On July 18, Thales Alenia Space announced they had been selected, along with Magellium Artal Group, to develop the DIANE project for the French space agency CNES and Bpifrance, the French Public Investment Bank.
DIANE (Démonstration d’Inspection et Amarrage Novatrice Embarquée) is a program, conceived under the France 2030 national investment plan, aiming to demonstrate an in-orbit capture and inspection service.
The DIANE mission
DIANE focuses on a crucial challenge in the space industry: making operations more sustainable and environmentally friendly. The importance of this initiative has grown with the increase in low-orbit satellites and the recent explosion of a Russian decommissioned satellite.
The mission will leverage operations from the in-orbit EROSS (European Robotic Orbital Support Services) demonstration satellites. DIANE’s objective will be to demonstrate orbital rendezvous and capture operations, as well as the inspection of a non-cooperative satellite in LEO. The capture will be performed using a robotic arm, developed by the German aerospace research agency (DLR).
EROSS project is funded by the European Union as part of the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programs. The objective of the project is to demonstrate and promote the development of European capabilities for orbital support services, including rendezvous, capturing, refueling, and payload transfer/replacement operations. Thales Alenia Space will contribute its expertise in on-orbit servicing.
Having developed a range of advanced technologies and solutions through its involvement in the I3DS, EROSS, and EROSS+ projects, the French-Italian space company will now focus on advancing a product line of spacecraft designed for various robotic operations in orbit. These operations will include inspection, maintenance, refueling, and extending satellite lifecycles.
Magelluim Artal Group will be responsible for the image processing for vision-based position-determination and local inspection. Telespazio France will organize customer service and provide a processing and visualization center for inspection data.
The challenge of space debris removal
The proliferation of orbital debris and the exponential growth in the number of satellites launches pose increasing risks for the sector. For this reason, numerous agencies and companies are developing solutions to address the problem. Recently, the ADRAS-J mission, developed by Astroscale for JAXA’s CRD2 Phase I, has gained prominence for its importance. The mission, launched in February 2024, involves approaching and analyzing a rocket’s upper stage in preparation for a future recovery.
ADRAS-J has already completed several Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) within 50 meters of debris, gathering valuable images and data.
On April 25, 2024, Astroscale Japan announced they were selected for Phase II of JAXA’s Commercial Removal of Debris Demonstration (CRD2) Program. This second mission will dock with the debris and deorbit it.
The Swiss startup ClearSpace is also developing debris removal solutions and has been selected by ESA to conduct the Clearspace-1 mission to demonstrate the capture and deorbit of space debris from Earth’s orbit.
