containment chambers
NANO-SATELLITES
TESTED IN FRENCH
CLIMATIC CHAMBERS
The massive OneWeb American-European project wants to bring
the internet to half the world’s population by using a swarm of
600 small low orbit satellites
// REGIS PERRAUX
The project is under way, the factory is
producing, the Soyuz launchers are on
standby. The satellites still need to be
tested as quickly as they are produced. To
meet this challenge, in the frame of a
prime contract won by the company
ArianeGroup SAS for thermal test
equipment in the new OneWeb factories in
Toulouse, France and Cape Canaveral,
Florida, USA, Climats has delivered nine
climatic chambers capable of
simultaneously testing four satellites.
Bespoke work in line with the challenge.
OneWeb’s target is to produce two
satellites per day by the end of 2020. The
company thus hopes to bring good speed
internet to the 3.5 billion people who are
currently without it. To launch this
industry, a co-business was created in 2015
with Airbus Defence and Space. This
alliance inaugurated its shared factory on
July 22, a few miles from the Kennedy
Space Center launch pad, the one used for
the Apollo missions. As of today, the first
satellites are coming off the assembly line,
but there is an important step to pass
before they can be sent into space. They are
all methodically tested. These tests, which
are essential to avoid any malfunctions at
an altitude of 1200 kilometers, are carried
out in confinement chambers invented and
produced by Climats.
“These chambers are bespoke,” explains
Laurent Marc, the engineer who
supervised the OneWeb project for
Climats. In his office in Martillac, in the
heart of the Bordeaux Technopolis, he
remembers the idea that convinced the
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// Climats environmental
test chambers
SATELLITE OR NANO-SATELLITE?
Smaller and closer to Earth, nanosatellites are small fry
compared to the geostationary satellites up to 36,000km
above our heads. Closer viewing angle, less accurate
equipment, shorter service life, nanosatellites are
nevertheless catching up on their big brothers. The key
to success is the progress made by miniaturization. This
has created an appetite in industrials for these objects
that were previously limited to research. “It’s the modern
trend,” explained Jean-Yves Le Gall, chairman of the French
National Space Centre, during the 2015 le Bourget Air show.
“Ten years ago, you went on holiday with a 700g camera
around your neck fitted with a 30cm telephoto lens. Today
you can take better pictures using the thin smartphone
in your pocket. The same applies to satellites.” With the
industrial production launched by OneWeb and Airbus, the
era of small commercial satellites has arrived for good.
/AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM