UK #space innovations: what’s been done, and what’s to come

On Tuesday next week Major Tim Peake will be launched into outer space to land on the International Space Station. Though the Station has been home to more than 200 astronauts, Peake will be the first from the UK – making it a hugely important moment for our space sector.

Whilst this is a first for our space sector, the UK has led on some of the most innovative technologies on the global network.

Space Imagery

The Hubble Telescope is responsible for the most stunning and detailed images our universe and is one of NASA’s most successful and long-lasting science missions. The telescope, launched in 1990, was fitted with UK designed and manufactured solar panels. Central to the Hubble’s main function, is the UK-built solar panels which capture light and direct it into its several science instruments. Although the solar panels have since been replaced, this was a major breakthrough for the UK.

Satellite Navigation Systems

Previously, Europe was reliant on US and Russian satellite navigation systems – the European Commission recognised the importance of creating its own system for military and consumer use.

Leading British space company, Inmarsat, was one of the eight companies collaborating on Europe’s own satellite navigational system, Galileo.

Four years later Inmarsat launched a third aircraft on 29 August 2015, forming a new telecommunications network known as Global Xpress.

Origin and evolution of the solar system

Rosetta was a European Space Agency mission designed to understand the origin and evolution of the Solar System. A total of 10 UK companies contributed to the design and implementation of the lander – totalling 20 per cent of the entire mission. The technologies contributed were, again, innovated through British research and design.

And the UK continues to pioneer.

Propulsion

Reaction Engines – a UK company and ADS Member – is developing a new engine that will power aircraft from standstill on the runway and then transition to rocket-mode, allowing spaceflight.

Their advanced combined cycle air-breathing SABRE rocket engine enables aircraft to operate easily at speeds of up to five times the speed of sound, or fly directly into Earth’s orbit.

The Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE) has been in development for the past 20 years and could change the way rockets are propelled into outer space.

Space clean up

Outer space has amassed a huge amount of orbital debris from broken-up old rockets and satellites.

Earlier this year, controllers had to move the International Space Station out of the way of a fragment of an American Minotaur launcher which had the potential to seriously impact the Station.

The European Space Agency is dedicated to remove this potentially dangerous debris.

Initial investigations are being carried out by Airbus Defense and Space in Stevenage, whose preliminary design, e.Deorbit, incorporates a penetrating tip and crushable cartridge to help embed it in the target satellite structure with ‘barbs’ to keep it adhered so the satellite can then reeled in.

If the designs go ahead, it will be a game-changing piece of space engineering originating from the UK.