Last Update June 7, 2023

Categories

  • Electrical, Electronics & Electro-optics
  • IT, Computing and Software
  • Services (R&D, training, engineering, consultancy, …)

Active Space Technologies, offers high added-value products and services in the fields of thermo-mechanical engineering (thermal and structural analysis, fluid dynamics, design, high precision manufacturing and testing), electronics engineering (embedded systems, digital control), as well as Management Support services for technology transfer and development projects (project management, systems engineering, project coordination).

Active Space Technologies is a European based company positioning its services in the global markets of aerospace, defence, automotive, nuclear fusion, and scientific sectors.

Active Space Technologies  provides Engineering and Scientific services, including design and onsite service support, in the following areas:

Mechanical

  • Design
  • Structural
  • Thermal

R&D

  • Optoelectronics
  • Instrumentation & Control
  • Technology Transfer

Contact info #1

Ricardo Patricio
+351 239 700 333
CTO
+351 239 700 301
Rua Pedro Nunes, 3030-199 Coimbra, Portugal

MECHANICAL DESIGN

Active Space Technologies offers services in mechanical design of aerospace, automotive, and moulds projects.

Active Space Technologies has also experience in 3D design, 2D layouts, assembly procedures, mould drafting according with the material specification, etc. These activities have already been developed for the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) and for Hovemere.

Active Space Technologies uses Pro-Engineer, CATIA5, AutoCAD 2005, etc, to design instruments and hardware, e.g., tray & harnesses and cable channels. Engineering, installation and integration services are also available.

Services:

  • Mechanical design
  • Pro-Engineer
  • CATIA5
  • AutoCAD 2005
  • Interface documentation
  • 2D and 3D layouts
  • Assembling procedures
  • Project of mould-injection components

STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

Active Space Technologies offers services in structural design (modal, dynamic, and static), thermo-elastic design, trade-off analysis, modelling, and analysis of aerospace, automotive, and moulds projects.

Active Space Technologies has also experience in mechanical interfaces and specification definition. These activities have already been developed for Galileo Avionica in Italy, Callisto in France, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA).

THERMAL ANALYSIS

Active Space Technologies is specialized in thermal design, modeling, analysis, and testing of instruments, components and payloads for space missions as well as aeronautics and automotive components and structures. Furthermore, Active Space Technologies models and analyses satellites and launchers at system level.

Active Space Technologies provides a range of thermal services such as preliminary conceptual design, detailed design and analysis, and definition and supervision of thermal tests. Several activities have been developed for European companies, such as LusoSpace and EFACEC in Portugal, Bleuler-Baumer Mechanik in Switzerland, Galileo Avionica in Italy and for the European Space Agency. Active Space Technologies has also provided services for European R&D institutions such as the Universities of Munich and Stuttgart in Germany, and Patras in Greece.

Active Space Technologies has extensive knowledge on electronic space instruments and on payload design for extreme harsh thermal environments such as, for instance, that experienced on planet Mercury.

Services

  • thermal design and modeling
  • conversion of thermal models between ESARAD, Thermica, Trasys, etc.
  • theoretical thermal analysis (conformity with ECSS)
  • steady-state and transient thermal models
  • validation of thermal mathematical models
  • requirements definition and interface documentation
  • selection of materials: thermal/optical properties, off-gassing, etc.
  • consulting in thermal design
  • uncertainty analysis
  • model node reduction
  • experimental thermal analysis (thermal balance and cycle vacuum tests)
  • correlation between theoretical results and experimental data
  • consulting in thermal software
  • radiation analysis

OPTOELECTRONICS

Active Space Technologies has expertise in the development of optics and optoelectronics instrumentation and image systems. Active Space Technologies  develops optical detectors, namely by including photomultipliers, photodiodes, charge coupled devices (CCD) technology, for industrial applications. Furthermore, it develops multi-sensor solutions including not only optical devices but also other type of sensors, namely magnetic, inductive, capacitive, flow, pressure, temperature, etc.
The company has expertise in pattern recognition, motion detection, optical character recognition (OCR), filtering, and other techniques for image processing.

General applications or dedicated solutions for counting, motion detection, metrology, environment and machinery monitoring, positioning, surveillance, etc.

Active Space Technologies develops multi-sensor fully customized solutions for the moulds and automotive industries, mainly for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) applications.

Active Space Technologies has recognized expertise in the measurement of material bulk properties by means of the mutual induction and mutual impedance techniques. In particular, the company develops applications for assessing the dielectric properties of solids and liquids.

Services:

  • development of visible and infrared sensors
  • signal and image processing
  • laser and fiber optics applications
  • lidar systems
  • thermal imaging
  • inspection and imaging metrology
  • development of multi-purpose sensor sets

INSTRUMANTATION & CONTROL

Active Space Technologies holds large expertise in R&D, concerning the development of dedicated systems for increasing the productivity of industrial processes, as well as in the scope of pure scientific investigation.

Further, Active Space Technologies provides expertise and extensive know how on the development of instrumentation, systems, and sensorial applications, in order to meet specific requirements. In this field, the company embraces the full range of development process, concerning the project, digital/analogue hardware design, signal processing and software development, pursuing the most challenging requirements.

Finally, Active Space Technologies has large expertise in the field of optimized digital control systems implemented in embedded systems (for both opened and closed loops), such as: Microcontrollers, DSPs and embedded industrial PCs. From the full array of control strategies, the following can be stress out: PI, PID, Kalman filter, and fuzzy logic.

Service:

  • sensors development
  • signal processing
  • Digital/Analogue control hardware development
  • distributed control architectures
  • communication buses: CAN-bus, Profibus, Ethernet, RS232, SPI, I2C
  • programming of logic circuits like CPLD and FPGA (mainly using VHDL language)
  • microcontrollers and PLCs programming
  • high level programming for Windows and Linux

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Although the core business of Active Space Technologies is on the aerospace sector the company is in a constant search of synergy and cooperation with other institutions working in different areas.

Active Space Technologies develops services and products, from space technologies spin-offs, for ground applications. Currently, the company is working on project GATHERGY and project UVAS, aiming to broaden its cooperation scope. These projects are part of the R&D strategy of Active Space Technologies.

JET

JET, the precursor of ITER, is under the administration of European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA). These projects represent the international cooperation for the development of fusion technologies. Active Space Technologies provides on site technical support at JET for developing and manufacturing diagnostic tools.

BepiColombo

Active Space Technologies was responsible, through Hovemere, for the 3D CAD design and 2D layout of the MSASI assembly (MERCURY SODIUM ATMOSPHERE SPECTRAL IMAGER). MSASI is an instrument developed by MEISEI (Japan) for JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), which will be launched onboard the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO).

Galileo

Active Space Technologies was responsible for the phase B thermal analysis of the CTTB (Component Technology Test Bed), an instrument developed by EFACEC, which will be launched onboard one of the Galileo satellites.

SSETI

Active Space Technologies is involved in SSETI by developing thermal analysis of the AOCS instrumentation such as the Reaction Wheel developed at Instituto Superior Técnico.

Active Space Technologies (AST)

  • Parque Industrial de Taveiro, Lote 12 3045-508, Coimbra, Portugal
  • +351 304 505 505
  • +351 304 505 506
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