IREne Orbital Satelite - IREOS

The general objective of the project is the development of a modular autonomous reentry satellite, economical and named IRENESAT-Orbital, unique in Europe, leveraging IRENE technology (“Italian Re-Entry NacellE”). Its innovative features include a patented mechanism for the opening of the thermal shield (umbrella configuration) and the materials (off-the-shelf) used for thermal protection. The deployable thermal shield allows for a compact configuration and reduced size at launch; when fully expanded for reentry and recovery applications, the deployed drag device, with its large exposed surface area, enables greater decelerations and reduces thermal and mechanical loads during reentry.

Following the success of the suborbital flight of Mini IRENE in November 2022, which raised the TRL of IRENE technology to 6, IRENESAT-Orbital is conceived as the first orbital platform intended to demonstrate a prototype system in an operational environment (TRL 8).

To successfully consider the planned mission, the platform will be capable of completing a given number of orbits to conduct scientific experiments in microgravity, using the “Minilabs” developed by ALI (TRL 9) that have already been transported with SpaceX Falcon to the ISS in 2021 and 2022. After the orbital mission, the reentry module will finally re-enter the atmosphere, slowed down by the aforementioned deployable thermal shield.

The commercial potential of a lightweight platform capable of safely bringing a payload back from orbital altitudes stems from its ability to conduct scientific and technological experiments in microgravity conditions, the possibility of reusing most of the platform's subsystems (excluding the thermal shield), and its low cost. This technology can also be employed to recover satellites at the end of their operational life to mitigate the problem of space debris.

The final configuration of the satellite, with its payload bay offering opportunities for in-orbit experiments, as well as its module, which provides autonomous reentry capabilities to recover the payload and other components, must be equipped, among other things, with a propulsion system capable of performing an adequate deorbit maneuver, ensuring controlled reentry and landing.

The goal of the proposed work is to design and develop, in order to progressively improve technological readiness, a first orbital mission, integrating the deployable thermal shield with a spacecraft that includes the scientific payload and all necessary subsystems to complete the orbital mission.