Space Applications Services

Space Applications Services

Space Applications Services

We develop systems and payloads for the International Space Station (ISS), on-orbit servicing and lunar destinations. We also develop robotic and rover systems, complete ground segment solutions, control centres, while providing operations and astronaut training services. Through our ICE Cubes service, our customers can have access to the ISS; and in the near future to commercial Low Earth Orbit stations in development.

Created: 2023-03-05

Updated: 2023-04-06

Company - Space Applications Services

Founded
Country
1987
Belgium
Funding
Yes, ?
Website
https://www.spaceapplications.com/
Social
Space Applications Services

Product/Service - LUVMI, LUVMI-X

Classification
Surface Spacecraft
Category
Commercial Rover
Status
Development
First launch
Not announced

Lunar Rover

The Lunar Volatiles Mobile Instrumentation (LUVMI) rover family provides a smart, low mass, innovative, modular and extendable platform designed to accommodate payloads and provide payload mobility on the moon. It is tele-operated with optional autonomous modes to allow for faster traverses and for safety when entering Permanently Shadowed Regions.

The rover is designed for operation in polar regions of the moon. Platform mass is 40 kg and may accommodate 30- 40 kg of payload mass. Power Onboard solar panels generate up to 180W of which more than 50% are available for payloads.

LUVMI-X
LUVMI-X is an evolution of LUVMI that provides more payload accommodation and deployment capabilities, including deployment of small payloads, all within a lower mass and volume. In its reference configuration, LUVMI-X features a full set of volatiles science instruments – as well as cube payloads, including:

Link

Product/Service - ALCHEMIST

Classification
Space Resources
Category
ISRU (In Situ Resource Utilization)
Status
Development
First launch
2025

ALCHEMIST - In Situ Resource Utilisation

Space Applications Services has led international SRU consortia totaling more than 28 different Partners, and participates as consortium member in a number of other related projects. The Company has been involved in SRU technology definition and breadboarding activities for more than 10 years, and now provides technology and services solutions to realise SRU.

The Team provided a key contribution to a study for PwC/ The Government of Luxembourg which identified the main SRU value chains and the technology roadmap to realising commercially viable SRU .

Prospecting is a first step of in the value chain.

Space Applications Services leads the development of a Lunar Rover Platform (LUVMI-X) with the main goal of prospecting water and other resources on the Lunar surface, including determining the existence of exploitable reserves at the Lunar poles.

Extraction, handling and processing technology is also being investigated and developed in three activities with consortia led by Space Applications Services:

  1. ESA’s Phase 0 study to define a demonstration ISRU payload
  2. ESA’s ISRU terrestrial testbed which is proving ISRU technology for the production of oxygen and water from regolith using the reduction of iron oxides from Lunar regolith simulant
  3. ESA’s Phase A/B1 study (ALCHEMIST) to specify and prototype the payload that will demonstrate ISRU on the moon by 2025.

GROUND-BASED PILOT PLANT

To allow a full incorporation of ISRU capabilities into exploration mission architectures, ISRU-derived products, such as oxidising agents (e.g. oxygen) and metals, are required in sufficient quantities.

Hence, the ESA plan is to deliver and operate an oxygen and metal producing pilot plant to the lunar surface by 2035, to demonstrate first ISRU applications at pilot scale (at the moment production of oxygen is preliminary envisaged to be in the low hundreds of kilograms of oxygen per Lunar year).

To prepare for the development of a Lunar Based ISRU pilot plant, it is deemed necessary to develop a Ground Based analogue pilot plant. The ongoing payload related activities (i.e. ISRU-DM) will demonstrate some critical functions in space conditions, such as seal performance, material suitability and regolith handling.

The Ground based Pilot plant is aiming at complementing the state of the art by exploring and demonstrating long term system operational aspects at relevant scale: mass, power, overall efficiency, reliability, sustainability, operation and maintenance and last but not least safety.

The synergies highlighted above, will be realised most effectively with the parallel development of ISRU-DM and ISRU ground-based demonstration capacity, and therefore the preliminary design of the Ground-Based Pilot Plant should be available in Q1 2023.The performance of the Lunar Pilot Plant CDF, already planned for Q2 2022, and currently ongoing ISRU related ground research will both contribute to the elaboration of the preliminary concept of the Ground-Based Pilot Plant. They will, in particular, establish key design drivers including, but not limited to:-End to End functional building blocks-Best technology candidates and all critical items-Mass and power budgets-Life cycle of sub-systems-Foreseen operation on the lunar surfaceTo achieve the preliminary design and costing of the Ground-Based pilot plant, a thorough study of the processes steps is required which will take into account by pre-existing work (CDFs studies conducted on pilot plant designs and reduction processes,

TDE activities related to ISRU, GSTP and other de-risking and preparatory activities).To increase the maturity of the preliminary design in anticipation of the detailed design of the Ground-Based Pilot Plant, critical sub-systems of this pilot plant will be studied in parallel to meet the Q1 2023 deadline.The terrestrial pilot plant will eventually be hosted in ESRIC.This activity will include three elements:-System Study-Breadboard for Pre-reduction Module-Breadboard for Post reduction Module.

Space Applications Services (SpaceApps) has been awarded a contract by the European Space Agency (ESA), and will lead an international consortium to design an ISRU Ground-Based Pilot Plant (GBPP), 2023-10-12
This plant aims to produce oxygen and metal from Lunar regolith on Earth, a major step in the advancement of In-Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) technologies. The GBPP will be hosted at the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC) in Luxembourg, strengthening the strategic partnership between ESA and ESRIC in the field of space resources. The plant will complement the existing ALCHEMIST-ED Hydrogen Reduction demonstrator, which was successfully delivered by Space Applications Services, and the ISRULAB FFC Cambridge process cells currently in development by SpaceApps.

The GBPP is a terrestrial analogue designed to test and validate technologies that will be used in future lunar missions. It will focus on molten salt electrolysis processes to efficiently extract oxygen and metals from Lunar regolith. The plant aims to demonstrate long-term system operational aspects at a relevant scale, including mass, power, overall efficiency, reliability, sustainability, operation and maintenance, and safety.

The primary objectives of this activity include:

The GBPP is designed to serve as an open platform, allowing for the integration of future technologies and ideas. It aims to serve as a test bed for an international stakeholder community focused on advancing technologies and applications related to molten salt electrolysis processes.

Created: 2023-03-05

Updated: 2024-01-20

Link

Product/Service - Skybeam

Classification
In-Space Manufacturing
Category
Space Solar Power
In-Space Assembly
Status
Concept
First launch
Not announced

Study for Skybeam: Assembly of a Space Solar Power system with European Technologies.

Created: 2023-03-11

Updated: 2023-04-06

Product/Service - Walking Manipulator, HOTDOCK

Classification
Miscellaneous
Category
In-Space Assembly
Robotic Arm
Space Robotics
Hardware
Fields
Docking Technologies
Status
Development
First launch
Not announced

Walking Manipulator

The Walking Manipulator (WM) is a product line enabling robotic on-orbit servicing and reconfiguration. Optionally the Walking Manipulator itself is reconfigurable to provide increased reliability and additional functions. It is designed to support launch loads and is fully compatible with the HOTDOCK connect/disconnect product.

HOTDOCK - Mating/Demating Device

HOTDOCK is a product line of mating interfaces for robotic manipulation providing an androgynous coupling to transfer mechanical loads, electrical power, data and (optionally) thermal loads through a single interface.

AstroCardia
Welcome to the world of AstroCardia, a research project in which 5 Belgian companies and research centers are joining forces to improve heart health in a unique location: space!

Our mission? Studying heart ageing and creating a suitable research model by developing an artificial miniature heart model and vascular system using 3D bioprinting into a microfluidic chip – a so-called heart-on-a-chip. 

Look at a microscopic level at what happens to our heart as we age. The plan in a nutshell:

  1. Print on Earth a 3D miniature heart on a chip with bio-ink and living cells.
  2. Build an artificial blood vessel system around it that feeds the heart.
  3. Send everything to Space and mimic a long life on Earth.
  4. Remote test, analyze the aged heart and test any drugs.

Created: 2023-04-06

Updated: 2024-01-21

News, Research, Projects and Patents

Title Type Date Summary
White paper - Microgravity for biotech & pharma Whitepaper 2022-01-01 >

All levels of biological organisation, cells, tissues, organs, organisms, are affected by microgravity often in novel and useful ways, sometimes in ways that allow medical, biotech and other problems on Earth to be better addressed. The benefits of microgravity allow to manufacture medicines, materials and living tissue that cannot be done in Earth’s 1g gravity environment.
ESA awards Space Resources contract to Space Applications Services Project 2021-05-12 >

ESA awards contract to Space Applications Services to deliver systems and optimise operations for producing oxygen from Lunar soil through the FFC process.

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