HPS CEO: “Wishing my namesake a happy return home”

August 2024

HPS CEO: “Wishing my namesake a happy return home”

As a rule, the purpose of a satellite, be it scientific or commercial, is the focus of interest. However, there are also a few exceptions that confirm this rule. One of these is the recently launched flight of an inconspicuous 18-kilo box with a Falcon 9 from SpaceX to a low target orbit at an altitude of 510 kilometers. The name: ERNST – abbreviation for “Experimental Space Application of Nano-Satellite Technology”. Its mission: to use infrared detectors from space to detect where in the world civilian or military rockets are being launched as they fly over the earth based on the hot radiation of combustion gases – and which target they are probably aiming for. This type of technology has long been standard in the USA in the technical instruments for the nation’s fourth branch of the armed forces after the army, air force and navy, the “Space Forces”; in Europe, research in this area is still in its infancy by comparison, which is why the ERNST mission represents an important milestone for Germany.

This application-related research purpose of ERNST is still at a highly experimental early stage, but the renowned Fraunhofer Institute in Freiburg is relying on tried and tested principles to avoid space debris: a braking system with a deployable sail for accelerated return at the end of the approximately three-year mission is also on board. This is a version customized by the Fraunhofer Institute for theERNST mini-satellite. HPS collaborated with Fraunhofer on the sail almost ten years ago as part of a master’s thesis and provided support. HPS is now a pioneer of the technology and currently the world’s only commercial supplier of flight-tested automatic brake sails of the so-called ADEO family, with a total of 5 different product versions for all size classes of LEO satellites. ADEO braking sails are currently becoming standard equipment, because from fall 2024 at the latest, no satellite will be transported into space by the de facto monopoly provider SpaceX without such on-board technology for accelerated return under the new FCC regulations after the end of the mission.

“After a certain period of familiarization with the new legal situation, the run on ADEO brake sails is now in full swing. Customers in North America have also built up a great deal of trust in ADEO and HPS; the fact that HPS with ADEO occupies the lone top position in the NASA technology report on deorbit technologies is certainly helpful here. In this respect, we are naturally extremely pleased that, in addition to our commercial system on the market, we are now also securing further points for product trust and popularity through our collaboration with one of the world’s most famous German research institutes. That’s why, for once, I don’t see the operational research mission as the highlight here, but rather its end, and I wish my namesake a happy journey home,” comments Ernst K. Pfeiffer, CEO of HPS.