., et al., (2015), Monte- Co-Investigators prime was selected in July 2015. PEP Carlo simulation of Callisto's exo- is one of the 10 selected science ex- sphere, Icarus, 262, 14–29. A. Galli, N. Thomas, periments for the JUICE missions. M. Tulej, A. Vorburger The Swedish Institute for Space Abbreviations Method Physics is the PI institution, while the University of Bern is the Co-PI JUICE Jupiter and Icy Moons Explorer Measurement institution for this experiment. The NIM Neutral and Ion Mass development of the PEP experiment Spectrometer Development & Constr. of Instrs. and the NIM instrument are ongoing. PEP Particle Environment Package

NIM instr. for PEP experiment.

Industrial Hardware Contract to:.

EMPA Dübendorf Time-Line From To Planning Oct. 2012 Feb. 2014 Website Construction Mar. 2014 Jun. 2021 Measurement Phase Jan. 2030 Jul. 2033 www.space.unibe.ch Data Evaluation 2030 2036

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8.9 SWI – Submillimeter Wave Instrument on JUICE

Purpose of Research Past Achievements and Status

The JUpiter ICy moons Explorer The optical design of the SWI instru- (JUICE) is an L - class mission of the ment has been finalised and the ef- ESA Cosmic Vision 2015 – 2025 pro- fects of misalignment, manufacturing gramme to investigate Jupiter and its errors and thermoelastic distortions Galilean satellites as planetary bodies were analysed. A demonstration and potential habitats for life. model of the SWI receiver unit has been manufactured and tested. CAD model of the SWI telescope and receiver unit. The Submillimeter Wave Instrument (SWI) on JUICE will study the chemi- The Instrument Preliminary Design Institute cal composition, wind speeds and Review was successfully passed in temperature variability of Jupiter's April 2017, and the JUICE mission is Inst. Appl. Phys., Univ. Bern (UNIBE) atmosphere as well as the exo- scheduled for launch in 2022. sphere and surface properties of its In Cooperation with: icy moons. MPS, Göttingen, Germany SWI consists of two heterodyne re- Publications Omnisys Instruments, Sweden ceivers tunable between 530 – 625 LERMA, France; RPG, Germany GHz and 1080 – 1280 GHz. It in- 1. Jacob, K., et al., (2018), Design, NICT, Japan; CBK, Poland cludes a steerable off-axis telescope manufacturing and characteriza- with a 29 cm aperture and differ- tion of conical blackbody targets Principal Investigator ent high resolution and broadband with optimized profile,IEEE Trans. spectrometers. THz Sci. Technol. 8, 76–84. P. Hartogh (MPS)

The Institute of Applied Physics (IAP) 2. Kotiranta, M., et al., (2018), Optical Swiss Principal Investigator is responsible for the optical design design of the Submillimeter Wave of the instrument and the develop- Instrument on JUICE, Int. Symp. A. Murk (Co-I, UNIBE) ment of the optical components in Space THz Technol., Pasadena, the receiver unit. This includes the CA, USA. Co-Investigators corrugated feed horn of the 600 GHz receiver, several focusing reflectors, 3. Jacob, K., et al., (2016), Design M. Kotiranta, K. Jacob a polarising beam splitter and in of the Calibration Target for SWI particular, the on-board blackbody on JUICE, IRMMW-THz Conf., Method calibration target. In addition, IAP is Copenhagen, DK. conducting the radiometric perfor- Measurement mance tests of the SWI Receiver Unit. Development & Constr. of Instrs.

Abbreviations Optics design, optical components and calibration unit for the SWI instr. JUICE Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer SWI Submillimeter Wave Instrument Industrial Hardware Contract to:

Time-Line From To Micos Engineering, CH Planning 2010 2012 Construction 2013 2020 Website Measurement Phase 2030 2033 Data Evaluation 2030 2036 www.iapmw.unibe.ch

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8.10 CLUPI – CLose-Up Imager for ExoMars Rover 2020

Purpose of Research the scientific return. A calibration tar- get is used to colour calibrate images CLUPI, part of the Pasteur Payload during science operations. on board the ESA ExoMars Rover 2020, is a powerful high-resolution CLUPI will be housed on the rover drill colour camera specifically designed box, and use mirrors to observe with for close-up observations, so as to three different fields-of-view. Taking obtain visual information similar to advantage of both the rover’s mobility what geologists would get using a and the drill’s degrees of freedom, CLUPI CAD design. hand-lens. CLUPI will carry out specific science operations: The two main scientific objectives are: • Geological environment survey for • Geological context for establish- the area immediately in front of ing habitability: the rover.

