Space related activities can either be classified as space research or space technology.
Space research focuses on designing space missions and special microgravity experiments to answer particular scientific problems concerning e.g.: the perturbations and modifications of standard physical processes and living organisms under heavy radiation in microgravity; the content of the universe; life outside the Earth, etc.
Space technology, on the other hand, focuses on the engineering problems of designing the appropriate equipment for the sophisticated experiments that researchers dream about. Reliable and cost efficient solutions need to be provided to each and every practical detail; e.g.: the material of the surface of the satellite; solutions for the hygienic problems of the astronauts in space; software for rocket launching, etc.
The engineering solutions developed by space industry eventually find their ways into high tech fields of aviation industry, electronics, telecommunications, etc.
The diagram below shows that in 2005, the European Space Agency (ESA) spent ~76% of its budget for technology and only about 12% for space science.
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Fig1. ESA budget allocation in 2009. (Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Space_Agency) |
Nowadays about 4,000 satellites are on orbit around the Earth. These were designed, assembled, put on orbit and continuously maintained by different specialists of the space industry that consists of vertically coordinated international cohorts of large, medium and small size enterprises. The development of a satellite takes about 10 years involving the contributions of dozens of firms, institutions, organisations. On the top of satellite manufacturing, there are several other activities belonging to space industry e.g.: telecommunication, navigation, transportation vehicles, including the ones used for moving parts of the satellite on the ground during assembly (GSE = Ground Support Equipment).
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Fig2. Phasing of space projects |
The space industry keeps providing a great deal of opportunity in the future as well. It is rather insulated from short term economic recessions thanks to the long time horizon of typical space development projects and the independence of project financing from fluctuations of national budgets. It keeps expanding 20% annually even in the midst of the current worldwide economic crises.
ADMATIS ltd. is determined to grab a share of the pie. We’ve been among the first Hungarian enterprises that met the very detailed ECSS standards and regulations and successfully participated in the open tender system of the ESA (see below: FOCUS, MSI).
Space technology projects of ADMATIS:
This high tech furnace represents the beginning; it was the first space related project of ADMATIS ltd. The UMC is a sophisticated equipment designed for running a wide range of crystallization experiments. There are two copies purchased by NASA for ground experiments at Marshall SFC, Huntsville, AL.
This special device to study metal foam development in microgravity represents the present. This is the first autonomous industrial development project of ADMATIS ltd. for an ESA project. We’ve created the idea and the solution as well. The device is scheduled to fly to space on the 5th of February, 2010.
This project is the hopeful signal of the future. This is our first victory on an open tender of ESA. During 2010 as a subcontractor to Astrium SAS ADMATIS will design, manufacture, test and maintain for 10 years 16 thermal and mechanic part to satellite Sentinel-2 that is planned to launch in 2012.
