Services

Space safety and space debris

Space safety means using outer space in a way that is sustainable and predictable for everyone who depends on it. A central part of that is understanding and mitigating space debris — defunct objects and fragments in Earth orbit that can damage active missions.

Relevant topic areas (non-exhaustive):

• Space traffic management (STM): monitoring objects in Earth orbit, assessing conjunction risk, and coordinating so operators can manoeuvre in time.
• Debris mitigation: design and operations that limit the creation of new debris (post-mission disposal, passivation, break-up avoidance).
• Debris removal & active debris removal (ADR): mission concepts to capture, de-orbit, or otherwise remediate high-risk objects.
• International guidelines: e.g. UNOOSA and IADC-style debris mitigation guidelines as reference frames for policy and design.
• “Rules of the road”: emerging norms for separation, communication, and manoeuvre coordination in congested orbits.
• Long-term sustainability: keeping orbits usable for science, navigation, and communications in future decades.
• Outreach and training: making operators, engineers, and the public aware of debris risks and good practice.

At orbital speeds, even small pieces can be mission-ending. Controlling new debris, removing the worst risks where feasible, and coordinating internationally are all part of a credible response.

Scientific software development

AdCoelum can support scientific software from the physics problem to maintainable code: requirements tied to a clear research or operational need, analysis and model design, implementation, and handover your team can build on. Typical stacks are agreed per project; we can work with your language and licensing constraints if you list them in the brief.

Space weather

Space weather is the set of conditions in the near-Earth space environment driven mainly by the Sun: flares, coronal mass ejections, solar wind streams, and solar energetic particles, and the response of the magnetosphere, ionosphere, and (indirectly) ground systems.

It matters for satellites, avionics on polar routes, power grids, pipelines, and radio-based navigation. Major themes include: solar activity cycles; EUV/X-ray effects on the ionosphere; the solar wind and geomagnetic storms; aurorae; radiation hazards for crew and passengers; and technology impact (GNSS, HF comms, power transformers).

Selected projects

ESA BILAR — Benchmarking and Inversion of Light Curves for Attitude Reconstruction (2024–2025)

ESA contract AO/1-12378/24/D/BL – S2-SD-05, Expert Centre Support

AdCoelum served as expert centre in the ESA BILAR project, contributing to the development, implementation, and validation of methods for spacecraft attitude determination from multi-colour photometric light curve observations. The work spanned the complete methodological and software pipeline: algorithm selection, physical modelling, prototype implementation, verification, and delivery of operational tools with full technical documentation.

The central objective was to establish a physically consistent and operationally usable capability for estimating spacecraft rotational state — rotation period, spin-axis orientation, and related dynamical characteristics — from multi-band optical observations. This was achieved by integrating theoretical modelling, numerical simulation, algorithmic development, and software engineering into a unified processing architecture.

Principal deliverables:

• Prototype analysis software (SW-01): a configuration-driven processing chain covering photometric time series preprocessing, diagnostic extraction, amplitude modelling, and attitude solution estimation via statistical optimisation. Supports single- and multi-channel observations, multiple geometric representations, and command-line execution for reproducible, automated workflows.
• Extended simulation environment (SW-02): the iOTA simulator was extended to generate synthetic multi-colour light curves with physically consistent illumination, geometry, and reflection modelling, enabling controlled end-to-end algorithm verification against known ground-truth rotational states.
• Validated methodology: verification over representative orbit regimes, object geometries, and rotational states demonstrated reliable recovery of rotational parameters and physically interpretable diagnostic outputs.
• Technical documentation: complete documentation supporting reproducibility, traceability, and future integration into operational environments.

The project confirmed the technical feasibility of multi-colour photometric observations as a robust information source for spacecraft attitude determination and established a solid foundation for future operational deployment, real-observation validation campaigns, and higher-fidelity reflectance modelling.