SENER Aerospace’s Director General for Space and Science, Diego Rodrguez, has presented the new facilities for the integration, testing and production of space and astronomy systems and equipment to the local media. The hotel is located in the SENER offices in Cerdanyola del Valls, a sustainable and modern building designed by its own team of architects with 7,500 m2 of floor space and 16,000 m2 of ceiling above ground and in which more than 300 professionals from various disciplines, including engineers, work mathematicians, physicists and architects.
Accompanied by Albert Febrer, head of the production area of the communications department, he showed the 1,000 m2 clean room with controlled conditions and continuous monitoring of temperature, humidity and particles according to the standards of the space industry, divided into:
750 m2 ISO-8 clean room (or class 100,000) for automated production, assembly benches for the integration of devices and subsystems as well as devices for functional and environmental tests.
250 m2 ISO-7 clean room (or class 10,000) for the production of microwave hybrid circuits.
The cleanrooms are fully equipped to manufacture and validate satellite embedded electronic devices in accordance with the standards of the European Space Agency and NASA, as well as major satellite manufacturers in Europe and the United States, and include the most advanced manufacturing and testing equipment available today. Around 40 production employees are currently working on projects for ESA such as Meteosat Third Generation, Metop Second Generation and Biomass as well as for the commercial market with devices for Spainsat Next Generation and for the OneSat platform.
In the statements of Diego Rodrguez, he highlighted the significant investment in high-tech equipment: an investment of more than 5 million euros, on top of the previous investment of 70 million euros with the acquisition of the TRYO Aerospace & Electronics group in 2018 come in addition. A total of 75 million euros will be invested to consolidate the capabilities of SENER Aeroespacial in communication systems for specific applications that affect not only the institutional or commercial space market, but also for terrestrial communication (civil applications in Traffic Control Areo ATC and transmission). SENER Aeroespacial aims to become one of the most important European companies in the space and science sector.
One of the pillars of growth is the telecommunications sector, in which more than 1,500 satellites and spacecraft have been involved. In fact, SENER Aeroespacial is the world leader in the supply of Telemetra and TeleComando antennas (TTC) and regularly supplies programs to the main international manufacturers of communication satellites of all types of antennas, passive and active radio frequency devices, including radio frequency devices. called New Space. Power amplifiers (SSPA) and low noise level (LNA) in GaN technology are currently being supplied for Airbus’ OneSat and Spainsat NG satellites. The components are available in constellations such as Galileo, Globalstar 2G, O3B, Iridium NEXT or OneWeb. And new contracts are expected in 2021 for shows like GlobalStar, TeleSat and SES Next. In addition to communication devices, SENER Aeroespacial is the European market leader for precision mechanical systems for satellite platforms and instruments and has participated in the main programs of the space agencies ESA and NASA with a 100% reliability index.
Its technology is represented in such important missions as Hubble, Rosetta, SMOS, Pliades, Herschel and Planck, JUICE, Athena, Solar Orbiter, Proba-3, Gaia, BepiColombo, ExoMars, Curiosity, Euclid, LISA Pathfinder, MTG. FLEX, LOP Gateway and Mars2020, Earth Explorers, Copernicus and Galileo. In the case of launchers, it is a system provider for ARIANE, VEGA and VERTA and participates in space transport vehicles such as ATV, Space Rider and IXV. In the science area, the contributions to terrestrial astronomy and large scientific infrastructures (GIC) stand out, where it has been present since 2000 and has a wide portfolio of projects that demonstrate the quality of its solutions for clients such as the observatory. South European (ESO).
SENER Aeroespacial’s work at Astronoma includes optical systems, electromechanical components and systems, instrumentation systems and large mirror drive systems for ground-based telescopes and space systems. The list of customer-specific precision mechanisms that SENER Aeroespacial has supplied so far includes the positioning systems for M2 mirrors for the GTC, VISTA (ESO telescope) and IRAIT telescopes, the actuation system for the JPCam panoramic camera, the robot calibration arm for ALMA, and a rotator for the ESO VLT telescope provided the PFC (Translation and Main Focus Optical Correction) systems for the William Herschel telescope, as well as the preliminary design of the EST M1 primary mirror and the design and manufacture of the primary focus system. Manipulation of the segments (Segment Manipulator, SeM) of the primary mirror M1 of the Extrem Large Telescope (ELT) from ESO, the largest optical / infrared telescope ever built, for which the cells of the mirrors M2-M3 and M5 were also supplied.
With this in mind, the new facilities have an astronomer workshop, which includes an area for the integration of electromechanical systems with the ability to mechanically assemble equipment for large scientific institutions. The investment in new facilities is part of SENER Aeroespacial’s plan to strengthen its technological, technical and manufacturing capabilities across the aerospace industry. In addition to space and science, investments are being made in defense, for example in the SMS initiative to lead the missile systems sector, to respond to the needs of the Ministry of Defense and the armed forces, and to represent national interests in international cooperation projects. SENER Aeroespacial is currently the European competence center for electromechanical systems, as it is responsible for the design, development, production, integration, testing and logistical support of actuation and control systems for rocket guidance in the European METEOR programs. RBS 70 NG; Among others Iris-T AA, Iris-T SL and Taurus KEPD350.
In defense, SENER Aeroespacial is the design agency with serial production capacity for electromechanical systems, communication systems and equipment, including electronic warfare (COMINT) and data link. and develops key functions for autonomous navigation. In addition, SENER Aeroespacial is certified as a Design Office (DOA) for aircraft modernization projects.
In the fields of microwaves and high frequency, SENER Aeroespacial develops active devices for signal reception and signal conversion as well as for their transmission with the ability to design monolithic integrated circuits (MMIC). In antennas, the main products are reflectors, horns, broadcast and radar antennas, complex radiation systems and other passive devices such as filters, diplexers, multiplexers, couplers, waveguides and, in the design of radio communication systems, the software implementation of hardware elements using embedded computing elements (FPGAs, ASICs or DSPs).
At COMINT, SENER Aeroespacial develops devices for the reception and goniometry of communication signals in the entire frequency spectrum. In the field of autonomous navigation, SENER Aeroespacial develops essential elements for applications in land vehicles (logistics convoy). In RPAS, SENER Aeroespacial has had an alliance with General Atomics (GA-ASI) since 2008 in order to adapt the MQ-9A RPA (remote-controlled aircraft) to the requirements of the Spanish armed forces.
The latest joint development is the European NATO pod designed and manufactured by SENER for the MQ-9. Finally, SENER Aeroespacial is part of the SATNUS consortium, which leads the Spanish column of remote carriers within the framework of the NGWS-FCAS program. SENER Aeroespacial promotes the SMS initiative to strengthen strategic autonomy over national weapons systems through the industrial and technological consolidation of national capabilities in missiles and precision guided weapons. With all these capabilities, SENER Aeroespacial has strengthened itself as a first-class provider of high-performance aerospace systems for space, defense and science with its own technological developments with high added value.
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