Space: the new frontier
Thales Alenia Space is anticipating the needs of the future and developing solutions to meet them.
Autonomous stratospheric geostationary platforms
As part of a consortium notably including the Pégase competitiveness cluster, Thales Alenia Space is studying a new concept for an autonomous stratospheric platform midway between a satellite and a UAV. It will have a design lifetime of more than 5 years.
Perched at an altitude of around 20 kilometres to scan airspace, this platform will be able to host payloads of 200 kg delivering 4 kW for a broad range of applications such as:
- border and maritime piracy surveillance
- boosting of GSM networks for major public events
- GPS augmentation over areas of dense traffic
Extra-terrestrial sample collection systems
Thales Alenia Space is prime contractor on the two ExoMars exploration missions (2016 and 2018) for the European Space Agency (ESA).
The 2018 mission will fly a descent module to Mars carrying a rover designed to collect soil samples from beneath the surface at depths down to 2 meters. For this purpose, ESA has asked Thales Alenia Space’s domain experts in Turin to look at developing a technology capable of recovering unique samples directly from Mars. The proposed concept is based on an inflatable capture mechanism.
Smart telecommunications antennas
Thales Alenia Space has developed a new tool that gives virtual network operators (VNOs) more transparency and more autonomy in managing their telecom networks.
Using cutting-edge software, VNOs — interfacing with the control centre, satellite owner, the satellite itself and end-users — will now be able
- to allocate satellite capacity to customers,
- commission and maintain end-users’ modems,
- carry out necessary tests and checks,
- supervise their network (history and statistics).
Designed for civil and military telecom service operators and suppliers, this solution will significantly reduce the operating cost of managing telecom networks.