1) Identification of the lithologies, • Close-up observation of outcrops to: 1) obtain geological informa- 2) Identification of eventual tion on rock texture and structure, Institute structures/textures (primary or possible alterations, etc., 2) allow secondary alteration features ) the geological history of targets Space Exploration Institute (SEI), that could provide information to to be established, and 3) ap- Neuchâtel, Switzerland interpret habitability. praise the potential preservation of biosignatures. In Cooperation with: • Identification of bio-signatures: • Drilling area observation. F. Westall 1) Observation of structural (Co-PI; CNRS, Orléans ,France) features. • Drilling operation observation: 1) to monitor the process, 2) observe B. A. Hofmann 2) Observation of carbon (EXM the generated mound of fines with (Co-PI; NHM, Bern) looking for carbonaceous bio- potential colour and textural varia- signatures) concentrations. tions, and 3) to obtain information Principal/Swiss Investigator on the mechanical properties of CLUPI is a miniaturised, low-power, the soil. J.-L. Josset (SEI) efficient, and highly adaptive imaging system with a mass under 1 kg. It • Drill hole observation (with depos- Co-Investigators has specific micro-technical innova- ited fines). tions regarding its sensor and focus T. Bontognali, M. Josset, S. Gasc mechanism. • Drilled core sample observation (Co-I; SEI) collected by the drill up to 2 m N. Kuhn (Univ. Basel) The imager can focus from ~10 cm below the Martian surface. K. Foelmi, E. Verreccia, S. Erkman to infinity (~16 µm per pixel at 20 cm (Univ. Lausanne) from the target), where colour imag- L. Diamond (Univ. Bern) ing is achieved using a detector with three layers of pixels (red, green, and and 15 other scientists from blue). CLUPI can also perform auto- Canada, France, Germany, Austria, exposure, auto-focus, binning, win- The Netherlands, Belgium, United dowing, and z-stacking to send a flex- Kingdom, Italy, and Russia ible amount of data and to increase

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Past Achievements and Status Publications Method

CLUPI is currently passing the CDR in 1. Josset, J.-L., et al., (2017), The Measurement March 2018 of its development. The Close-Up Imager (CLUPI) on Flight Model will be delivered to the board the ESA ExoMars Rover: Development & Constr. of Instrs. mission after the science calibration Objectives, description, opera- planned in December 2018. tions, and science validation ac- High-resolution imaging instrument tivities, Astrobiology 17, 59 5 – 611. for colour close-up observation Abbreviations of Martian rocks, surfaces, and 2. Vago, J., et al., (2017), Habitability samples. CDR Critical Design Review on early Mars and the search for CLUPI CLose-Up Imager ExoMars biosignatures with the ExoMars Industrial Hardware Contract to: Rover, Astrobiology 17, 471–510. TAS-CH; CSEM; Fisba AG; Petitpierre SA; Syderal SA; Time-Line From To e2v (funded by CNES) Planning 2003 2010 Construction 2011 2018 Website Measurement Phase 2021 2022 Data Evaluation 2021 2024 www.space-x.ch/

Illustration of the ExoMars Rover 2020. Image credit: ESA.

