Electric Propulsion Innovation and Competitiveness 2.0 (EPIC2)

Project Information

EPIC2

Grant agreement ID: 872002

DOI

10.3030/872002

Project closed

EC signature date 23 January 2020

Start date 1 December 2019

End date 31 January 2024

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Space

Total cost

€ 2 999 533,75

EU contribution

€ 2 991 663,75

Coordinated by

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
France

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - EPIC2 (Electric Propulsion Innovation and Competitiveness 2.0 (EPIC2))

Reporting period: 2022-08-01 to 2024-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Electric Propulsion Innovation & Competitiveness 2.0 (EPIC2) project aimed to continue the activities initiated by the project EPIC (640199) in line with the objectives of the Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2018-2020 (5.iii. Leadership in Enabling and Industrial Technologies - Space) provisions in the frame of the Programme Support Activity (PSA), for the implementation of the Electric Propulsion technology Strategic Research Cluster (SRC) in Horizon 2020, during 39 months up to the full spending of the overall available budget in the H2020 WP 2018-2020 of 3,0 M€ for this activity. The duration of the activity was extended to 50 months due to the delays produced by the COVID crisis.
The PSA consortium has ensured the coordination and necessary exchange of information and knowledge between the different SRC Operational Grants within the Electric Propulsion SRC by providing:
• Assessment of the various activities and results of the respective SRC Operational Grants in support to HaDEA.
• Update of the master plan, as needed, to coordinate all the activities for the duration of the respective SRC Operational Grants.
• Identification of the activities required to address the challenge of the respective topics.
• Coherence of actions within the fields of Electric Propulsion with the aim to enhance the competitiveness of the European space industry in this field on the global market and to ensure validated technologies for potential use in the EU programmes.

EPIC2 provided advice to the European Commission (EC) to assess the results of the Operational Grants and their potential evolution with respect to the overall SRC roadmap in full coordination and support to HaDEA.
EPIC2 provided updated roadmaps of activities and an updated master plan for its coordination and implementation through the rest of the execution of the Strategic Research Cluster (SRC) on “In-space Electrical Propulsion and Station-Keeping”. The produced roadmap in its implementation through the operational grants of the SRC and correctly coordinated by the EPIC2 Programme Support Activity (PSA), contributed to increase the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of future EP technologies and their integration in EP products. This allowed the development of EP thrusters and corresponding sub systems to be available for integration in IOD/IOV flight experiments and/or into operational missions with the necessary complement of qualification to cover the missions’ specificities.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

- Assessment of the various activities and results of the respective SRC Operational Grants in support to HaDEA.

- Dissemination and Education activities, mainly around the organization of EPIC Workshops and the exploitation of its results. Several presentations to conferences and Universities were performed during this period. In particular the last EPIC workshop in Naples, Italy, took place on May 2023 where all the results of the different activities were presented together with the current status of the technology in the World and in particular in Europe. The current new market of cubesats received an special attention during this event.

-Preparations of Roadmaps of the Electric Propulsion Technology.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

• Direct Support to the EC/HaDEA for the whole duration of the PSA project, and support to HaDEA in the assessment and monitoring of the various activities and results of the respective SRCs projects (WP3),
• Dissemination and Education activities, mainly around the organization of EPIC Workshops and the exploitation of its results (WP4),
• Technology mapping and application requirements follow-on to update of the roadmaps and masterplan taking into account ESA EP Harmonization updates and the results of the SRC OGs, and EPIC2 activities (WP2),

The EPIC project has helped European Electric Propulsion industry to develop products that are now sold not only to European spacecraft primes but also to American primes such as Boeing. Boeing would like to embark the PPS5000 and the RIT-22 for their telecommunication spacecraft. These two electric propulsion systems received funding in the frame of EPIC. Furthermore, constellation of satellites such as Starlink or OneWeb are using electric propulsion systems from America and Russia, the low power Hall Effect thrusters from Busek, SpaceX and Fakel. EPIC has provided funding development of such thrusters at European level to compete at world level. The current war of Ukraine with Russia has implications on the provision of any electric propulsion system from Russia, thanks to EPIC the European technology was ready to offer an entire European solution such as the PPS 5000 from Safran. Safran is today leader in the manufacturing of Hall Effect thrusters at World level with products such as the PPS5000.

5kW Ion Engine firing in a vacuum chamber