FAR 2022

In-Orbit Demonstrators Workshop

This session of the FAR conference will be dedicated to In-Orbit Demonstrators developed or supported by the Flight Vehicles and Aerothermodynamics Engineering section of ESA, as well as DLR. It will include a set of short presentations around these demonstrators, followed by Q&A discussions. The content of the workshop will be as follows:

HEARTED, the Hyper-velocity EArth
Re-entry TEchnology Demonstrator
(L. Ferracina – ESA)

Worldwide experience on Earth high speed re-entry (>10 km/s) is available to USA, Japan and Russia whereas the European background does not exceed the 8 km/s typical of a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) re-entries. Such an important but limited knowledge has been gained through many years and different mission/projects as ARD, IRDT, EXPERT, IXV, and ATV with Earth re-entries, and the Huygens and ExoMars planetary re-entries.

Although ESA was/is considering various missions requiring Earth re-entries at speeds up to 13 km/s, no mission, so far, has been adopted for implementation: very often the lack of the necessary background on Earth high speed re-entry played an essential role on the decision.

To fill such a knowledge gap, ESA is proposing to implement HEARTED the Hyper-velocity EArth Re-entry TEchnology Demonstrator.

Such a mission will be immediately useful for Science, Robotic Exploration, Human Space Flight applications constituting a pathfinder for any European endeavor returning from the Moon, Mars, asteroids or any other planets, providing credible alternatives for international cooperation.

After having successfully closed Phase 0 (Feasibility) and Phase A (Identification of the Needs) in 2021, ESA is now preparing the Phase B to cover the activities leading to the System Requirements Review.

The presentation will address the performed activities and the future plans.

Human In The Loop for Moon Landing
(L. Ferracina – ESA)

The Global Exploration Roadmap (GER) is being developed by space agencies participating in the International Space Exploration Coordination Group. It reflects a coordinated international effort to prepare for collaborative space exploration missions beginning with the International Space Station and continuing to the Moon, near-Earth asteroids, and Mars.

For the Moon, it will establish the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) from there the astronauts will depart to land on the lunar surface.

In this context, the Technical Directorate of ESA has initiated the technology development of Human-In-the-Loop Flight Vehicle Engineering for landing on the South Pole of the Moon.

The technology study investigated the added performance benefit offered by human oversight of lunar landings to improve robustness and reliability of the flight system.

The project is a collaboration between research and industry. Project partner Thales Alenia Space from Italy provided user interfaces for manoeuvre control, including touch screen software. The navigation and flight control of the simulated lunar module was developed by Spanish company GMV and adapted for a unique motion simulator based at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Institute of System Dynamics and Control at Oberpfaffenhofen near Cologne.

As part of the project, ESA astronaut and test pilot Roberto Vittori, boarded this unique motion simulator and tested, for the first-time, various lunar landing maneuvers.

The presentation will address the performed activities and the future plans.

MiniPINS - A Suite of Instruments for the Exploration of Moon and Mars
(V. Fernandez Villace – ESA)

MiniPINS (Miniature Planetary IN-situ Sensors) is a study to develop and prototype miniaturised surface sensor packages for Mars and the Moon. The study aim is to miniaturise the scientific sensors and subsystems, as well as to identify and utilise the commonalities of the packages, allowing to optimise the design, cut costs and reduce the development time.

Mars In-Situ Sensors (MINS) is a concept based on the strong heritage of the MetNet lander. MINS mission consists of 4 scientific observation posts on the Martian surface, 25 kg each. The MINS landers will travel to Mars aboard the carrier and orbiter spacecraft. The MINS payload consists of a camera, a visual spectrometer, a meteorological package, an accelerometer, thermoprobes, a magnetometer, a chemistry package, seismometer and a radiation monitor.

Lunar In-Situ Sensors (LINS) is a new concept of a scientific mission package to investigate the Lunar surface and environment. LINS missions consist of 4 surface stations deployed on the Moon by a rover. The LINS scientific package consists of several scientific instruments to study the Moon. Most of the instruments are common with the MINS packages, such as a camera, an accelerometer, thermo-probes, a magnetometer, a radiation monitor and a seismometer.