77 Comets, Planets

8.11 GALA – Ganymede Laser Altimeter

Purpose of Research The BELA range finder module is a novel type of digital signal processing GALA will measure the topography module for laser altimetry and has of the Jovian moon, Ganymede from been adapted for the higher pulse onboard ESA's JUICE mission. The repetition frequency (30 Hz) to be University of Bern will contribute the used for GALA. rangefinder electronics to the laser altimeter system. The signal from the detector is digi- tised prior to the pulse detection and This will be a derivative of the BELA pulse/time of flight analysis. rangefinder which has been success- Schematic of GALA that is slated to fly on ESA’s fully implemented for BepiColombo. The system is fully programmable JUICE mission to the Jovian system. The Univ. The rangefinder will mostly be con- and so can be adapted to expected Bern contributes to the rangefinding electronics. structed by industry. pulse shapes even during flight. The improvement of the detection limit is Institute The rangefinder measures the time- significant because modified digital of-flight of the laser pulse, the laser matched filtering can be applied. Space Research and Planetology, pulse energy, and the pulse shape. Inst. Physics, Univ. Bern (UNIBE) These three quantities are the only immediate science results from the In Cooperation with: GALA laser altimeter, and are used to compute: DLR Institute for Planetary Research, Berlin-Adlershof, Germany • The altitude of the spacecraft above Past Achievements and Status Chiba Inst. Technology, Japan the surface. Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia The instrument development is cur- (IAA), Granada, Spain • The topography of the surface (tak- rently in Phase B. ing into account orbital data). Principal Investigator • The albedo of the surface at the H. Hussmann laser wavelength.

Swiss Principal & Co-Investigator • The slope of the surface (from shot- to-shot altitude data). Abbreviations N. Thomas • The roughness of the surface inside BELA BepiColombo Laser Altimeter Method the laser footprint, determined from JUICE Jupiter and Icy Moons Explorer the pulse shape. GALA Ganymede Laser Altimeter Measurement

Industrial Hardware Contract to:

Thales-Alenia Space Switzerland (to be confirmed). Time-Line From To Website Planning 2012 2017 Construction 2018 2020 www.space.unibe.ch/research/ Measurement Phase 2025 2033 research_groups/ Data Evaluation 2031 2035

78 Comets, Planets

8.12 MiARD – Multi-Instrument Analysis of Rosetta Data

Purpose of Research • To provide additional information to support assessment of risks to the The University of Bern has received Earth and interplanetary spacecraft support from the European Union's from comets and cometary dust. H2020 programme to analyse Rosetta data from several instru- • To review and further develop a sci- ments in a joint framework known entific scenario for the return of pris- as MiARD. The specific goals of the tine material to Earth by incorporating A 3D digital terrain model of the nucleus of 67P. The regional unit definition MiARD programme are: lander and remote-sensing data. made by the Univ. Bern through the MiARD project (EC funding) has been overlaid on the 3D model. Some of the major regions are marked. • To refine the 3D topography of spe- Past Achievements and Status cific areas on the nucleus at the high- Institute est possible resolution and accuracy, The programme has developed a new and to quantify topographic changes. shape model of the nucleus, has de- Space Research and Planetology, fined the regions on a 3D model for Inst. Physics, Univ. Bern (UNIBE) • To model the gas and dust flow presentation to scientists and the fields by combining multiple data general public, and has developed In Cooperation with: sets. fits to the gas and dust distributions around the nucleus at specific times Max-Planck-Inst. for Solar System, • To assimilate available information in the mission. The programme will Research, Goettingen, Germany on the structural and chemical na- be completed in August 2018 with DLR Inst. Plan. Res., Berlin, Germany ture of the first 30 cm of the nucleus a review of future mission concepts. Lab. d'Astrophys., Marseille, France surface layer. Open Univ., Milton Keynes, England The MiARD programme has resulted Heriot-Watt Univ., Edinburgh, Scotland • To assess the physico-chemical in more than 10 publications arising ISSI, Bern, Switzerland representativeness of the Philae land- directly from the additional EC fund- Amanuensis GmBH, Bern, ing site with respect to the rest of ing (six are currently in press). Switzerland the comet. Principal/Swiss Investigator • To derive an updated model of the Publications development of gas and dust activity N. Thomas triggered by different volatiles when 1. Preusker, F., et al., (2017), The glob- the comet is approaching the Sun al meter-level shape model of com- Co-Investigators (including quantifying any heteroge- et 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, neity and its source(s)). Astron. Astrophys. 607, L1. E. Kuehrt, R. Rodrigo, L. Jorda, P. Hartogh, I. Wright, J. Whitby • To constrain solar nebula models 2. Gerig, S-B., et al., (2018), On de- and cometesimal formation schemes viations from free-radial outflow Method with the derived 67P composition and in the inner coma of comet 67P/ isotopic ratios. Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Icarus, Simulation accepted. Res. Based on Existing Instrs.

