SENER in Poland, a company of SENER Aeroespacial, will manufacture, assemble and test the ejection mechanism for Airbus’ fully commercial OneSat mission.
Under the contract with Airbus, SENER in Poland will manufacture, assemble and test the following mechanism models: DM (the development model), QM (the qualification model) and then the flight models (FM).
The Ejection Mechanism, which SENER in Poland is responsible for manufacturing and testing, is part of the SSD (Spacecraft Separation Device). Mass production is the future of the space market worldwide. It is related to, among other things, miniaturization, lowering the costs of launching satellites and other devices into space, and the general maturation of this sector in the largest countries. Until now, space companies have focused on the production of reliable components tailored to the needs of specific missions. This resulted in components that took a long time to develop and were very expensive.
Today, however, the situation is slowly changing. New satellite constellations will include thousands of satellites which opens the way to mass production of standardized components for the space industry. In addition, the projects in question are carried out by private companies, and these are the ones that are most innovative today and can implement the most ambitious projects.
This also applies to the OneSat project which, according to Airbus, will revolutionize the telecommunications satellite market. Unlike earlier satellites that were designed for specific missions, OneSat can be fully reconfigured while on-orbit and is able to adjust its coverage area, capacity and frequency “on the fly” to meet changing mission scenarios.