LUMEN – the DLR liquid rocket engine demonstrator project
(J. Deeken – DLR)

This speech is intended to provide an overview about the current status of development of DLR’s LUMEN rocket engine demonstrator. The presentation covers the motivation and technological demand for a modular rocket engine test bed, which led to the creation of the LUMEN project, as well as the design choices made to answer those technological goals. It also includes the presentation of recent test results for key components like the turbopumps and thrust chamber assembly.

HEXAFLY-int – Flight Test Designs for High-Speed Transportation
(J. Steelant – ESA)

The global aim is to flight test an experimental waverider-based vehicle concept above Mach 7 to verify its potential for a high cruise efficiency during a free-flight.

In parallel, the concept will also be flight tested to prove the waverider concept is also able to take-off, to accelerate to subsonic speed and to land in an efficient and robust way.

Space Rider Observer Cube (SROC) Demonstrator
(J. Van Den Eynde – ESA)

The Space Rider Observer Cube (SROC) aims to demonstrate technologies for proximity operations of small platforms in a safety-critical context. It is proposed to be released from the Space Rider's cargo bay during its maiden flight, and will take on-orbit imagery of Space Rider during it demonstration mission. The presentation will give an overview of the current status of the project, its technical implementation, and will briefly look ahead to the upcoming milestones and activities.

Feasibility and Preliminary Design of a Moon Drone Vehicle
(L. Walpot – ESA)

A European Large Logistic Lander is in preparation by ESA as a key capability, providing European access to the lunar surface. A Robotic Landing Stack includes a Rover which lands on the Lunar surface, which will traverse roughly 100 km over a lifetime of 1 year. The Drone will assist the rover and inspect the Moon surface.

The objective is to design of a small drone vehicle that is able to autonomously depart from the surface of a rover, hover, and return to its base on top of the rover. The drone shall be able to inspect the area environment around the rover and assist the rover to explore the Moon surface. The presentation will give an overview of the current status of the project, its technical implementation, and flight testing of the conceptual design of the drone.

The Ram-EP technology VLEO satellite mission design and integrated ram-EP ground testing towards a demonstrator mission
(L.Walpot – ESA)

Previous ESA/non-ESA studies, with the aim to reach operative Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) mission duration identified that the major limiting factor is the propellant mass required to perform drag compensation. Ram Electric Propulsion is an innovative solution to enable those types of VLEO missions: collecting from the atmosphere the molecules to propel Electric Propulsion thrusters. The aim of a RAM-EP system is to replace the on-board propellant by collecting sufficient amount of particles at the front of the satellite compressed with an appropriate intake and feeding it into the thrusters. A TRP in 2017 performed, in which a collector with Hall thruster was designed and tested successfully, demonstrates that the thrust of a complete concept (from intake to thruster) can be experimentally assessed in a ground facility completing TRL 2. To reduce the propulsion requirements to compensate the drag of the vehicle, leading to orbital decay, slender vehicles are usually envisaged. The presentation will give an overview of the current status of the current set of activities and its technical challenges towards a demonstrator mission.

In-Orbit Demonstrators Workshop

HEARTED, the Hyper-velocity EArth Re-entry TEchnology Demonstrator(L. Ferracina – ESA)

Human In The Loop for Moon Landing (L. Ferracina – ESA)

MiniPINS - A Suite of Instruments for the Exploration of Moon and Mars(V. Fernandez Villace – ESA)

LUMEN – the DLR liquid rocket engine demonstrator project(J. Deeken – DLR)

HEXAFLY-int – Flight Test Designs for High-Speed Transportation(J. Steelant – ESA)

Space Rider Observer Cube (SROC) Demonstrator(J. Van Den Eynde – ESA)

Feasibility and Preliminary Design of a Moon Drone Vehicle(L. Walpot – ESA)

The Ram-EP technology VLEO satellite mission design and integrated ram-EP ground testing towards a demonstrator mission (L.Walpot – ESA)