MiARD has resulted in more Time-Line From To than 10 publications. Planning 2015 2015 Construction - - Website Measurement Phase - - Data Evaluation 2016 2018 www.miard.eu

79 Life Science

9 Life Science

9.1 Yeast Bioreactor Experiment

Network biology of stress responses and cell flocculation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae grown under microgravity conditions.

Purpose of Research used to analyse the samples. A net- work biology model for S. cerevisiae The project is focused on the effect will be set up to process the -omics of microgravity on the physiology of data. This will lead to insight into how S. cerevisiae. Studies conducted in a gravity influences global regulation of Institute simulated microgravity environment energy metabolism, (stress) signalling have shown a disturbed cell physiol- transduction pathways, transcriptional Inst. Med. Eng., Lucerne School Eng ogy. The expression of a significant regulatory networks, gene regulatory & Archit., Lucerne Univ. of Appl. Sci. number of genes was changed when networks, protein-protein interaction & Arts (HSLU), Hergiswil, CH yeast cells were cultured for 5 genera- networks, and metabolic networks. tions or 25 generations under simulated In Cooperation with: microgravity. Yeast cultivation will be performed in a particular space bioreactor. The use Vrije Univ.; Lab. Structural Biology; The relevance of gravity on S. cerevi- of a continuous cultivation mode (che- Dept. Bioeng. Sci.; Brussels, Belgium siae cell-cell and cell-surface interac- mostat) gives defined and controlled tions is best shown by the fact that S. conditions over time (i.e. growth at one Lab. Protein Biochem. & Biomolec. cerevisiae cells grow in clusters under specific growth rate), permitting the rep- Eng., (L-Probe), Univ. Gent, Belgium microgravity compared to cells grown etition of an experiment without having on Earth. In addition, it was found that different starting conditions except for KU Leuven & VIB, Dept. Molecular continuous cultivation of S. cerevisiae the elapsed microgravity time, and eas- Microbiol., Lab. Molecular Cell in microgravity had an influence on the ily interpretable results. Biology, Leuven, Belgium bud scar positioning, a critical factor in cell adhesion and invasion. The hardware will monitor and control Principal Investigator growth parameters such as tempera- In the proposed experiment different ture, flow rate and monitor pH, oxygen R. Willaert (Vrije Univ.) S. cerevisiae strains will be used to in- and carbon dioxide levels which are vestigate the effect of microgravity on necessary to achieve a steady-state Swiss Principal Investigator non-interacting and cell-cell interact- and stable growth. The samples will ing (flocculation) yeast growth, and on be automatically withdrawn, treated M. Egli (HSLU) induced stress responses by apply- (shock), filtrated and fixed. ing a heat as well as osmotic shock in Co-Investigators microgravity. Past Achievements and Status B. Devreese (Univ. Gent) An integrative-experimental approach P. Van Dijck (KU Leuven & VIB) will be used to assess the effect of mi- The project's status is a delta B phase crogravity. Therefore, various -omics where scientific requirements for the Method technologies, i.e. fluxomics, transcrip- hardware development are estab- tomics, proteomics and genomics and lished. The hardware is now being Measurement specific cell analysis methods will be constructed by RUAG Nyon.

Industrial Hardware Contract to:

RUAG Space, Nyon Time-Line From To Planning 2013 2014 Website Construction 2014 2020 Measurement Phase 2020 2021 www.hslu.ch/spacebio Data Evaluation 2021 2022

