Paper ID: 677 The 16th International Conference on Space Operations 2020

Mission Design and Management (MDM) (1) MDM - 4 ”International Cooperation & Mission Architecture” (4)

Author: Mr. Gregory Navarro Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France, [email protected]

Mr. Benarroche Patrice Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France, [email protected] Mr. Blouvac Jean Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France, [email protected] Mr. R´emiCanton Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France, [email protected] Mr. Sebastien Barde Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France, [email protected]

DEVELOP A PROJECT FOR ISS WITH A PRIVATE CUSTOMER

Abstract The French Space Agency (CNES), has dedicated structures that work to upload experiments in the International Space Station (ISS) : • The DIA (Direction de l’Innovation, des Applications et de la Science) writes the space exploration roadmap, explores the new opportunities, builds the partnerships and defines the projects. • Then the CADMOS (Centre d’Aide au D´eveloppement des Activit´esen Micropesanteur et des Op´erationsSpatiales) supports the design and manufacture of the human spaceflight experiments and is in charge of the corresponding operations in the ISS. These experiments were used to be conducted with institutional scientists and the corresponding operations were carried out within the framework of a partnership between space agencies. Respecting ESA processes, the CNES’s teams provide systems that meet the safety requirements of the ISS. Since a few years, “New Space” introduced new private actors and their eagerness for future research, transfer to terrestrial applications, commerce and exploration. NASA has adapted its strategy and its processes to work with these companies. ESA is also improving its processes to ensure the success of the European space private initiatives. In that ecosystem, some private companies are particularly interested in exploring and using the still underestimated potential of weightlessness for conducting research and development or giving birth to new businesses for Earth commercial applications. Increasing access to microgravity shall indeed serve as a catalyst for a new kind of industry: frequent and regular access to microgravity at an affordable price will attract industries from all branches in creating tangible assets for their future and stimulate best scientific talents to increase their development invest in microgravity research. However, this ecosystem is still in its infancy and has no “state of the art” habits. In that domain, CNES works to build new kind of collaborations to fertilize and enlarge its national commercialization and innovation program. Some companies are directly soliciting CNES to get know- how and consultancy support. That’s the case of SBU (Space Biology Unlimited) whose objective is to conduct biology experiments in the ISS. Other companies are just “stumbling” on new opportunities for their business in space during meeting at seminars or congresses and wish to develop their products for the ISS and beyond. The last ones are approached directly by CNES because their core activity is of

1 interest for space exploration and its new technology needs. That’s the case of VEGATEC which offers a new type of air purification system. For all those cases, CNES is providing support to help them access space. On the one hand, we have a space ecosystem that welcomes new private business, on the other hand, private companies that want to do business with space. In general, these private companies have never dealt with the field of human spaceflight and their practices do not correspond to the processes of ESA and CNES. They do not want to invest money to acquire the skills to deal with space processes and they prefer to contract a consultant. CNES can provide a service to support these private companies to design their systems in accordance with the requirements of NASA and ESA, help them to upload their experiments in the ISS and operate them. CNES is helping its private partners to popularize and traduce all processes and constraints of human spaceflight domain into a list of technical and administrative requirements to match NASA and ESA processes which are evolving to adapt to those new contractors. CNES’s teams must therefore share its good practices with its private partners but also adapt them to their constraints. It is also important to reassure them, so that they are confident about the feasibility of their project in the harsh environment of space projects. Based on the first CNES experiences, the goal of this article is to gather lessons learned on how it is possible to realize and upload private experiments in the ISS.

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