Airbus

Airbus is a leader in designing, manufacturing and delivering aerospace products, services and solutions to customers on a worldwide scale.

Created: 2018-11-07

Updated: 2024-07-07

Company - Airbus

Founded
Country: 1970; France

Funding: Yes, ?

Website: https://www.airbus.com/en

Social

Product/Service - Bartolomeo

Classification: Miscellaneous

Category: ISS Utilization Service
Microgravity Flight Service (LEO)

Status: Active

First launch: 2020

Bartolomeo

Bartolomeo enables the hosting of external payloads in low-Earth orbit, on-board the International Space Station ISS.

Application areas include (but are not limited to) Earth observation, robotics, material science or astrophysics; payloads can be hosted for institutional and private organizations alike.

Airbus Defence and Space’s All-in-One Mission Service comprises all mission elements into one commercial contract (mission preparation, payload launch, payload on-orbit installation, commissioning, operation, payload data processing and delivery), in order to provide the customer a reliable integrated mission solution. The offer includes the option to return the entire payload or a selected sample to Earth.

Bartolomeo launched on Dragon CRS-20 in March 2020.

Orbital space ageing tests offered for space age materials, 2020-06-04.

Successfully completed the on-orbit commissioning in March 2021 of the Bartolomeo platform, the new payload hosting facility on the International Space Station. Following the successful connection of a majority of the necessary cabling during EVA-73 mid-March, a couple of days of intense work in Bremen were concluded with a successful final test of functionality and reliability of the downlink. The ISS Crew were informed of the successful commissioning – for which their installation work during two recent EVAs was indispensable – on March 31st.

The platform has now been put in standby mode, with power and bandwidth resources released, while awaiting the arrival of first payloads, currently scheduled for early 2022.

Some Examples of Payloads Slated to Fly on Bartolomeo

On Sunday 17th September 2023 the multi-Needle Langmuir Probe (m-NLP) was successfully transferred to the Bartolomeo platform, marking the first experiment to use one of the 11 slots available on the service.

Status Comment / Notes

Link

Product/Service - Spaceplane

Classification: Human Spaceflight & Landers

Category: Suborbital Space Tourism
Microgravity Flight Service (Suborbital)

Fields: Suborbital

Status: Dormant

First launch: Dormant

Suborbital Spaceplane

The Airbus Defence and Space Spaceplane,is a suborbital spaceplane concept for carrying space tourists, proposed by EADS Astrium (currently Airbus Defence and Space),

Created: 2021-07-26

Updated: 2023-02-25

Link

Product/Service - ROXY

Classification: Space Resources

Category: ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization)

Status: Development

First launch: 2020

ISRU

An international team led by Airbus Defence and Space (Friedrichshafen, Germany) with scientists from Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM (Dresden, Germany), Boston University (Massachusetts, USA) and Abengoa Innovación (Seville, Spain) has successfully demonstrated the production of oxygen and metals from simulated lunar dust (regolith) with the Airbus-invented process named ROXY (Regolith to OXYgen and Metals Conversion). Airbus believes ROXY could revolutionise human space exploration.

The core of the ROXY technology is based on electrochemical reduction by molten salt electrolysis. AIRBUS US feels this proposal for a Regolith to Oxygen and Metal Conversion demonstrator is an excellent fit to the scientific goals and objectives of NASA to enable sustainable lunar exploration.

The demonstrator is also a robust sturdy design, is self-contained with modest demands on the lander and its landing site and can achieve its objectives within one lunar day. Future applications of this technology can easily be scaled to a future lunar-based pilot plant for oxygen and metal conversion, and some aspects can be applied usefully to terrestrial applications e.g. for rare-earth metal extraction.

MEFAM - The Metals Factory on the Moon.

Status Comment / Notes

Created: 2022-09-09

Updated: 2023-07-26

Link

Product/Service - Metal3D, PERIOD

Classification: In-Space Manufacturing

Category: In-Space Manufacturing

Fields: Additive Manufacturing (3D printing)
Large Space Structures

Status: Development

First launch: 2024

Additive Manufacturing

Metal3D, developed by Airbus for the European Space Agency (ESA), is a real game changer. It uses metal as source material and prints it at 1,200 degrees Celsius to produce new parts such as radiation shields, tooling or equipment directly in orbit. Future versions of the 3D printer could also use materials such as regolith (moondust), or recycled parts from decommissioned satellites.

As early as the end of this decade, 3D printers could also be used on the Moon, enabling a sustainable human presence there by printing structures for lunar rovers or habitats. 3D printing in space or on the Moon is only the beginning. Airbus wouldn't be Airbus if it didn't take in-space manufacturing to the next level. As soon as in the next three to four years, it will be producing and assembling entire satellites in space. So its next satellite factory will not be in Europe or the United States, but in space, hundreds of kilometers above us.