80 Life Science

9.2 Calcium-Dependent Current Recordings During the 2nd Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign

Purpose of Research applying extracellular gadolinium. The “OoClamp” hardware was validated by Living organisms adapt to mechanical comparing the results of the 3-voltage- loads. However, it is not fully under- step protocol to results obtained by stood how biological cells sense and control experiments by applying the respond to such loads. Among other well-established two-electrode volt- mechanisms, mechano-sensitive ion age clamp (TEVC) technique. channels are thought to play a key role in allowing cells to transduce mechani- In the context of the 2nd Swiss cal forces. Indeed, previous experi- Parabolic Flight Campaign, we test- ments performed under microgravity ed the OoClamp and the method. Experimental set-up during the 2nd Swiss Parabolic Flight Campaign. have shown that gravity affects the The set-up and experiment proto- gating properties of ion channels. col worked well during the parabolic flight. According to the data gathered, In this project, a method was developed it appears that the calcium-dependent which allows a calcium-dependent cur- current is smaller under microgravity rent in native Xenopus laevis oocytes to than under 1 g conditions. However, a be recorded under microgravity condi- conclusive statement was not possible tions during a parabolic flight. due to the small sample size.

Past Achievements and Status Publications

By using a custom made "OoClamp" Wüest, S. L., C. Roesch, F. Ille, M. Egli, hardware , a 3-voltage-step protocol (2017), Calcium dependent current re- Institute was applied to provoke a calcium- cordings in Xenopus laevis oocytes in dependent current. This current in- microgravity, Acta Astronautica, 141, Institute of Medical Engineering, creased with extracellular calcium 228-236. Lucerne School Eng & Archit., concentration and decreased by Lucerne Univ. of Appl. Sci. & Arts (HSLU), Hergiswil, CH Time-Line From To Planning Jan. 2016 Jun. 2016 Principal/Swiss Investigator Construction Jun. 2016 Oct. 2016 Measurement Phase Oct. 2016 Oct. 2016 S. Wüest Data Evaluation Jun. 2016 Dec. 2016 Co-Investigators

M. Egli

F. Ille HSLU Team in the A310 C. Rösch during the 2nd Parabolic Method Flight Campaign. Measurement

Website

www.hslu.ch/spacebio

81 Life Science

9.3 Focal Adhesion Characterisation During Parabolic Flight Campaign

Purpose of Research Past Achievements and Status

Focal adhesions are large, multi- We were able to successfully con- protein structures in adherent cells. duct our experiment during the spring They represent the key anchor points parabolic flight campaign organised between the cells and their sur- by the German Aerospace Center rounding. Focal adhesions consist (DLR) in March 2018. At present, our of clustered trans-membrane integrin samples are being processed and receptors connecting the extracel- analysed. In the past, we have studied lular matrix on one side with a wide similar effects on different cell types range of cytosolic proteins on the using various microgravity platforms. One of our researchers enjoying a moment of microgravity onboard the Airbus. other side. In addition to other parabolic flights They not only physically connect the on the Airbus A310, our samples have Institute cells with their surroundings, but also flown with the Swiss armed forces play a role in relaying alot of other on fighter jets (prolonged duration Inst. Med. Eng., Lucerne Univ. of information involving a wide range of microgravity compared to the Appl. Sci. & Arts (HSLU), Hergiswil, of signalling pathways. Because of Airbus A310) and looked at the ef- Switzerland their direct link to the cytoskeleton, fect of simulated microgravity using however, they play an important role random positioning machines. We In Cooperation with: in sensing and reacting to mechano- hope to be able to publish our results sensory effects such as gravitational in the near future. Univ. Magdeburg (D. Grimm) perturbations.

Principal Investigator Our goal is to investigate the effect Abbreviations of these gravitational perturbations, F. Ille (HSLU) including micro and hypergravity, DLR German Aerospace Center as experienced during parabolic (Deutsches Zentrum für Co-Investigators flights onboard an Airbus A310, on Luft- und Raumfahrt) focal adhesion characteristics. We M. Calio (HSLU) are especially interested in studying T. Wernas (HSLU) these effects in chondrocytes (found S. Richard (HSLU) in cartilage tissue) since this is the C. Giger (HSLU) main focus of our research.

