HPS hands over Euclid´s Flight Model of Antenna Reflector Assembly (ARA) to TAS-I in Rome

Euclid, ESA´s ambitious mission to map geometry and development of the Dark Universe over the past 10 billion years from 2022 on has taken a big step forward: HPS delivered the ARA-flight model hardware to ESA´s prime TAS in Rome and the communication subsystem prime TAS in Madrid after all tests (TVT, Bake-out, modal survey, optical check and main reflector contour, grounding and MLI/SLI installation) had been concluded successfully and on time.

Euclid´s ARA (Antenna Reflector Assembly) is one of the mission´s hardware keys, since it is responsible for transmitting all the scientific data, which will provide an unprecedented insight into the origin of the Universe. Extremely lightweight and stable materials have been employed in the just 4.5 kg reflector assembly to assure the demanding strength and performance requirements from the launch phase until the operations at the second Lagrangian point L2, located at 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. The high end precision in the micrometer range has been achieved in the single parts positioning during the alignment activities, allowing optimal performances in the signal transmission.

The Consortium, led by HPS GmbH (Munich based German SME) has successfully implemented the involvement of several countries across Europe. HPS would like to thank its partners for the outstanding work performed together: Invent GmbH in Germany for composite technology, SERENUM a.s. in Czech Republic for metal parts, AAC GmbH for environmental testing, FHP Ltd. in Portugal for Multi Layer Insulation technology and ONERA in France for radio-frequency characterisation testing.

Already back in 2017, HPS had successfully delivered a first Structural-Thermal Model (STM) of the Euclid ARA as well as an Engineering Qualification Model (EQM) in 2018 for testing and qualification purposes at satellite level. The delivery of the Flight Model now took place end of August 2019.

The customer chain explicitly “appreciates the effort done by HPS to fulfill the schedule dates in this complex period of the summer break and congratulates to all the good results obtained”.

HPS GmbH

Point of contact:  Dr. Ernst Pfeiffer, CEO
E-Mail: info@hps-gmbh.com
Telephone: +49 (89) 4520576-0