No. 42 I JULY I 2019 “COLLABORATION BETWEEN TRADITIONAL SPACE AND NEW SPACE IS GOING to be very strong JORDI PUIG-SUARI FEATURE LATEST NEWS EUROPEAN SUCCESS OF THE FIRST SATELLITE FEINDEF NAVIGATION SYSTEM 1 MOVING OFF THE LANDING PLATFORM The ExoMars rover has a brand new control centre The epicentre of the action for directing Mars in one of Europe’s largest Mars yards. The Rover surface operations on Earth is at the ALTEC Operations Control Centre (ROCC) was inaugurated premises in Turin, Italy. From here, engineers and on 30 May 2019 in Turin, Italy, ahead of the rover’s scientists will work shoulder to shoulder at mission exploration adventure on the Red Planet in 2021. control, right next to a very special Mars yard. The control centre will be the operational hub Filled with 140 tonnes of soil, the Mars-like terrain that orchestrates the roaming of the Europeanbuilt has sandy areas and rocks of various sizes that will laboratory on wheels, named after Rosalind Franklin, help rehearse possible mission scenarios. upon arrival to the martian surface on Kazachok, the Russian surface platform. Copyright: ALTEC PHOTO: ESA IberEspacio Tecnología Aeroespacial “NEW SPACE”, THE NEW FRONTIER FOR STATE OF THE ART TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES Tecnobit-Grupo Oesía has been present in the Space sector since 2007 and has recorded various successes following on from the extensive experience it has gained from decades of working on flight electronics in the aeronautical sector. We have the capabilities to develop equipment and solutions demanded by the sector, which has enabled us to consolidate the company in the Space market with developments that follow European Space Agency (ESA) regulations, as well as working on projects for benchmark companies. Among its Space developments, Tecnobit-Grupo Oesía supplied all the electronics for the ELSA (ADS) antenna array. These consisted of Control and Process Units (ICU), management system and feed distribution units (PDU), etc. and diverse systems for micro-satellites. In parallel with our activity in what is considered traditional or Classic Space (governed by the standards set by international agencies like ESA and NASA), we also have the strategic desire to promote developments in the sector known as New Space. New Space focuses especially on systems that will operate in low orbits (LEO). In a way, it can be said that this scenario is among those that Tecnobit – Grupo Oesía covers in the field of aeronautics. And in the case of deep space, it is precisely why the company has much to offer through its experience in both cases. New Space emerged from Universities and Research Centres, and is now one of the technological sectors and expanding markets that encourages major efforts in Research and Development. It also generates major investments (it is calculated that in 10 years it will be a market worth a trillion dollars). One foreseeable development of New Space bursting on to the scene is that in lower orbits traditional satellites will give way to constellations of nano and micro satellites for which the capacities of the system are based on the group as a whole (model constellation). Replacing a single satellite with a network of smaller ones has a number of important advantages: - in their size and design (eg the type of materials), the cost of production and launching is much EDITORIAL less, EDITORIAL - their coverage can range from zonal, or restricted to a precise geographical area, to global (in any part of the planet) based on the number of components in the constellation. - their endurance is less reliant on the resistance and durability of their components, more on the fact that the constellation can be maintained by assuming a level of repositioning that will cover the “decommissioning” of parts of them by launching new ones to substitute them. This, together with the emergence of specific new launchers for this type of nano / micro satellites, will NEW SPACE IS NOW ONE OF allow for systems that are theoretically everlasting in providing a service. THE TECHNOLOGICAL SECTORS AND EXPANDING MARKETS THAT - the generation of waste in these types of small systems that operate in low orbit is without doubt ENCOURAGES MAJOR EFFORTS IN miniscule, given that the units will end up disintegrating in the atmosphere. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT. Among examples of the future use of this type of IT ALSO GENERATES MAJOR capability, based on a constellation of nano / micro INVESTMENTS satellites, will be: - providing broadband communications, not only to areas of high density population but also the most remote ones. Luis Furnells - improving the tasks of earth observation through systems based on the “potential of the group” PRESIDENT and its great endurance. TECNOBIT-GRUPO OESÍA At present Tecnobit-Grupo Oesía is taking an active part in the development of major European New Space projects in the commercial field. We are dedicating energy and innovation to offering a technological contribution to creating advanced solutions based on a model constellation of nano / micro satellites that will transform the way that telecommunications work. EDITORIAL 39 03 “New Space”, the new frontier for state of the art LATEST NEWS technology companies Luis Furnells. President. Tecnobit-Grupo Oesía INTERVIEW 06 Jordi Puig-Suari “Collaboration between traditional Space and New Space is going to be very strong” FEATURE 12 European satellite navigation system OP-ED 21 BLACK HOLE Science correspondent at RTVE and Director of SUMMARY the programme ASTRO24 INTERVIEW SPACE OVER TIME 22 El Arenosillo A sentimental story by Álvaro Azcárraga NEW SPACE 30 MADE IN SPAIN LATEST NEWS 32 • Sucess of the first FEINDEF • Hisdesat designates AIRBUS and THALES ALENIA SPACE to build SPAINSAT NG satellites • Preparing for the launch of UPMSAT-2 • CHEOPS: ready to fly MOMENTS • The first space walk for women will have to wait • Discover ESA, united space in Europe • El satélite español SEOSAT-INGENIO bajo la órbita de VEGA • Tenth anniversary of the pilot plant MELISSA • Black hole photo • Last image from the rover OPPORTUNITY on Mars • SMOS, MARS EXPRESS and JUICE: a mission in common • The Barbie version of astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti INFORMATION MEDIUM ON TEDAE’S SPACE COMPANIES: Airbus DS, ALTER Technology, ARQUIMEA, Crisa (Airbus DS), DAS Photonics, NEW FLASHES Elecnor DEIMOS, DEIMOS Imaging, GMV, 39 INFORMATION ON TEDAE’S SPACE GTD, Hisdesat, Hispasat, HV Sistemas, COMPANIESCOMPANIES IberEspacio, Indra, PLD Space, SENER, Tecnalia, Telespazio Ibérica, Tecnobit-Grupo Oesía and Thales Alenia Space España 4 MAGAZINE PROESPACIO No. 42 39 31 NEW SPACE MADE IN SPAIN 38 24 LATEST NEWS SPACE OVER TIME 06 12 21 FEATURE OP-ED 32 WRITING STAFF: EDITORIAL BOARD: LAYOUT: Silvia Beltrán, Oihana Casas, Teresa Alejos, Sofía Alfaro, Iñaki Latasa, Francisco Victoria Álvarez, Marcia Ismael Sánchez de la Blanca Lechón, Araceli Serrano and Arizaga, Torcuato Battaglia, (ART DIRECTOR), Rosana Antonio Tovar Oriol Casas, Raquel Chivato, Apruzzese, Raquel Arroyo Mireia Colina, David Manuel and Adrián Díaz COORDINATOR: César Ramos Fernández, Pilar García, Marta Jimeno, Sara Lanchas, Mar Quarterly edition - digital PUBLISHER: Begoña Francoy López, Cristina Pérez, Valentín and printed. Polo, Pedro Rodrigo, Lorena Legal deposit ISSN 2254- Santos, Lucía Senchermes, 9692 Lucila Taddei, Ignacio Tourné M-46591-2004 and Victoria Velasco Printed by Expomark 5 interview Jordi Puig-Suari THE FASTEST PROCESSES THAT I KNOW OF HAVE BEEN SIX MONTHS, FROM CONTRACT TO FLIGHT, SOMETHING THAT WAS UNTHINKABLE BEFORE.” 6 MAGAZINE PROESPACIO No. 42 “Collaboration between traditional Space and New Space is going to be very strong” Jordi Puig-Suari, aerospace engineer and professor along with Bob Twiggs- a concept satellite that is at Cal Poly (California Polytechnic State University), revolutionising the Space sector, the CubeSat, and has been a lover of aircraft ever since he was little the new idea that people now have of him, known and aspired to designing a screw that flies before as New Space. he dies. He hasn’t done that, but he has invented – to do it in international units, not in inches, so that students in the United States learn in HOW DID THE CUBESAT CONCEPT COME ABOUT? centímetres. CUBESAT IS BASED ON THE IDEA of “democratization of Space”. I grew up in a country where at the time Space was inaccessible, and HOW LONG DID YOU TAKE IN MAKING THE look what’s happened there. I was speaking with FIRST ONE? a young guy from the Ivory Coast who is studying in South Africa and has built a satellite, something The idea of the standard came out at the end of that before would have been impossible and 1999. We had already spent six months thinking know that I am in part responsible for this about the idea of the 10 cm and there were people happening on a global scale. That someone in getting started, but we still did not know how we Vigo says: “Listen, at the University of Vigo we were going to launch parts of the standard. The make satellites and before nobody would have first 10 years were a test, changing ideas. So we’ve thought it.” For me the satisfaction is obvious. spent almost 20 years doing it and the first to be The concept goes back quite a few years. Bob launched were in 2003. The fastest processes that and I wanted to teach students how to create I know of have been six months, from contract to something that is very small and simple and flight, something that was unthinkable before. that can be used to launch satellites and do the With Cubesat the principal standard is 10x10x10 engineering systems and be present in the whole cm, plus the millímetres that separate them. process from design to launch. All this we noted Picosat is up to 1 kg and Nanosat up to 10 kg.