66th International Astronautical Congress, Jerusalem, Israel. Copyright ©2015 by the International Astronautical Federation. All rights reserved. IAC-15-B3.2.8.30387 THE HELIUM NEAR SPACE LABORATORY Human Near Space Access, Now, More Affordable, Reliable and Safe. Annelie Schoenmaker, David Ferrer Desclaux, José Mariano López-Urdiales, Gerard Illana Meler zero2infinity SL Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain +34 935 824 422
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[email protected] Abstract The HELIUM (High European Laboratory for Institutes, Universities and Markets) project offers European and international companies, researchers and scientists a platform to access Near Space. Space technologies are on a continuous growth path and many new developments (related to flag-ship Space programmes like Galileo or Copernicus, and a long tail of other Space initiatives) need to be tested, demonstrated and validated before being accepted by the industry. Currently, these newly developed technologies are tested on the ground, using climatic chambers that simulate one, or a few, Space conditions. However, it remains difficult to simulate the integrated effect of all Space conditions. It’s even more difficult to have a human in the loop, which can help understand the interactions between the environment and the experiment. zero2infinity is developing a balloon-borne laboratory that provides cost effective access to Near Space. It’s an environmentally friendly solution that. In Europe there is an increasing demand of flight opportunities to test, validate, demonstrate and calibrate technologies, equipment and new concepts that need to increase their TRL. This is essential to retain the competitiveness of the European Space sector.