Gilmour Space Technologies and SENER Aeroespacial, a company of the SENER engineering and technology group, are working together on an Autonomous Flight Termination System (AFTS) for the Eris launch vehicle, which is being developed for the small satellite market.
The AFTS is a smart Hardware/Software unit with autonomous decision-making capacity responsible for aborting a flight if any anomalies are identified. SENER Aeroespacial says this system is of the highest criticality and will be subjected to a strict certification process.
SENER Aeroespacial is currently working on the first phase, developing the software processing algorithms necessary to collect and analyse the flight/vehicle parameters, identify deviations from the nominal trajectory and/or the status of the vehicle, and send, if necessary, the command to terminate the mission. The goal is to have the first prototype ready, in collaboration with Gilmour Space, for testing and certification prior to Eris’ maiden launch later this year.
SENER Aerospacial says the project aim is to "successfully develop and demonstrate equivalence to current land-based systems in terms of performance and reliability, providing launch service providers and government launch organisations the ability to replace legacy systems which rely on costly land facilities and require manual operator intervention to terminate the mission".
The development of the AFTS is expected to bring about a new paradigm in launch vehicle operations by improving both their versatility, by enabling more launches from places other than traditional launch centers; and their efficiency, by lowering the cost of operations.
This development builds on SENER’s launch vehicle heritage with AVIO’s hybrid navigation NAVIGA unit, which will be first used on the VEGA-C European launch vehicle.
"This new contract reinforces our position as a leader in a growing market in Europe, that of medium-cost space systems that offer good performance and high reliability," Augusto Caramagno, Director of Institutional Programs at SENER Aeroespacial said. "The AFTS is also joining our portfolio of highly critical onboard systems within the PNT (Positioning, Navigation and Timing) strategic line, where SENER Aeroespacial has considerable experience and has achieved a competitive advantage."
For Gilmour Space, this international collaboration is another example of its growing focus on European markets.
“It’s great to be working with SENER Aeroespacial, an established space company with a strong track record for delivering high-performance systems," Adam Gilmour, CEO of Gilmour Space said. "Given the progress, we’re confident that we will have a robust AFTS ready for our first Eris rocket launch in the second half of 2022.”