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The Eurostar Neo Deployment and Pointing System, developed by Airbus Defense and Space (F) and Euro Heat Pipes (B) in the frame of ESA’s Neosat Partnership Project, is qualified and ready for flight.

The new Airbus Defense and Space Eurostar Neo satellite product line offers one of the largest communication payload capacities on the world market. This is in particular enabled by the Deployment and Pointing System which repositions the electric thrusters throughout the mission to optimise system performance.

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The Deployment and Pointing System, developed by Airbus Defense and Space (F) and EHP (B), under test in Airbus Toulouse facility (Image credit: Airbus Defense and Space)

Qualification testing of the Deployable and Pointing System has recently been completed, covering all aspects of environmental, functional and performance requirements, including hold-down, release, and arm deployment sequences. In-orbit validation is planned in 2021, on-board the first Eurostar Neo mission.

Fourteen Neosat satellites have now been ordered, demonstrating the high economic impact of ESA’s Partnership Projects, which also foster the development of sustainable end-to-end systems up to in-orbit validation.

The objective of the Neosat Partnership Projects is to develop and qualify the next generation platforms allowing the two European satellite prime integrators, Airbus DS and Thales Alenia Space (TAS) to deliver competitive satellites for the commercial satellite market. The projects include development up to in-orbit validation of the new platform product lines for both Prime contractors, Eurostar Neo for Airbus DS and Spacebus Neo for Thales Alenia Space.

Neosat is part of ESA’s Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) programme and is based on a cooperation between ESA and CNES.

Source :https://artes.esa.int/node/119589

Objectives

On telecommunication applications, the Heat Pipes are used in different ways. They can collect heat from several dissipative equipment in order to either spread the heat over large radiator panel or transport heat from hot area to cold area.

Use of Direct Manufacturing technology for manufacturing heat pipes is not foreseen to improve mass or cost at piece part level. The improvement will come from an optimization between the Heat Pipe heat transport capacity and the Heat Pipe heat transfer performance. A large amount of Heat Pipes are used to transfer efficiently heat through the spacecraft. There are several ways to dissipate heat from spacecraft internal equipment’s using heat pipes. The objective of this project has been to study and develop a heat transfer technology based on Heat Pipes and the benefits of direct manufacturing technology in order to improve the standard HP performances and improve heat collection, heat transport and heat spreading. The proposed concept has been implemented in a representative configuration of dissipative payload mounted on inner spacecraft floor which reject its heat to the radiator walls.

Challenges

The main challenges were:

• to identify the main requirements and potential benefits of the new technology;
• to define the new product: Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM) Heat Pipes (HP);
• to bind the ALM parts and extruded HP parts;
• to quantify the advantage of these newly combined HP system which integrate ALM parts in classical HP;
• to identify possible applications of this improvement.

Benefits

The newly assembly:

• Enables much larger interface between heat source and the HP as it incorporates spreader capabilities;
• Reduce dimensions in case of non-linear HP;
• Has better thermal performance than classical HP (overall conductivity);
• Enables more complex designs of heat transfer systems.

Features

The product tested are two different configurations of linking between classically extruded HP and ALM HP which are compared to classical HP linking. The larger linking part between these new types of HP made by ALM and classical HP, enables larger heat exchange surface area. This explains the large benefit in terms of thermal performance. The additive manufacturing technique enables to design the ALM HP with much more possibilities: it removes some limitation due to the extrusion technique.

System Architecture

Three architectures were tested which involves 3 inline HP each:

• 3 classically extruded HP;
• 2 extruded in parallel at hot source, 2 at cold sink and 1 larger ALM linked HP in between;
• 1 extruded in parallel at hot source, 1 at cold sink and 1 larger ALM linked HP in between;

Plan

The following main stages have been successfully run:

• Literature survey;
• Technical requirement;
• Material and process test;
• Trader-off;
• Design;
• Manufacturing Engineering Model (EM);
• EM test;
• EM results correlation;
• Proposal for further work.

Current status

At the end of the project, concept of ALM HP have been successfully demonstrated to be useful and highly performant. The partners have benefit from a significant gain in ALM process knowledge that will enable short term consideration of this technology on flight opportunities.

Additional development activities must be performed in order to finalize some processes essentially in terms of design to costs aspects.

Several ongoing projects are looking intensively on this technology to be baselined in the thermal / mechanical architecture of the platform and / or instrument.

The actual TRL level is of 5.

Source :

https://artes.esa.int/projects/aghp

SEVERAL THOUSAND NOVEL HEAT PIPES ARE NOW BEING PRODUCED EACH YEAR BY BELGIAN COMPANY EURO HEAT PIPES, FOLLOWING ITS PARTICIPATION IN ESA’S EUROSTAR NEO PARTNERSHIP PROJECT. 

Working with satellite manufacturer Airbus, Eurostar Neo is dedicated to developing, qualifying and validating Airbus’ next-generation satellite platform for the core satellite communications market.

Because this new generation of satellite is larger and more powerful than the previous one, it has driven demand for further innovation in thermal control technologies while answering market needs for ever improved cost competitiveness and shortened satellite manufacturing schedules.

Airbus and ESA selected Euro Heat Pipes in Belgium to provide a reliable supply of thousands of heat pipes to transport the heat from the hottest parts of the satellite to the cool areas radiating to deep space. The challenge was huge as it involved a wide range of shapes, lengths and performance specifications as well as kilometres of heat pipes needed for each Eurostar Neo satellite.

The development and preparation for such a large-scale production of a wide range of heat pipes required significant financial investment by industry. Being part of a large-scale ESA Partnership Project such as Eurostar Neo reduces the risk to industry’s investment and offers a direct opportunity for in-orbit validation.

