Effective methodologies to derive strategic decisions from ESA technology roadmaps

Top priorities in future international space exploration missions regard the achievement of the necessary matura-tion of enabling technologies, thereby allowing Europe to play a role commensurate with its industrial, operational and scientific capabilities. As part of the actions derived from this commitment, ESA Technology Roadmaps for Exploration represent a powerful tool to prioritise R&D activities in technologies for space exploration and support the preparation of a consistent procurement plan for space exploration technologies in Europe. The roadmaps illus-trate not only the technology procurement (to TRL-8) paths for specific missions envisaged in the present timeframe, but also the achievement for Europe of technological milestones enabling operational capabilities and building blocks, essential for current and future Exploration missions. Coordination of requirements and funding sources among all European stakeholders (ESA, EU, National, Industry) is one of the objectives of these roadmaps, that show also possible application of the technologies beyond space exploration, both at ESA and outside. The present paper describes the activity that supports the work on-going at ESA on the elaboration and update of these roadmaps and related tools, in order to criticise the followed approach and to suggest methodologies of assessment of the Roadmaps, and to derive strategic decision for the advancement of Space Exploration in Europe. After a review of Technology Areas, Missions/Programmes and related building blocks (architectures) and operational capabilities, technology applicability analyses are presented. The aim is to identify if a specific technology is required, applicable or potentially a demonstrator in the building blocks of the proposed mission concepts. In this way, for each technology it is possible to outline one or more specific plans to increase TRL up to the required level. In practice, this translates into two possible solutions: on the one hand, approved mission concepts will be complemented with the required technologies if the latter can be considered as applicable or demo; on the other, if they are neither applicable nor demo, new missions, i.e. technology demonstrators based on multidisciplinary grouping of key technologies, shall be evaluated, so as to proceed through incremental steps. Finally, techniques to determine priorities in technology procurement are identified, and methodologies to rank the required technologies are proposed. In addition, a tool that estimates the percentage of technologies required for the final destination that are implementable in each intermediate destination of the incremental approach is presented

Design of a CubeSat test platform for the verification of small electric propulsion systems

Small satellites represent an emerging opportunity to realize a wide range of space missions at lower cost and faster delivery, compared to traditional spacecraft. However, small platforms, such as CubeSats, shall increase their actual capabilities. Miniaturized electric propulsion systems can provide the satellite with the key capability of moving in space. The level of readiness of miniaturized electric propulsion systems is low although many concepts have been developed. The present research intends to build a flexible test platform for the assessment of selected small propulsion systems in relevant environment at laboratory level. Main goal of the research is to analyze the mechanical, electrical, magnetic, and chemical interactions of propulsion systems with the modern CubeSat-technology and to assess the performance of the integrated platform. The test platform is a 6U CubeSat hosting electric propulsion systems, providing mechanical, electrical and data interfaces, able to handle a variety of electric propulsion systems, thanks to the ability to regulate and distribute electric power, to exchange data according to several protocols, and to provide different mechanical layouts. The test platform is ready to start the first verification campaign. The paper describes the detailed design of the platform and the main results of the AIV activities

Using the ESA exploration technology roadmaps in support of new mission concepts and technology prioritization

Exploration technology roadmaps have been developed by ESA in the past few years and the edition of 2015 has just been released. In the context of Moon exploration initiatives and using HERACLES mission as case study, the authors will apply methodologies studied to simulate technology roadmapping activities and technologies prioritization processes. In particular, the roadmaps for the procurement of technologies required for the HERACLES mission are here presented through its main building blocks

Effective methodology to derive strategic decisions from ESA exploration technology roadmaps

