The International Commercial Experiment Cubes Service (ICE Cubes) will provide rapid, simplified, low cost access to the International Space Station, creating the opportunity to maximise the use of the remaining lifetime of the ISS. The initial service will enable any organisation, public or private entity or individual, such as universities, academic programmes and pharmaceutical companies/research centres or private persons to perform experiments on the ISS. Furthermore the ICE Cubes service will develop special miniaturised capabilities for use in space that do not exist today, in response to market needs. Space Applications’ knowledge gained from working on a daily basis with ESA to establish scientists needs, to train astronauts, and to develop and operate payloads on the ISS will be used to realise this commercial opportunity. ICE Cubes fully supports the process of experiment development and takes care of the flight acceptance, launch manifest and operation of the customers’ experiments. The ICE Cubes service includes: • As much or as little customer support as needed, throughout the process of experiment development, flight acceptance, launch and operation of the experiments; • The ICE Cubes on-orbit facility consisting of (1) a Framework facility for ‘plug-and-play’ modular Experiment Cubes and (2) the PharmaLab, a novel multi-cube facility for pharmaceutical research; • An out of the box installable ground monitoring and control software to access experiments; • Market driven development of additional added value miniaturised equipment and facilities. This project will result in the set up and operation of the ICE Cube service, including the design and development of the ICE Cubes system, the launch of the Framework facility, the PharmaLab facility and at least one Experiment Cube developed by a university and their on-orbit and on-ground operation, as well as the initiation of an entrepreneurial ecology of supporting technology development companies.

Implementing sustainable commercial activities in Earth orbit requires not only the key technologies necessary to offer the targeted services (OOS / ISAM) but also the means to effectively ensure the (re)supply of the associated facilities. Storage and handling of goods and resources in orbit, in support of OOS or ISAM, have received limited attention in the perspectives and roadmaps of the major future space ecosystem and economy players. STARFAB aims to explore a novel concept of an automated orbital Warehouse Unit (WU) within the context of both OOS and ISAM (also known as OSAM) commercial perspectives. It seeks to address a critical gap in the future space ecosystem, serving as an enabler for sustainable OSAM business models. The STARFAB project will develop a Phase A equivalent concept and demonstrator of an orbital Warehouse Unit (WU), drawing inspiration from the state-of-the-art automated warehousing practices on Earth, while considering the challenging environmental conditions encountered in space, such as microgravity, vacuum, extreme temperatures, and radiation. STARFAB's objective is to advance the necessary technologies for handling goods in space (including modular and custom-shaped components, raw materials for manufacturing, fuel, water, and more), using robotics and automation. This will encompass storage elements with varying levels of protection, the Items Handling Solution (IHS), featuring custom automation tools for operations within the warehouse structure, and the Item Transfer System (ITS), designed as a robotic manipulator to provide flexible external item transfer within the WU. The STARFAB concept will also include provisions for robotic inspection and minor maintenance tasks, primarily for STARFAB's own integrity but possibly also as a service for spacecraft docking or berthing with STARFAB. At the end, STARFAB will produce a roadmap outlining the path forward for technology maturation, model philosophy, market opportunities, and subsequent exploitation measures

The ISECG identifies one of the first exploration steps as in situ investigations of the moon or asteroids. Europe is developing payload concepts for drilling and sample analysis, a contribution to a 250kg rover as well as for sample return. To achieve these missions, ESA depends on international partnerships. Such missions will be seldom, expensive and the drill/sample site selected will be based on observations from orbit not calibrated with ground truth data. Many of the international science community’s objectives can be met at lower cost, or the chances of mission success improved and the quality of the science increased by making use of an innovative, low mass, mobile payload following the LEAG recommendations. This smart payload when used alone will accurately determine lunar volatile distribution over a wide area, including PSR’s, as well as providing ground truth data to calibrate orbital observations. If two, or more, smart payloads are deployed, a greater area will be covered. If the smart payload is used as a scout for ESA’s planned 250kg drilling rover or sample return mission, sampling locations of higher value will be identified. The main innovation is to develop an in situ sampling technology capable of depth-resolved extraction of volatiles, and then to package within this tool, the analyser itself, so as to maximise transfer efficiency and minimise sample handling and its attendant mass requirements and risk of sample alteration. By building on national, EC and ESA funded research and developments, this project will develop to TRL6 instruments that together form a smart modular mobile payload that could be flight ready in 2020. This instrument will be tested in a highly representative environment including thermal, vacuum and regolith simulant and the integrated payload demonstrated in a representative environment. A roadmap, complemented by an innovative PPP funding approach, for the implementation of the LUVMI flight model will also be developed.

This proposal addresses sub-topic 1: R&I on new scalable satellite platform concepts and building blocks increasing the degree of satellite modularisation. SCHUMANN ambitions to strengthen the foundations of the future space ecosystem, by means of 2 complementary developments: (1) a Functional Spacecraft Module (FSM) consisting of a Refuelable Tank (RTa), along with a refueling experiment setup to support the testing and qualification of this module. This FSM will demonstrate that a “side”, standalone module development, by following appropriate design rules and leveraging previous OG developments, can be integrated at a late stage into an IOD mission. (2) a “Design and Development Specification for the Spacecraft Construction Kit” (DSSCK) consisting of a specification and tools aimed at guiding and supporting FSM developers, to make their modules compatible and usable in a single ecosystem.

Future human activity on the lunar surface will use 3D printing to build infrastructure from lunar soil using the Sun as the only source of energy. Today this technology is considered disruptive; tomorrow it will be the standard. The RegoLight project will investigate the sintering process of lunar regolith simulants by means of concentrated sun light in order to prepare for future lunar missions for building infrastructure (leveled terrain, dust shelters, launch pads etc.) and structural components for lunar habitats. Solar sintering of regolith is currently at TRL3 , being able to build a regolith ‘brick’ in a laboratory set-up with a moving table in a solar furnace. RegoLight aims at enhancing this specific additive layer manufacturing technique –which seems very promising for lunar applications since it does not involve any consumables– by further characterizing the parameters for sintering different types of regolith and by developing a movable printing head capable both of pointing the concentrated solar beam at the required spot and of deploying incrementally additional layers of regolith in order to continue with the additive building process. Based on the mechanical properties of solar sintered regolith architectural scenarios and applications will be developed, taking into account the benefits of additive layer manufacturing and novel construction concepts for lunar gravity. This detailed Finite Element Modeling will provide a first insight into lunar architectural scenarios using this technology: With a concurrent engineering approach sample structures will be printed having been derived from ‘big picture’ scenarios and bottom up approaches at the same time. The project objective is the development of a regolith solar sintering device breadboard which will be validated in a relevant environment (TRL5). The parts printed in a thermal vacuum chamber will undergo mechanical properties tests to build a database and FEM analysis for validation of the concepts.