Space Applications Services: Difference between revisions
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The ICE Cubes facility allows researchers, educators, universities and companies to run their experiments on the International Space Station and to access space conditions in their experiment cubes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2018/07/Horizons_science_installing_ICE_Cubes|title=Horizons science: installing ICE Cubes|website=European Space Agency}}</ref> |
The ICE Cubes facility allows researchers, educators, universities and companies to run their experiments on the International Space Station and to access space conditions in their experiment cubes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2018/07/Horizons_science_installing_ICE_Cubes|title=Horizons science: installing ICE Cubes|website=European Space Agency}}</ref> |
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The Service strives to remove barriers that hamper access to space, providing a broader access to flight opportunities. |
The Service strives to remove barriers that hamper access to space, providing a broader access to flight opportunities. Research fields can range from pharmaceutical to fluid sciences, and much more.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7126|title=Science Launching to Space Station Looks Forward and Back|website=NASA/JPL}}</ref> The service also allows to demonstrate and validate technologies in a true space environment before offering these technologies on the market. |
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ICE Cubes service stems from a partnership between Space Applications Services and the European Space Agency (ESA). <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2019/01/Floating_ice|title=Floating ice|website=European Space Agency}}</ref> |
ICE Cubes service stems from a partnership between Space Applications Services and the European Space Agency (ESA). <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2019/01/Floating_ice|title=Floating ice|website=European Space Agency}}</ref> |
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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Richard Aked (Managing Director), Leif Steinicke (Director) |
| Products | Space systems, robotics and payload development. Ground segment solutions. Lunar exploration products including rovers. |
| Services | International Space Station access and operations services. Astronaut training. |
| Website | spaceapplications |
Space Applications Services is an independent Belgian company founded in 1987, with a subsidiary, Aerospace Applications North America, in Houston, USA. Its aim is to research and develop innovative systems, solutions and products and provide services to the aerospace and security markets and related industries. Its activities cover manned and unmanned spacecraft, launch/re-entry vehicles, control centres, robotics and a wide range of information systems. The company is EN 9100 certified (for Space Flight Systems & Ground Support Equipment) and serves clients worldwide. It is owned and managed by its founders, Richard Aked and Leif Steinicke.[1][2]
History
Space Applications Services was founded in 1987. The initial business line was Human Spaceflight focused on the definition of the European Manned Space Infrastructure. In 1995 a Robotics Team was restablished, closely followed in 1999 by the Future Projects and Exploration Team and in 2000 by the Flight systems, Avionics and Embedded Systems Teams. The unmanned spacecraft business line was established in 2001 with focus on Earth Observation Systems Ground Segments. In 2004 Aerospace Applications North America was established in [Houston] focusing on human machine interaction, systems and technology.
Expanding into unmanned space systems the Earth Observation Systems Team was established in 2001.
In 2004, Space Applications Services created a subsidiary company in Houston, Texas, the United States of America, called “Aerospace Applications North America, Inc.” (AANA), specialized in Human Machine Interface.[3]
In 2005 the company established a Services business line providing specialist technical services to institutional and non-institutional customers. In 2009 a Knowledge Management team was added[4](since renamed Artificial Intelligence) and a research office was established in the Netherlands.
The company is currently organized in a Systems Department comprising a Flight Systems Division, a Ground Systems and Software Division and a Technology, Applications and Robotics division, a Services Department and a Business Innovation Unit.