Top priorities in future international space exploration missions regard the achievement of the necessary maturation of enabling technologies, thereby allowing Europe to play a role commensurate with its industrial, operational and scientific capabilities. As part of the actions derived from this commitment, ESA Technology Roadmaps for Exploration represent a powerful tool to prioritise R&D activities in technologies for space exploration and support the preparation of a consistent procurement plan for space exploration technologies in Europe. The roadmaps illustrate not only the technology procurement (to TRL-8) paths for specific missions envisaged in the present timeframe, but also the achievement for Europe of technological milestones enabling operational capabilities and building blocks, essential for current and future Exploration missions. Coordination of requirements and funding sources among all European stakeholders (ESA, EU, National, and Industry) is one of the objectives of these roadmaps, that show also possible application of the technologies beyond space exploration, both at ESA and outside. The present paper describes the activity that supports the work on-going at ESA on the elaboration and update of these roadmaps and related tools, in order to criticise the followed approach and to suggest methodologies of assessment of the Roadmaps, and to derive strategic decision for the advancement of Space Exploration in Europe. After a review of Technology Areas, Missions/Programmes and related building blocks (architectures) and operational capabilities, technology applicability analyses are presented. The aim is to identify if a specific technology is required, applicable or potentially a demonstrator in the building blocks of the proposed mission concepts. In this way, for each technology it is possible to outline one or more specific plans to increase TRL up to the required level. In practice, this translates into two possible solutions: on the one hand, approved mission concepts will be complemented with the required technologies if the latter can be considered as applicable or demo; on the other, if they are neither applicable nor demo, new missions, i.e. technology demonstrators based on multidisciplinary grouping of key technologies, shall be evaluated, so as to proceed through incremental steps. Finally, techniques to determine priorities in technology procurement are identified, and methodologies to rank the required technologies are proposed. In addition, a tool that estimates the percentage of technologies required for the final destination that are implementable in each intermediate destination of the incremental approach is presented

THE IMPORTANCE OF TECHNOLOGY ROADMAPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL FUTURE IN SPACE EXPLORATION

Technology roadmaps are a powerful strategic tool, so as to meet the top priorities in future Space Exploration missions, in particular regarding the achievement of the required maturation of enabling technologies. However, updating such roadmaps could become an overwhelming task, due the continuous evolution of technologies and new mission concepts. To make these roadmaps as effective as possible, we propose a methodology that could help choose the best paths to develop, test, validate and employ a specific technology. In addition, this methodology is able to rank the proposed missions, thus determining priorities in technology procurement, optimizing the results

MULTIDISCIPLINARY MISSION AND SYSTEM DESIGN TOOL FOR A REUSABLE ELECTRIC PROPULSION SPACE TUG

According to the Global Exploration Roadmap, a Getaway in the lunar vicinity will enable the human exploration of the Moon, Mars and the deep space. A reusable transportation system, the Lunar Space Tug (LST), can be the key support to achieve a continuous link between the Earth and the lunar outpost. The complexity of the preliminary design of the LST calls for merged trajectory and sizing tool. Politecnico di Torino, in collaboration with ESTEC, developed a MatLab-based preliminary design tool for electric propulsion space tug missions, called MultidisciplinAry desiGN Electric Tug tOol (MAGNETO). The paper describes the overall tool architecture and analyses its main outputs. The comparison with the previous results obtained with the MISS (Mission and Space Systems) tool will be presented

C'è Vita su Marte?

Una raccolta di interviste esclusive a dieci importanti personalità del mondo della scienza e dell'aerospazio, con un duplice obiettivo: da un lato, scattare una fotografia sullo stato attuale del settore spaziale, raccontandone i diversi aspetti dal punto di vista dei suoi protagonisti; dall'altro, proiettare lo sguardo del lettore verso il futuro, concentrandosi sulle prossime missioni di esplorazione planetaria, robotica e con equipaggio umano, non solo alla volta del Pianeta Rosso, ma anche della Luna e di altri corpi celesti, che vedono e vedranno l'Italia in prima fila. Attraverso il punto di vista di questo dream team spaziale, accompagnato da una bella selezione di immagini, l'Autore approfondisce alcuni fra i temi di maggior interesse e attualità, con riferimenti anche alla recente pandemia di coronavirus, all'importante ruolo della medicina spaziale e alle ricerche scientifiche in campo biomedico condotte in condizioni di microgravità sulla Stazione Spaziale Internazionale, tratteggiando un quadro in cui l'esplorazione planetaria non è che il filo conduttore, il pretesto, per intraprendere un viaggio nello spazio e nel futuro di più ampio respiro. Prefazione di Luca Parmitano. Interviste a: Piero Angela, Giorgio Bianciardi, Piero Bianucci, Walter Cugno, Giancarlo Genta, Vincenzo Giorgio, Paolo Nespoli, Linda Raimondo, Liliana Ravagnolo, Giorgio Saccoccia