Through this project, Euro Heat Pipes has grown its production capacity from a few hundred to several thousands of heat pipes per year. The company has also recruited several additional staff and improved its product standardisation.

Heat pipes ready for delivery

The successful collaboration has helped Euro Heat Pipes to grow into a competitive, reliable, high-volume capacity supplier of a large heat pipe portfolio on the world market.

Eurostar Neo is part of ESA’s ARTES (Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems) Programme element Neosat to develop and qualify two new satellite product lines, one with Airbus and one with Thales Alenia Space, enabling the European space industry to deliver commercially competitive satellites in the 3 – 6 tonnes launch mass range. The programme includes the in-orbit validation of the new platforms. To date 12 satellites have been sold, enabling a projected return on investment for participating states exceeding €20 for every €1 invested.

Neosat is a joint undertaking between ESA and the French Space Agency (CNES) with joint programme management and contributions from several member states, including Belgium.

Source : https://artes.esa.int/node/119566

As a socially responsible Company, we pay special attention to the evolution of the Covid-19 and to our employees and partners protection.

As a consequence, EHP has decided to strictly follow the rules and decisions communicated by the Belgian Authorities.

For the moment, activity is maintained on a 4/5 reduced schedule with special distancing restrictions.

This activity is programmed to continue until May the 3rd with possible extension to May 17th depending on Belgium’s federal government decision to extend currently applied containment conditions in Belgium.

Our teams remain at your disposal should you have possible questions regarding our activities at this stage.

As the COVID19 is expecting to peek beginning of April, the need for inhalators is under stress !

Euro Heat Pipes is proud to have some of its employees work on the Breath4life project as well as supporting the initiative with parts from stock and machine tools if required.

In the news :

• https://www.rtbf.be/info/societe/detail_coronavirus-un-prototype-de-respirateur-simplifie-teste-avec-succes-a-l-uclouvain?id=10468063
• https://www.lalibre.be/planete/sante/ingenieurs-medecins-chercheurs-et-industriels-belges-concoivent-en-dix-jours-un-respirateur-artificiel-5e7c62189978e228414234cd
• https://www.rtbf.be/auvio/detail_les-innovations-technologiques-au-service-des-hopitaux?id=2617712&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed

Godspeed to the volunteers and we sincerely hope that there will be no need for cheap inhalators in the coming weeks.

Stay safe, inside and take care of your loved ones.

EHP has been taken as one of the notable performing companies (“Gazelle”) of the Walloon Brabant province in the Trends economic magazine of the 13th of February 2020.

Link to LinkedIn Post

Source : http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Telecommunications_Integrated_Applications/Very_High_Throughput_Satellite_ready_to_pump_heat

Thales Alenia Space has delivered the first Spacebus Neo payload module structure, including the first ever Mechanically Pumped Loop (MPL) to be mounted on a telecommunication satellite designed for 15 years of in-orbit service. It will be flown on the SES-17 satellite that is due to start service operations in 2021.

Telecommunication satellites generate substantial amounts of heat that need to be harvested from the payload and spread over large radiators, where it dissipates into cold space. Conventionally, the hottest units are placed right onto the radiators. This relatively simple scheme reaches its limits when the payload becomes more demanding, as is the case for recent Very High Throughput Satellite (VHTS) missions proposed by several satellite operators.

The MPL is made of a network of pipes and a mechanical pump, which circulates a refrigerant fluid to collect heat wherever it is created and transport it to the radiators. This makes it possible to maximise use of the available surface inside the satellite, to accommodate the repeaters required for large VHTS missions.

MPL-based thermal control opens a completely new way to design, manufacture and test high-capacity, digitally processed telecommunication satellites.

Thales Alenia Space, France, developed the thermal control of Spacebus Neo satellites under ESA’s programme of Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems Neosat Partnership Project and the French PIA (“Programme d’Investissement d’Avenir”).

The Partnership Project has helped to derisk partners’ investment by developing this disruptive technology and thereby achieve a competitive leap forward in the highly dynamic VHTS satellite market. This was achieved thanks to the combined expertise and excellent collaboration of Thales Alenia Space, ESA, the French Space Agency CNES and SES, the customer of the SES-17 satellite. 

Spacebus Neo module with its novel thermal control system.

EHP contributes to this development as the provider of new generation of heat exchanger.

Arianespace conducted its final launch of 2018 on Wednesday, following a scrub – due to strong winds at the launch site – on Tuesday. The launch used a Soyuz rocket to deploy a high-resolution imaging satellite for the French military. Soyuz lifted off from the Centre Spatial Guyanais – near Kourou, French Guiana.

Wednesday launch deployed CSO-1, the first of three satellites that will form the Composante Spatiale Optique (CSO), or Optical Space Component. These spacecraft will serve the French military, replacing the earlier Helios reconnaissance satellites. To develop the constellation, France’s Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA – Directorate General of Armaments) has entered into a partnership with the national space agency, CNES.

Airbus Defence and Space is the prime contractor for the three CSO satellites, which are based around its AstroSat-1000 platform. Each satellite has a mass of 3,565 kilograms (7,859 pounds) and is expected to operate for at least ten years. The imaging systems were produced by Thales Alenia Space. From sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 800 kilometers (497 miles, 432 nautical miles), CSO-1 is expected to be able to image the Earth at resolutions of about 35 centimeters (14 inches).

CSO-1 is the first satellite in France’s third generation of reconnaissance satellites, following on from two pairs of Helios spacecraft.

On board CSO-1, three complete thermal bus using EHP macro loop heat pipe (LHP²)  which will permit the instrument to function in its optimal performance.

Source : https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2018/12/arianespace-soyuz-st-cso-1-launch/