Method To do so, we are looking at the locali- sation of various proteins involved in Measurement focal adhesions. With our research we hope to contribute to a better Research Based on Existing understanding of how gravitational Instruments dynamics are sensed by cells and what effects they have on them. The sampling was performed on ex- isting hardware from previous para- bolic flight campaigns. Time-Line From To Planning 2017 2018 Website Construction 2017 2018 Measurement Phase 2018 2018 www.hslu.ch/spacebio Data Evaluation 2018 2018

82 Swiss Space Industries Group

10 Swiss Space Industries Group

Scientific, Industrial and Eco- satellites for Copernicus, Europe's nomic Importance of the Insti- Global Monitoring for Environment tutional Space Sector and Security system, are just some examples of important space pro- The world space industry is a stra- grammes in which Swiss manufac- tegically important growth sector turers have played a major role. There of high value-creating potential and is hardly a current European mission great economic importance. While which does not incorporate Swiss the commercial sector is becoming technology. None of this would be stronger and private initiatives are possible without Switzerland’s early creating increasing impact, truly sci- commitment to ESA, right from day entific endeavours are still firmly in the one. ESA’s ambitious programmes hands of large institutions such as the enable Swiss space companies to European Space Agency (ESA). For acquire the expertise that underpins Europe to compete globally and to its excellent reputation and promising To run the new out-of-autoclave process for payload fairings, RUAG has secure a leading position, the avail- position in the global growth market invested in a state-of-the-art manufacturing hall in Emmen, Switzerland. able resources must be efficiently de- for space technology. Strengthening ployed and activities pooled – tasks and further expanding this position which are handled by ESA. has to be the goal in the coming years. This means not only overcoming tech- ESA coordinates and promotes the nological and economic challenges development of European space but also dealing with difficult political technology and ensures that the issues. The leading players – science, investment made goes to the last- politics and industry – have to work ing benefit of all Europeans. The seamlessly together. EU aims to utilise the benefits of its space policy in its security, environ- Engagements within the Space ment, transport, economic and social Industry policy. ESA has an annual budget of Contact about three billion euros. Switzerland Swissmem unites the Swiss electri- contributes around 170 million francs cal and mechanical engineering in- Swiss Space Industries Group annually. As a result, funds flow into dustries and associated technology- (SSIG) research and enable Swiss scien- oriented sectors. The space industry tists to participate in significant ESA is an important division among them. President missions, while the manufacturers International competitiveness is not benefit as suppliers to the research guaranteed despite having ESA mem- P. Guggenbach sector or directly through contracts bership. The ability to compete inter- RUAG Schweiz AG awarded by ESA. nationally is not a matter of course – it RUAG Space must be worked on. Having a location Swiss Collaboration that is able to compete is the basis of Secretary General success. Swissmem is committed to While the Swiss space market can- Swiss companies and the qualities of R. Keller (SSIG) not match the biggest European Switzerland as a center of industry and countries for size, it can definitely research. Continuous groundwork has Swissmem keep up with them in terms of qual- made Swissmem into a center of stra- Pfingstweidstr. 102 ity and innovation. For instance, the tegic commercial and employer skills. PO Box, 8037 Zurich Ariane and Vega launchers, Galileo, This allows the association to represent Switzerland MetOp or Electra, the space astrom- the concerns of the sector to politicians, etry mission Cheops or the Sentinel national and international organizations, www.swissmem.ch/ssig

