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| Prisma's Tango (left) and Mango. Illustration: SSC |
Norwegian manufacturer Presens is one of the few Norwegian companies offering technology qualified and ready for space. The company is now gaining valuable flight time with the help of a tiny Swedish satellite.
"The flight with Prisma is an important milestone for delivering pressure sensors to the space industry," says Peder Staubo, Space Business Development Manager at Presens.
Without previous flight time in space, contracts with the space industry are hard to win. Now the Norwegian manufacturer is gaining the important flight time.
The development of Presens’ pressure sensor is supported by the Norwegian Space Centre through the European space organization ESA’s General Support Technology Programme (GSTP).
Up close and personal
The Swedish nanosatellite Prisma is a technology demonstrator in space. In addition to Presens' pressure sensor, the satellite is also testing new non toxic rocket fuel and various instruments for close formation flying.
Prisma was successfully launched from the space port in Yasny in Southern Russia on the 15th of June 2010. The satellite consists of Mango and its active partner Tango.
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| Presens' pressure sensor. Photo: Presens |
Tango and Mango will fly in close formation and need to keep equal speed and relative position to each other in orbit. The formation flying requires constant monitoring of the output of the propulsion system.
Cue the Norwegian pressure sensor. It is keeping the pressure in the nitrogen fuel in the satellite’s engine under close scrutiny.
Small, light and extremely durable
At barely 75 grammes, the pressure sensor is both small and light weight. It is stable, robust with a short response time. It can withstand cosmic radiation, which kills most electronic devices fast. It is perfectly suited for a life in space.
Now the Oslo based manufacturer is looking forward to receiving the first sensor data from orbit.
Presens' pressure sensors are primarily produced for the oil and gas industry, but the technological challenges for offshore equipment are similar to those of the space industry.
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| Peder Staubo (right) and Rune Eriksen. Photo: Norsk Romsenter |
"The instruments must be able to function under extreme conditions, deliver accurate and maintenance free data, and neither offshore nor in space is failure an option," Staubo says.
He also stresses the importance of technology development being meaningful economically as well as technologically. Now the pressure sensor is ready to conquer new markets, offshore and in space.
Significant for Norwegian industry
"This technology development will ensure future activity and have significant effects for both Presens and Norwegian industry, " says Rune Eriksen, head of industry coordination at the Norwegian Space Centre.
He has been involved in the project since 2001. Eriksen regards the Prisma flight as just the beginning of the pressure sensor's adventures in space.
Presens and the Norwegian Space Centre aim at offering the Norwegian technology to European launch rockets.
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| The International Space Station. Photo: NASA |
"The sensor is the very best on the market, it will be very interesting to see if it can be used for other applications in space," Eriksen says.
A mission for the pressure sensor on board the International Space Station and the solar satellite Proba-3 to study the sun's corona is also in the works.
More information about Presens and the pressure sensor here (in Norwegian): Gjennombrudd for Oslo-bedrift, Åpen dag i Rom-Norge
Contact:
Peder Louis Sarmento Staubo, Space Business Development Manager. Telefon: (+47) 22 06 40 78.
Rune Eriksen, seksjonssjef for industrikoordinering ved Norsk Romsenter. Telefon: (+47) 22 51 18 14.
