Danger for satellites

Lower Austrian researchers clean up in space

Space debris threatens our television, internet and navigation.

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In the fight against orbital debris, the European Space Agency also relies on expertise from Wiener Neustadt. They are helping there - under extreme conditions.

Space experts warn that the risk of a total failure of all satellites is currently greater than ever. This would mean that the internet, television and navigation systems would suddenly stop working. The trigger would be the so-called Kessler effect. This is a chain reaction caused by a collision between space debris and satellites. This causes new debris, which in turn endangers other satellites.

The collaboration with FOTEC went absolutely smoothly. We were able to collect a lot of data through the collaboration and thus confirm our successful work.

Sébastien von Rohr, Wissenschafter

Debris to burn up in the atmosphere
The European Space Agency (ESA) launched a competition to find creative solutions for the removal of space debris. A group of Swiss professors convinced the ESA with a particularly visionary idea. They proposed to build a satellite with gripper arms that would catch parts flying around in space and guide them towards Earth, where they would burn up in the atmosphere.

A major problem: the long, movable gripper arms have to function in space under the most extreme conditions. And this is precisely where the expertise of FOTEC, the research subsidiary of the Wiener Neustadt University of Applied Sciences, comes into play, with its many years of experience in space technology. The main focus of their work is to simulate enormous temperature fluctuations. To this end, a cooling and heating system was installed in a large, movable vacuum chamber in a very short space of time. "We can now reach temperatures of minus to plus 150 degrees there," explains team leader Werner Engel.

Experts from Wiener Neustadt are working together with Swiss scientists on a method for removing space debris.

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Successful test under space conditions
The Swiss brought the gripper arm to Wiener Neustadt, where it was subjected to a test under space conditions for four weeks. "It moved in the vacuum chamber as if it were in space. We were able to record a large amount of measurement data," says Swiss project manager Sébastien von Rohr happily.

FOTEC has repeatedly participated in international space projects in the past. Among other things, it is involved in the development of more environmentally friendly and cost-effective engines for satellites.