Thales Alenia Space, this is what the Space Smart Factory will look like
Thales Alenia Space Italia presented the Space Smart Factory, as part of the Pnrr, which will be built at the Tecnopolo Tiburtino in Rome. A digital forge for the creation of satellites, constellations and mega constellations. Operation expected in mid-2025
The foundation stone of the Space Smart factory has been laid, an Italian space atelier among the largest in Europe.
A part of the Pnrr funds for Space is dedicated to the efficiency and digitalisation of the production capabilities of the national space industry. In this context, last spring the Italian Space Agency (ASI) awarded Thales Alenia Space a contract for the development of the Space Factory 4.0 program, an entirely digital factory. Thales Alenia Space (joint venture between Thales 67% and Leonardo 33 %) is leading a Temporary Grouping of Companies that includes Argotec, Cira and Sitael, to create an interconnected system with structures located throughout Italy, which should come into operation in mid-2025.
And today the company led by Massimo Comparini presented the Space Smart Factory project, an entirely digital factory, in the heart of the Tecnopolo Tiburtino in Rome.
With an investment of 100 million euros, the Space Smart Factory will offer the specific means and tools to produce advanced satellites in a wide range from large satellite infrastructures of hundreds of kg to satellites of a few tens of kilograms, produced in large quantities expected from the new constellation configurations. The Space Smart Factory capitalizes on Thales Alenia Space's experience as a European leader in government and commercial space projects – such as the second generation Galileo constellation, the new satellites for the Copernicus program, ROSE-L and CIMR, and the Iris constellation.
All the details.
HOW THE IDEA WAS BORN
“The Space Smart Factory is one of the key projects of the Pnrr, but also one of the most representative (for building small satellites) and also the most difficult to create (in a short time)”, underlined Roberto Formaro, Director of Asi Programs.
“Since 2016, Italy has invested in mini satellites which are vehicles of important scientific data. The objective was to find a national champion who could create an open factory, the facility will in fact be widespread. Furthermore, the structure, built by a team of companies led by Thales Alenia Space together with Sitael, Argotec and Cira, will be managed by a public-private partnership of which ASI has a 49% share", added Formaro.
“Since the Pnrr we have reached a level of activity in the country never reached before, with the need to adapt the systems”, echoes Massimo Comparini. Therefore the Space Smart Factory is a production paradigm for laying the foundations.
WHAT THE THALES ALENIA SPACE SPACE SMART FACTORY WILL DO
The Space Smart Factory will implement flexible process automation and digitalization systems for a high production capacity of new generation space assets and with particular focus on the micro and small satellite segment, which include the PLATiNO and Nimbus families, and satellite constellations and l the entire portfolio of Thales Alenia Space modular platforms for commercial and institutional programs.
Furthermore, it will host the Space JOINTLAB, an innovative and collaborative space with the small and medium-sized enterprise supply chain and research centers.
AND HOW IT WILL WORK
Thanks to modular clean rooms and the use of digital techniques, the Space Smart Factory can be reconfigured according to the production required to allow the integration and testing of a wide typology of satellites of different classes and space applications such as Earth Observation , Navigation and Telecommunications. The center will be a true digital hub that will use, during all phases of satellite design, assembly, integration and testing, technologies such as numerical modeling and Digital Twin, virtual and augmented reality techniques, simulators integrated and connected with the supply chain suppliers and highly automated elements (robots/cobots).
A FEDERATED FACTORY
The intelligent, digital and reconfigurable Roman factory will be part of a system of interconnected space factories located in Italy. In fact, it will connect the Tiburtina hub of Thales Alenia Space, Argotec in Piedmont, Cira in Capua and Sitael in Puglia.
PRODUCTION OBJECTIVE: 2 SATELLITES PER WEEK
The Space Smart Factory will use advanced technologies to create satellites of different classes and fields of application. In the smallest class we will have the Platinum and Nimbus satellites, with the aim of producing 2 satellites per week, over 100 per year.
THALES ALENIA SPACE'S INVESTMENT IN THE SPACE SMART FACTORY
It will therefore be realized thanks to an important investment by Thales Alenia Space and the co-financing of the Italian Space Agency (contract authority) through Pnrr funds.
As Massimo Comparini, CEO of Thales Alenia Space Italia, explained to us, “the Pnrr contribution is 27 million euros and Thales Alenia Space's investment is in the order of tens of millions of euros. The fact that we can get small and medium-sized businesses to work with us is very important, an initiative of one company but one that will enrich the country's capabilities. A sector in which Italy competes with everyone." In fact, it is "an infrastructure also available to the supply chain and to small and medium-sized businesses that will be able to use it as a service, a virtuous formula that will make the country stronger in addressing the challenges of the space economy" according to Comparini.
“The space is changing fast. Miniaturization allows us complex functionality in smaller assets up to larger assets such as mega constellations" highlighted the number one of Thales Alenia Space. “Space technologies are pervasive in our lives starting from connectivity but also sustainability. Italy can play a global game as a dominant player” underlined Comparini.
LEONARDO'S ROLE IN THE SPACE PNRR
“The new Space Smart Factory, among the most innovative in the world also in the field of environmental sustainability, will systematize space technologies and digital transformation solutions for advanced manufacturing, further accelerating the growth of territories and skills to continue to guarantee the country a competitive advantage also in the commercial space market, especially in constellations" declared Franco Ongaro, Chief Space Business Officer of Leonardo. “The data, to be processed, valorised and protected throughout its supply chain, is the basis of the development of Leonardo's entire industrial ecosystem and is at the center of the Group's strategy to accompany the innovation and technological evolution of the country”.
Regarding Leonardo's role in the space Pnrr, Ongaro explains to Startmag that the group works on two levels, "one is that of the subsidiaries (Space Alliance, Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio) and then what it does directly such as the five hyperspectral systems for Iride and the two high resolution. We are involved at all levels because digital has a very strong impact on the ability to take satellite data, make a digital twin of it and have predictive capacity thanks to the HPC Davinci-1, supported from a cyber point of view again by Leonardo. We are thus protagonists in space, which is extremely pervasive."
Finally, according to Ongaro “in the future the consequences of global warming will mean that it will be necessary to verify the treaties, this is a fundamental role of space. So in this there is a lot of foresight in ASI because programs like Cosmo and Iride or Prisma put us ahead of the rest of the world in terms of capabilities."
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/thales-alenia-space-ecco-come-sara-la-space-smart-factory/ on Thu, 09 Nov 2023 15:36:10 +0000.