Space debris threatens the sustainability of satellite operations and future space missions. With international regulations now requiring satellites and launch vehicles to deorbit within five years after the end of mission, the need for efficient, reliable, and cost-effective deorbiting solutions is urgent. PERSEI Space (PRS) has the vision of revolutionizing sustainable in-orbit transportation and will do so by using a technology called electrodynamic tethers (ETs), i.e., long conductive tapes that generate a propellantless force by taking advantage of the space environment. ETs provide essentially unlimited in-orbit mobility, which uniquely enables breakthrough applications such as efficient debris removal, propellantless station-keeping, and in-orbit servicing. ETs have been de-risked in Europe thanks to the strong support provided by the European Innovation Council through the Pathfinder E.T.PACK and Transition E.T.PACK-F projects. They allowed PRS to achieve TRL 6 for its deorbit device product called PEARSON. The goal of the project is to bring PEARSON to market and then scale up. PEARSON, PRS’s flagship deorbiting solution, will be the first commercial product of its kind, helping satellite operators and space agencies comply with new deorbiting regulations and policies while ensuring cleaner, safer orbits. The EIC grant activity involves refining the E.T.PACK-F deorbit device to fit customer needs, space-qualifying the product by raising its TRL from 6 to 8, conducting an in-orbit demonstration with a micro launcher, securing initial contracts with customers, and expanding the company’s business development and production capabilities. The investment component will be used to serve a wider customer base and to mature and commercialize a family of ET products. Through the PEARSON activity, PRS will become the first worldwide provider of ET products and a key European player in the in-orbit servicing and space debris markets.

E.T.COMPACT is aimed at reaching technology readiness level four for three in-space technologies on the domain of solar energy harvesting and green propulsion. The first technology, a thin film 2-terminal tandem CIGS/Perovskite module with efficiency larger than 15% and a power-per-weight ratio larger than 50W/kg, is called to reduce the cost of in-space solar panels. The second technology is a miniaturized (target volume 3U) green-propulsion mobility module device based on an electrodynamic tether. Designed to have tether reel-in/reel-out capability and equipped with a field emission cathode, the mobility module can use the harvested in-space solar energy to produce propulsion (both thrust and drag) without using propellant nor expellant. For the mobility module, and the satellite platform to host it, research on ultralight structures based on 3D printed compliant polymeric techniques is conducted. Besides mass reduction, the goal is to integrate compliance mechanisms for both tether deployment and thin-film solar panel unfolding. The third technology, which combines the experience and knowledge of the consortium on photovoltaic and tether technologies, is a novel bare-photovoltaic tether that uses the metallic tape tether for both electron collection and as the back contact of tandem CIGS/Perovskite modules. It integrates in a single device solar energy harvesting and propellant-less propulsion. Project impact is enhanced by activities on market analysis, unit mass production, and early commercialization, solidly supported by simulation work to assess the use of these technologies in the field of post mission disposal, active debris removal, in-orbit servicing and space tugs.