83 Swiss Space Industries Group

SSIG Members representatives of employees and the the strategic technologies. The sector public. Apart from this, Swissmem of- therefore stands out as a future-orient- 3D PRECISION SA, www.3dprecision.ch fers companies numerous practice- ed, innovative and attractive employer. oriented services which help them to APCO Technologies SA maintain their ability to compete and Jobs and Training www.apco-technologies.com to successfully meet new challenges. The Swiss Space companies in SSIG Art of Technology AG The Specialists: SSIG, currently engage ~900 employees in www.art-of-technology.ch Swiss Space Industries Group the Space sector, but thousands of other professionals are also indirectly Blösch AG, www.bloesch.ch SSIG (Swiss Space Industries Group) connected. Many of them are univer- is organised as a technology group sity graduates who find attractive jobs Clemessy (Switzerland) AG, www.clemessy.ch within Swissmem. SSIG includes com- in the diverse areas of the production panies that are significantly involved in of space components and systems CSEM, www.csem.ch the wide-ranging, competitive Swiss and contribute specialist expertise space technology environment. These to the companies concerned. The FAES-PWR ESTECH AG, www.estech.ch manufacturers and engineering com- employees of those companies con- panies play a prominent role in the cerned, not only come from a broad Fisba AG, www.fisba.ch broadly faceted, competitive Swiss spectrum of educational and training space industry, and develop solutions backgrounds, but also represent a Franke Industrie AG, www.industech.ch for all areas of space business, includ- wide range of disciplines and therefore ing: structures for rockets, satellites, help to create a highly diverse store MAGENTASYS Sàrl, www.magentasys.com space transporters, and components of expertise. This includes specialist for propulsion engines and scientific knowledge in the fields of electronics, nanoTRONIC GmbH, www.nanotronic.ch instruments. Our companies partici- optics, precision mechanics, aero and pate in various ESA projects and earn thermodynamics, tribology, informa- Orolia Switzerland SA, www.spectratime.com themselves a merited high place in the tion technology, material science and fiercely competitive European market additive manufacturing. This broad Otto Suhner AG, www.suhner.com by delivering quality, expertise, flexibility spectrum of expert knowledge en- and on-time reliability. Space research ables the companies to provide in- Precicast SA, www.precicast.com is a driving force of innovation. Space novative solutions to the complex engineering brings together virtually all challenges arising in the space sector. RUAG Schweiz AG, www.ruag.com/space

SAPHYRION Sagl, www.saphyrion.ch

Schurter AG, www.schurter.ch

shirokuma GmbH, www.shirokuma-gmbh.ch

SWISSto12 SA, www.swissto12.ch

SYDERAL SA, www.syderal.ch

Synopta GmbH, www.synopta.ch

Thales Alenia Space Schweiz AG, www.thalesgroup.com/en/global/activities/space

ViaSat Antenna Systems SA, www.viasat.com APCO Technologies is in charge of the Structure and Thermal Subsystem of the Sentinel 2 WEKA AG, www.weka-ag.ch Multi Spectral Instrument of the Copernicus programme.

84 Index of Authors

11 Index of Authors

Marc Audard ...... Univ. Geneva Willy Benz ...... WP/PI, Univ. Bern Enrico Bozzo ...... Univ. Geneva Rolf Dach...... AIUB, Univ. Bern Alexander Damm...... RSL, Univ. Zurich Marcel Egli...... HSLU, Hergiswil Laurent Eyer ...... Univ. Geneva Carlo Ferrigno ...... ISDC, Univ. Geneva Wolfgang Finsterle...... PMOD/WRC Andrea Fischer...... ISSI, Bern Volker Gass...... Swiss Space Center, EPFL Margit Haberreiter ...... PMOD/WRC Daniel Henke...... RSL, Univ. Zurich Andreas Hueni ...... RSL, Univ. Zurich Adrian Jäggi ...... AIUB, Univ. Bern Raoul Keller...... Swissmem, SSIG Mathias Kneubühler...... RSL, Univ. Zurich Säm Krucker...... FHNW Jean-Luc Josset ...... Space Exploration Inst., Neuchatel Erich Meier ...... RSL, Univ. Zurich Giulio Molinari ...... ETH, Zurich Felix Morsdorf ...... RSL, Univ. Zurich Axel Murk ...... IAP, Univ. Bern Stéphane Paltani...... ISDC, Univ. Geneva Nicolas Produit ...... ISDC, Univ. Geneva Muriel Richard-Noca ...... EPFL Space Eng. Center, EPFL Martin Rubin ...... Univ. Bern Thomas Schildknecht ...... AIUB, Univ. Bern Werner Schmutz ...... PMOD/WRC David Small ...... RSL, Univ. Zurich Nicolas Thomas...... WP/PI, Univ. Bern Benjamin Walter...... PMOD/WRC Tim Wernas...... HSLU, Hergiswil Xin Wu...... DPNC, Univ. Geneva Simon Wüest...... HSLU, Hergiswil Peter Wurz...... WP/PI, Univ. Bern Peter Zweifel ...... ETH, Zurich

85 Swiss Committee on Space Research naturalsciences.ch/organisations/ space_research

Swiss Commission on Remote Sensing naturalsciences.ch/organisations/skf

Swiss Academy of Sciences naturalsciences.ch/organisations/scnat