POWERSAT, a revolutionary European project for the satellite industry, kicks-off in Madrid
The project, which aims at developing technologies for powering satellites by a combination of solar and microwave energy harvesting, has held its first meeting, in Madrid, Spain, where the objectives and goals were presented with the participation of the consortium partners.
Last week in Madrid, Spain, POWERSAT kicked-off its research and development activities in a first meeting organized and hosted by Blue Synergy SL where all the consortium partners gathered to discuss the fundamental aspects of the project and officially start the work towards attaining its goals.
POWERSAT will introduce the concept of combined solar and microwave energy harvesting in satellites. This harvested energy will be employed to fuel the low-power embedded electronics within satellites, including components like low-noise amplifiers, various sensors, and oscillators. The specific goals of the project are to scavenge the unexploited solar spectrum by providing an original THz (10-400 THz ≈ 30 μm-750 nm) energy harvesting platform, thus complementing the function of photovoltaics (PV) cells; to harvest the microwave spillover losses from satellite’s antennas and transform them into a practical DC power supply; and to facilitate efficient and low-power inter-satellite links (ISLs). Additionally, the work of POWERSAT will allow the future partial replacement of the satellite’s solar cells, thus lowering their overall weight and, hence, the launch costs.
The POWERSAT project, which received funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC) and has a duration of three years, is composed by a consortium of the following companies and institutions: THALES (France), University College Cork (Ireland), Institutul National De Cercetaredezvoltare Pentru Microtehnologie (Romania), Uppsala Universitet (Sweden), Universita Politecnica Delle Marche (Italy), Foundation for Research & Technology-Hellas (Greece), Fado.io (Sweden) and Blue Synergy SL (Spain).
