ANDn statements to the Lusa agency, the business developer of Active Space, Filipe Castanheira, explained that the collaboration on the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission, a project of the European Space Agency (ESA), 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 elements working on this project permanently, with short and occasional collaborations from other elements already in the final phase”, he described.
According to Filipe Castanheira, Ative Space was responsible for delivering the ‘pointing mechanism’ of JUICE’s medium gain antenna — one of several antennas on the probe.
“We guarantee their co-development, as well as all their manufacturing, testing and validation of the antenna guidance mechanism. Just to give you an idea, the manufacturing phase included several models: first the test models to validate the technology, then the model of flight that is mounted on the probe to fly on April 13th and also the replaceable model, in case there is any problem”, he informed.
To Lusa, business developer at Active Space, he pointed out that working for a long period in this highly complex subsystem allowed the company to “acquire a series of new skills and abilities”.
“They will allow ‘attacking’ systems of equal complexity, having made the company move up the value chain. It also allows 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 — with a suite of remote sensing, geophysical and in situ instruments.
“It will make it possible to study what is happening in the large gases and to study in detail their composition, the system, the way in which the moons interact with the planet”, he indicated.
Active Space Technologies, part of the BEL Group universe, is an engineering company that supplies electromechanical systems for the space, aeronautics and nuclear industries.
It focuses its activity on complex structures, mechanisms and instrumentation for space, thermal and structural control systems for space applications, monitoring systems in extreme environments and remote handling systems for hazardous environments.
With its two buildings installed in the Industrial Park of Taveiro (Coimbra), in September of last year, Active Space had already dedicated more than two million hours to space, contributing to close to three dozen missions in favor of science and Earth observation.
Also Read: ESA sends satellite to Jupiter with Portuguese science and technology
Always be the first to know.
Seventh consecutive year Consumer Choice for Online Press.
Download our free App.
