Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EROSS (European Robotic Orbital Support Services)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2019-02-01 al 2021-06-30
Digital transformation and orbit pollution are deeply changing the satellite business model by creating new needs for spacecraft connectivity and modularity at low cost which implies strong changes in all engineering domains.
The traditional on-orbit satellite communication market (digital TV broadcasting) based on geostationary solutions will be overcome in time by services able to offer a bandwidth to each individual connected, therefore new satellites architectures in different orbits (such as LEO constellations) are being considered. On top of that, the end-of-life strategy of nowadays spacecraft also pushes towards cleaner design, operations and disposal of these vehicles. Modular architectures, prepared for on–orbit servicing, would be required to cope with rapidly changing market trends and emerging debris regulations. A robotic servicing capability to change payloads , refuel and also repair the satellites, would result in global upload mass reduction with the twofold advantage of both reducing costs and improving space sustainability. In the short term, while advanced robotic capabilities are being developed, specific markets such as the Telecom satellites tugging for life extensions are being pursued with the purpose to finance further development.
The advent of new LEO mega-constellations will crowd even more the LEO zone which is already the most critical for debris population. 10 % of failed satellites has been estimated within large constellations, unable then to dispose themselves autonomously. Therefore, the need of actively deorbiting them will be mandatory in order to avoid catastrophic risks and it is expected that space regulation for disposal will be modified in this sense in the years to come.
The development of the servicing (robotic) capability, and of the technologies required, will also become an enabler for future Deep Space Exploration phases, either to reach the Moon, Mars or Asteroids, where the need of assembling /disassembling infrastructures on-orbit has already been recognized by many studies. In the long term, beside institutional Exploration programs, advanced robotic servicing may also be required by commercial enterprises for construction of On-Orbit Factories and infrastructures for space maintenance, space tourism, and also for Asteroids mining and exploitation.
As the space business is experiencing a change of paradigm, there is clearly a need to develop technologies in order to do space robotic operations for the future missions. It is important to put EROSS into his context and understand really why this project is being done therefore clearly identify what EROSS purpose be and what will EROSS demonstrate for the future of servicing missions.
In this sense, EROSS has developed and boosted the maturity of key robotic building blocks in Europe, and has demonstrated the successful integration of these key technologies to offer an efficient and safe commercial service to operational satellites.
The traditional on-orbit satellite communication market (digital TV broadcasting) based on geostationary solutions will be overcome in time by services able to offer a bandwidth to each individual connected, therefore new satellites architectures in different orbits (such as LEO constellations) are being considered. On top of that, the end-of-life strategy of nowadays spacecraft also pushes towards cleaner design, operations and disposal of these vehicles. Modular architectures, prepared for on–orbit servicing, would be required to cope with rapidly changing market trends and emerging debris regulations. A robotic servicing capability to change payloads , refuel and also repair the satellites, would result in global upload mass reduction with the twofold advantage of both reducing costs and improving space sustainability. In the short term, while advanced robotic capabilities are being developed, specific markets such as the Telecom satellites tugging for life extensions are being pursued with the purpose to finance further development.
The advent of new LEO mega-constellations will crowd even more the LEO zone which is already the most critical for debris population. 10 % of failed satellites has been estimated within large constellations, unable then to dispose themselves autonomously. Therefore, the need of actively deorbiting them will be mandatory in order to avoid catastrophic risks and it is expected that space regulation for disposal will be modified in this sense in the years to come.
The development of the servicing (robotic) capability, and of the technologies required, will also become an enabler for future Deep Space Exploration phases, either to reach the Moon, Mars or Asteroids, where the need of assembling /disassembling infrastructures on-orbit has already been recognized by many studies. In the long term, beside institutional Exploration programs, advanced robotic servicing may also be required by commercial enterprises for construction of On-Orbit Factories and infrastructures for space maintenance, space tourism, and also for Asteroids mining and exploitation.
As the space business is experiencing a change of paradigm, there is clearly a need to develop technologies in order to do space robotic operations for the future missions. It is important to put EROSS into his context and understand really why this project is being done therefore clearly identify what EROSS purpose be and what will EROSS demonstrate for the future of servicing missions.
In this sense, EROSS has developed and boosted the maturity of key robotic building blocks in Europe, and has demonstrated the successful integration of these key technologies to offer an efficient and safe commercial service to operational satellites.
Through the EROSS project, five main areas have been studied to achieve the overall goal of demonstrating and disseminating the capability to autonomously perform on a service in orbit by ground experiments: (1) a mission maturation phase, (2) a building block development and validation phase, (3) an experimental characterization, (4) a complete end-to-end experiment in autonomy, and eventually (5) the exploitation and dissemination of the results through all phases.
1/ The Mission and System Design have been matured based on the capture and servicing of the Sentinel-3A spacecraft from the European Space Agency. This institutional Client opens the door of a future space demonstration with a spacecraft already operational.
