Standard And Modular Microlauncher BAsed services: SAMMBA Ground Services for NewSpace launch systems
Creators: name:  S. MISSONNIER 
name:   E. DIEZ 
name:   C. CHAFFARDON 
name:   O. WEITTEN 
name:   C. SERRA 
name:   N. FRISCHAUF 
Publisher: name: Proceedings of  the 9th European Conference for Aerospace Sciences. Lille, France, 27 June - 1 July, 2022
Year: 2022
Subjects: SYSTEM INTEGRATION
SPACE

description: Several dozen small space launcher initiatives are currently emerging all across the globe, with the aim to provide more responsive, flexible and affordable orbiting services to new generations of satellites. Due to the prevalent miniaturisation of components and the trend towards using resilient constellations comprised of numerous small satellites, access to space is shifting towards a commercial market with higher launch cadences and lower costs. The NewSpace actors that are entering this competitive environment have needs and expectations that are fundamentally different from those of traditional space business: frequent access to specific orbits, flexibility and low cost, which cannot be fulfilled by existing launch services. By translating these requirements into the ability to flexibly host a variety of NewSpace launchers a step that leads towards standardisation spaceports all around the world have begun to envisage different suitable infrastructures. To address these fast-evolving space industry requirements and the upcoming need for flexible launch base support, a European collaborative project has been launched: SAMMBA, or \"Standard And Modular Micro launcher BAse services\". The SAMMBA project aims to design standardised base service solutions based on technological building blocks, which will enable various spaceports to handle the diversity of launchers and the new needs of the coming decades. SAMMBA relies on state-of-the-art and innovative technologies and both modular architecture and standard interfaces to successfully provide new and unique base services for the developing NewSpace market. To adequately respond to the evolving needs of small satellites, launch service providers and launch bases, the SAMMBA consortium uses system engineering and modelling tools to centralise and trace system requirements, and applies innovation and value analysis methodologies to perform detailed techno-economical assessment of possible concepts. This approach aims to successfully link the services designed within the SAMMBA project with the space market. The SAMMBA project relies on the vast experience of its consortium not only in the technological fields that are crucial for the development and operation of ground segment systems, but also in the execution of close surveys of the rapidly changing market and the associated regulatory evolution. Lastly, thanks to iterative exchanges with its dedicated Advisory Board, SAMMBA benefits from feedback from potential customers, which help it efficiently adapt to customers priorities from the definition of needs to the deployment of demonstrators, including operational and cost models. Several promising technologies will be showcased through completion of usecases, consolidating the technical and economic evaluation of services and demonstrating their plug and play feature. At the conclusion of the SAMMBA project, the designed services and associated demonstrators will constitute the basic offer of ground services to Spaceports and Launch Services Providers operating in the NewSpace framework: the resulting operational activities, thus contribute to providing affordable, reliable, flexible and frequent access to space for small satellites at European Spaceports This article will present the SAMMBA consortium, the ambitions of the project, the market targeted for the services and the technologies prototyped to demonstrate the new concepts for Spaceport systems. The European Union\'s Horizon 2020 SAMMBA project is being implemented by a consortium of six European partners: Air Liquide Advanced Technologies (France), CT Ingenierie Paris (France), EURECAT (Technology Center of Catalonia, Spain), GTD Sistemas de Informacion (Spain), MT Aerospace (Germany) and SpaceTec Partners (Belgium). The project has commenced in January 2020 and will last for a total of three years. This project has received funding from the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 870451.