Main Products
Robotics and mechanisms
Hotdock
HOTDOCK is a new generation of mating interface for robotic manipulation. It is mating mechanism that can accommodate demanding on-orbit robotics, planetary robotics, and Earth applications. HOTDOCK provides redundant mechanical, power and data coupling capabilities between payloads and spacecraft or between spacecraft modules.[5][6]
DEXO: dexterous manipulation with latency mitigation
DEXO is an exoskeleton system that provides an immersion feeling to users based on natural and intuitive interactions. It was first developed for complex Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) operations in offshore marine applications, but can also be used for robotic based dexterous operations in harsh environments. The technology provides the basis for implementing facilityless training where the trainee is fully immersed in a virtual representation of the system to be trained on.[7]
Ground segment
Yamcs Suite
Yamcs is an open source mission control system integrated with a test and checkout system and mission simulator. It comprises two main modules: Yamcs Core and Yamcs Applications. It has been developed to be cost effective and flexible, opening the door to innovation and ensuring high quality/low cost Mission Control Systems development, implementation and integration. Yamcs has been applied to many spacecraft and robotic systems.[8][9]
Automated Service Builder
ASB is a platform that provides low coding solution to develop a data processing facility based on orchestrated workflows.[10]
Exploration Systems
LUVMI-X Lunar Rover
The Lunar Volatiles Mobile Instrumentation (LUVMI) rover family provides a smart, low mass (max. 40 kg), 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 (PSR). PSRs are believed to hold vast stores of water. Instruments carried by the rover will look specifically for this water. To analyse regolith, LUVMI will insert a miniaturised analysis package under the surface itself, performing in-situ analysis, reducing analysis time and the risk of contamination compared to conventional drills.[11] [12]
Alchemist In-Situ Resource Utilisation
The company’s ALCHEMIST (A Lunar CHEmical In-Situ Resource Utilisation Test Plant) plant extracts oxygen from regolith by means of a hydrogen reduction process and produces, iron, titanium and water. A terrestrial demonstrator has already proved that the process works on Earth with regolith simulant and the definition of a plant that will be deployed on the moon in 2025 to demonstrate the end to end process of oxygen production is underway for ESA.[13]
Lunar Ground Segment
A complete mission control system, mission simulator and ground station network to perform lunar missions supported by space weather prediction services.[14]
Avionics
Rugged Ethernet Gateway
The REG is a small to medium form factor rugged Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switch system optimized for demanding size, weight and power (SWaP) constraints of embedded space computer network systems applications. It is suitable for LEO, GEO and cis-lunar applications.[15]
Video Management Unit
The VMU is a generic COTS-based rugged video and data processor, originally developed as an upgrade for ESA’s Fluid Science Lab (FSL) on ISS Columbus, and designed to manage state-of-the-art scientific cameras and sensors. The system contains a radiation tolerant space-grade commercial computer unit for system monitoring and management, and for interfacing to the payload.[16]
Main Services
Control Centres
Space Applications Services designs and operates control centres for spacecrafts, vehicles, observation missions, flights as well as for security operations.
Training
Space Applications Services provides end-to-end training services for astronauts, ground personnel and others their clients with high-quality, adapted, cost-effective technical, mission-enabling training and simulation services, and relying on highly qualified training advisors, designers, developers, instructors and evaluators.[17]
ICE Cubes (International Commercial Experiment Cubes)
The International Commercial Experiment Cubes or ICE Cubes Service provides access to space for research, technology or education. The scope of the ICE Cubes service is to make space a part of everyday’s value chains in research & technology.
The ICE Cubes facility allows researchers, educators, universities and companies to run their experiments on the International Space Station and to access space conditions in their experiment cubes.[18]
The Service strives to remove barriers that hamper access to space, providing a broader access to flight opportunities. Research fields can range from pharmaceutical to fluid sciences, and much more.[19] The service also allows to demonstrate and validate technologies in a true space environment before offering these technologies on the market.
ICE Cubes service stems from a partnership between Space Applications Services and the European Space Agency (ESA). [20]
In March 2019 Aerospace Applications North America, Inc. started to offer the ICE Cubes Service in the United States and is now active also as Implementation Partner to the ISS US National Lab.[21]
References
- ^ https://www.spaceapplications.com/company
- ^ "Bloomberg - Are you a robot?". www.bloomberg.com.
{{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help) - ^ "Aerospace Applications North America | Homepage". Aerospace Applications North America.
- ^ https://www.spaceapplications.com/company/
- ^ "HOTDOCK selected as the standard interface in H2020 Space Robotics projects – Pro-Act".
- ^ https://www.spaceapplications.com/products/hotdock/
- ^ "DEXO - exoskeleton for DexROV".
- ^ "Yamcs". www.yamcs.org.
- ^ https://www.spaceapplications.com/products/yamcs/
- ^ https://www.spaceapplications.com/products/automated-service-builder-asb/
- ^ "About". luvmi.
- ^ https://www.spaceapplications.com/products/a-mobile-platform-for-lunar-exploration-experiments-luvmi/
- ^ https://www.spaceapplications.com/news/an-alchemist-on-the-moon/
- ^ "PTScientists to examine future ESA mission on in-situ resource utilisation on the Moon". spaceref.com.
- ^ https://www.spaceapplications.com/products/rugged-ethernet-gateway-reg/
- ^ https://www.spaceapplications.com/products/video-management-unit-vmu/
- ^ https://www.spaceapplications.com/systems-services/
- ^ "Horizons science: installing ICE Cubes". European Space Agency.
- ^ "Science Launching to Space Station Looks Forward and Back". NASA/JPL.
- ^ "Floating ice". European Space Agency.
- ^ "Implementation Partners". www.issnationallab.org.