Finnish Meteorological Institute
FMI is the inventor institute of tether-based Coulomb drag propulsion (electric solar wind sail and plasma brake) and has PI-ship in this context regarding instruments onboard the cubesats ESTCube-1, Aalto-1, FORESAIL-1, ESTCube-2 and FORESAIL-2. FMI’s Coulomb drag team is part of Finnish Centre of Excellence of Research of Sustainable Space, long-term funded by the Academy of Finland.
GRADEL
GRADEL is an engineering company specialized in developing automated electro-mechanical systems and robotic filament winding structures and machines. GRADEL activities cover a range of different applications including –but not limited to-nuclear, space, and aeronautics.
Website: https://www.gradel.lu/
Aurora Propulsion Technologies
Aurora Propulsion Technologies have delivered mechanical components to Foresail-1 and ESTCube-2 CubeSat missions. AuroraSat-1 in-orbit demonstration mission has been successfully launched 2022. The CubeSat mission test both ARM resistojet system as well as two different plasma brake systems, with different deployment strategies. Further in-orbit demonstrations are planned with the launch of ORB-12 Strider in-orbit demonstration mission as well as the AuroraSat-2 mission in the near future. Aurora Propulsion Technologies has developed an automated tether factory for production of the plasma brake microtether. The tether production tool used in the factory will be upgraded during the course of this project. Depending upon the trade-off analysis conducted during the project, either Aurora or FMI or both tether factories will be updated.
Website: https://aurorapt.fi/
University of Luxembourg
The SpaceR/SnT research group has ideated, designed, and constructed the Zero-G Lab to simulate on-orbit operations. The SpaceR group uses this laboratory for different projects on hardware and software in-the-loop and emulates different types of on-orbit operations such as autonomous rendezvous. Currently, the research group is working in active space debris removal topics with two projects funded by the Luxembourg national research agency (FNR). The SpaceR group is composed by more than 20 researchers with mixed background that are working in more than 12 projects.
Website: https://wwwen.uni.lu/