2/ Based on the mission requirements, the different Building Blocks have been developed or upgraded towards a complete validation, involving all the EROSS partners. Both unitary and crossed checks have been performed to characterize the different equipment and prepare their final integration.
3/ The complete demonstrator obtained from all these building blocks has been fully characterized by performance tests in open loop to compare the expected and actual results of the different sensors and actuators. This step allowed to record numerous sensor datasets on representative test benches for a future usage.
4/ The last step of this validation was the autonomous performance of the servicing scenario by the complete demonstrator in closed-loop with the sensors and actuators, in both nominal & contingency conditions.
5/ The exploitation and dissemination of the results has taken place in two ways : internally with the technological building blocks roadmaps, and externally with the numerous conference and technical communications. Among them, the project website has been fed with live info during the project and an international interest has been observed through the US and Europe. At technical level, 16 oral communications and conference papers have been performed to ensure its wide dissemination. In the same way, the final demonstration setup was presented at Thales Alenia Space towards the space agency representatives, the visiting clients and partners, as well as all visitors passing by the site of Cannes to extend the reach of the project in the space community and beyond.
1/ The Mission and System Design have been matured based on the capture and servicing of the Sentinel-3A spacecraft from the European Space Agency. This institutional Client opens the door of a future space demonstration with a spacecraft already operational.
2/ Based on the mission requirements, the different Building Blocks have been developed or upgraded towards a complete validation, involving all the EROSS partners. Both unitary and crossed checks have been performed to characterize the different equipment and prepare their final integration.
3/ The complete demonstrator obtained from all these building blocks has been fully characterized by performance tests in open loop to compare the expected and actual results of the different sensors and actuators. This step allowed to record numerous sensor datasets on representative test benches for a future usage.
4/ The last step of this validation was the autonomous performance of the servicing scenario by the complete demonstrator in closed-loop with the sensors and actuators, in both nominal & contingency conditions.
5/ The exploitation and dissemination of the results has taken place in two ways : internally with the technological building blocks roadmaps, and externally with the numerous conference and technical communications. Among them, the project website has been fed with live info during the project and an international interest has been observed through the US and Europe. At technical level, 16 oral communications and conference papers have been performed to ensure its wide dissemination. In the same way, the final demonstration setup was presented at Thales Alenia Space towards the space agency representatives, the visiting clients and partners, as well as all visitors passing by the site of Cannes to extend the reach of the project in the space community and beyond.
The EROSS project has allowed to push further some key topics at both the research and the industrial levels. In that sense, all partners have matured their technologies to be at the forefront of European research for the academic partners with conference communications, and to propose competitive equipment for the industrial partners with mature and validated hardware and software solutions. The main target to come is the in-orbit validation of all these technologies by 2025: performing such a mission would mean increasing significantly the current teams in terms of job positions to cover the new robotic challenges from a space perspective.
The following elements must be recalled as key outcomes: the SIROM standard interface developed by SENER, the 3D Structured Light system developed by SINTEF for robotic vision, the ARAMIS rendezvous sensor by SODERN, or the Gripper developed by PIAP-Space for different Client design. At software level, the overall Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC), Image Processing and Autonomy suite of software developed by Thales Alenia Space, GMV, NTUA, Space Applications Services and SINTEF to manage the platform and the robotic arm in space is a real step forward for servicing made by a mosaic of European partners. In addition, the project also allowed to identify critical components missing in Europe for an autonomous and independent development of future space robotics, like the thermal infrared camera sensor.
On top of these subsystems outcomes, the overall demonstrator validation is the key added value of the EROSS project with the autonomous performance an orbital service using ground benches. This achievement paves the way to competitive services in the future commercial applications by maximising the safety and on-board autonomy, reducing thus the ground supervision needs and staffing and allowing a future refuelling or unit upgrade. Maximizing today the autonomy and the robotic capability is a guarantee of new, attractive, and competitive services for the satellites operators and then for the end customers.
The following elements must be recalled as key outcomes: the SIROM standard interface developed by SENER, the 3D Structured Light system developed by SINTEF for robotic vision, the ARAMIS rendezvous sensor by SODERN, or the Gripper developed by PIAP-Space for different Client design. At software level, the overall Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC), Image Processing and Autonomy suite of software developed by Thales Alenia Space, GMV, NTUA, Space Applications Services and SINTEF to manage the platform and the robotic arm in space is a real step forward for servicing made by a mosaic of European partners. In addition, the project also allowed to identify critical components missing in Europe for an autonomous and independent development of future space robotics, like the thermal infrared camera sensor.
On top of these subsystems outcomes, the overall demonstrator validation is the key added value of the EROSS project with the autonomous performance an orbital service using ground benches. This achievement paves the way to competitive services in the future commercial applications by maximising the safety and on-board autonomy, reducing thus the ground supervision needs and staffing and allowing a future refuelling or unit upgrade. Maximizing today the autonomy and the robotic capability is a guarantee of new, attractive, and competitive services for the satellites operators and then for the end customers.