Active Space Technologies, a space company based in Coimbra, announced on Tuesday that it has developed the technology for the JUICE probe, which will be launched Thursday to Jupiter to study its space system.
Speaking to Lusa, Active Space business developer Filipe Castanheira explained that collaboration on the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission, a European Space Agency (ESA) project, began in late 2016.
“It took us about five years to develop this technology, which was ready at the end of 2021. We had a team of five people constantly working on this project, with short and occasional collaborations with other elements already in the final stages,” he described.
According to Filipe Castaneira, Ative Space was responsible for supplying the “pointing mechanism” for the medium-gain JUICE antenna, one of several antennas on the probe.
“We guarantee their joint development, as well as all their production, testing and verification of the antenna pointing mechanism. Just to give you an idea, the production phase included several models: first, test models to test the technology, then a flight model that is installed on the probe, which is due to fly on April 13, as well as a replacement model if there are any problems,” he said. .
Luce, a business developer at Active Space, he pointed out that working for a long period in this very complex subsystem has allowed the company to “acquire a number of new skills and abilities.”
“They will allow systems of equal complexity to be attacked, forcing the company to move up the value chain. It will also allow Portugal as a country to acquire more skills and be considered a potential ‘developer’ and supplier of complex systems,” he added.
The probe, launched from French Guiana on April 13, will make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three large oceanic moons – Ganymede, Callisto and Europa – using a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and ground-based instruments.
“This will allow us to study what happens in large gases and study in detail their composition, system, and the way the moons interact with the planet,” he said.
Active Space Technologies, part of the BEL Group universe, is an engineering company that supplies electromechanical systems to the space, aviation and nuclear industries.
It focuses on complex structures, machinery and instrumentation for space applications, thermal and structural control systems for space applications, extreme environment monitoring systems and remote control systems for hazardous environments.
With two buildings installed in the industrial park of Taveiro (Coimbra), Active Space has already devoted more than two million hours to space in September last year, participating in almost three dozen missions in favor of science and Earth observation.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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