SSC's subsidiary NanoSpace has been contracted by ESA to develop a propellant gauging system for satellites. The contract is worth 500 kEUR.
 
Measuring the fuel level in a car is no problem. To measure the amount of propellant in the tank of a satellite in orbit, on the other hand, is a well-known difficulty in the space business.
 
Using state-of-the art micro-system technology, NanoSpace will develop a propellant gauging system for satellites, providing significantly more precise data than other systems that are available today.
 
”The main difficulty is the low gravity environment, which causes the propellant to literally fly around in the tank”, says Pelle Rangsten, chief engineer and project manager at NanoSpace. “Also, as always in the space business, the demands for accuracy, quality and reliability are extremely high.”
 
Normally, satellites are used until they run out of propellant. To know when a satellite needs to be replaced, it is very important to have advance and exact information about the remaining propellant towards its end of life.
 
”An operational satellite in orbit is worth many million euros a year, so in the planning of operation and replacement, our system could be very valuable for the satellite owner,” says NanoSpace’s President Tor-Arne Grönland.
 
NanoSpace will solve this well-known issue by manufacturing miniaturized silicon-based sensors and actuator based on advanced MEMS technology (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems). In this context, ”miniaturized” means silicon components down to the size of 10 micrometers. (In comparison, the thickness of a human hair is around 100 micrometers.)
 
NanoSpace is a leading company in Europe in its niche, micro-mechanical systems for space applications, and the company already holds a patent for the subject propellant gauging system. These two circumstances were determining factors for ESA in placing the contract on NanoSpace.
 
A prototype of the propellant gauging system will be delivered to ESA in 2009.

 

NanoSpace develops micro-system components for space applications. The company, which has been hived off from the Ångström Laboratory in Uppsala, is growing rapidly and now employs 10 persons. The company is owned by the Swedish Space Corporation.