The world’s first metal 3D printer for space is on its way to the ISS, 2024-01-31

In-Space Assembly

The European aerospace giant Airbus has commenced the study phase of a factory for assembling an antenna and a satellite in earth’s orbit. Consisting of two robotic arms, a demonstrator of this concept is expected to be functional by as early as 2025. An industrial team is also working on developing a 3D printer for the International Space Station. Through the Horizon 2020 Program, Airbus will lead the PERASPERA In-Orbit Demonstration, or PERIOD project, focusing on building spacecraft while orbiting the Earth.

The PERASPERA In-Orbit Demonstration (PERIOD) project is one of the operational grants (OGs) of the third phase of the SRC with an objective to define an orbital demonstrator concept while capitalizing on the work of the previous phases of the SRC that have addressed the designing, manufacturing, and testing of reliable and high-performance robotic building blocks.

Introducing our smart robotic arm for manufacturing & assembly in space. The NextSpace era will create the next factory directly in orbit.

Status Comment / Notes

Created: 2022-10-21

Updated: 2024-02-03

Link

Product/Service - Robotic Arm

Classification: Miscellaneous

Category: Space Robotics
Robotic Arm
Hardware

Status: Development

First launch: 2020

Robotic Arm

The European Robotic Arm (ERA), built by European aerospace company Airbus for the European Space Agency (ESA), will fly to the orbital outpost on July 15, 2021 together with the new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module, also known as Nauka (the Russian word for science).

Airbus engineers have already installed the lightweight arm onto the module, ahead of its launch from the Russian Space Agency Roscomos' Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Proton rocket. The robot resembles a pair of compasses with two symmetrical arms, each a little over 16 feet (5 meters) long. Fitted with a dexterous hand at the end of each arm, ERA will be able to move freely outside of the space station, attaching itself wherever it's needed.

Introducing our smart robotic arm for manufacturing & assembly in space. The NextSpace era will create the next factory directly in orbit.

Detumbler

Airbus launched a device designed to address space debris in Earth's orbit in November 2023.

Developed in 2021 by Airbus, and supported by the French Space Agency CNES under their Tech4SpaceCare initiative, the Detumbler is a magnetic damping device that would be attached to a satellite. The Detumbler includes a central rotor wheel and magnets that interact with the Earth’s magnetic field. When the satellite is flying normally the rotor acts like a compass following the magnetic field, but should the spacecraft begin to tumble the rotor movement induces eddy currents acting like a friction torque thus damping the motion.

The in-orbit demonstration of the Detumbler is scheduled for early 2024 on a mission from Exotrail (SpaceVan) which will include the Exo-0 nanosatellite from EnduroSat.

Status Comment / Notes

Created: 2023-02-05

Updated: 2024-01-13

Link

Product/Service

Classification: Space Utilities

Category: Space Solar Power
Power Beaming

Fields: Wireless Power Transfer

Status: Concept

First launch: Not announced

Beaming solar power could help Europe access more renewable energies, in an independent way. Airbus has now demonstrated how this new technological concept could work in its X-Works Innovation Factory.

Status Comment / Notes

Created: 2023-03-11

Updated: 2023-07-16

Link

Product/Service - LOOP

Classification: Space Stations & Habitats

Category: Commercial Space Station

Status: Concept

First launch: Not announced

The Airbus LOOP is designed to make long-term stays in Space comfortable and enjoyable for its inhabitants, while supporting efficient and sustainable operations at the same time. It builds on everything that has been learnt over the decades and fully exploits the potential of tomorrow’s technologies in order to best support humanity’s future in Space: In Low-Earth or Lunar Orbit, or on long-term missions to Mars.

Under the Airbus LOOP umbrella, Airbus also offers a variety of services and products that support Human Spaceflight Missions, ranging from consulting service to individual payloads:

Voyager Space announced that it has signed on Airbus as a partner for Starlab, a free-flying LEO outpost planned to be launched in 2028. Airbus Defense and Space will provide design support and technical expertise for the space station, which is under development.

Status Comment / Notes

Likely merged into Starlab as of late 2023.

Created: 2023-07-16

Updated: 2024-01-13

Link

News, Research, Projects and Patents

Title	Type	Date	Summary
The Race For Space-Based Solar Power Is Underway	News	2022-11-30
Europe will launch a new two-handed robotic arm to the International Space Station soon	News	2021-07-06
The new digital factory, hundreds of kilometres above Earth	Article	2021-02-17	> Airbus Defence and Space is priming its in-space manufacturing and assembly technologies for orbit

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