RAMSES

This revolutionary ESA’s space safety program, following the HERA mission, will monitor and accompany asteroid 99942 Apophis during its close flyby of Earth on April 13, 2029, providing critical data for the protection of our Planet from potential future impacts.

OHB Italia, as Prime Contractor, is leading a core team including OHB System and GMV. The target is to develop an innovative probe to conduct detailed scientific analyses on the changes the asteroid undergoes due to Earth’s gravitational influence.

RAMSES will be equipped with an advanced suite of scientific instruments, including two CubeSats that will be deployed to collect close-up data, providing a comprehensive “before and after” perspective and contributing to the scientific understanding of asteroid dynamics.

Under a programme of and funded by the European Space Agency. The view expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency

Features:

GENESIS

Genesis is a unique observatory that will measure the Earth from space with millimetric detail. The satellite will use for the first time in space history the main geodetic technologies simultaneously to map our Planet.
Genesis will orbit at an altitude of 6.000 km combining the major geodetic technologies on the same platform aboard a satellite: Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI); Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Receiver; Satellite Laser Ranging (SRL); all synchronized by an Ultra-Stable Oscillator (USO), a high-precision compact instrument used to provide a stable frequency.

The Genesis mission is part of the FutureNav programme approved by the ESA Council at ministerial level in November 2022 in Paris.

The objective of the mission is to contribute to an updated global Earth model, the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF), with an accuracy of 1 mm and a long-term stability of 0.1 mm/year. This state-of-the-art spatial geodetic observatory, will allow the distortions in each method to be identified and overcome. This improvement will have a major impact on multiple navigation and Earth science applications, including the Galileo navigation system and the ‘precise orbit determination’ of all other space missions.

Under a programme of and funded by the European Space Agency. The view expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency

CONTRIBUTION TO
IRIDE CONSTELLATION

OHB Italia is developing 24 Eaglet II satellites (Batch 1 and Batch 2) for the IRIDE Constellation, a flagship programme led by the European Space Agency (ESA) with the involvement of the Italian Space Agency (ASI).

Funded through an investment of over one billion euros, combining resources from Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and national funds, IRIDE is conceived as a “constellation of six constellations.” It integrates satellites with different technologies and capabilities, complemented by ground-based operational infrastructures dedicated to the generation of high-value geospatial data.

The aim of deploying Italy’s most ambitious Earth Observation constellation — and one of the largest in Europe — is steadily becoming a reality.

OHB Italia is delivering a constellation of Eaglet II satellites, entirely designed and developed in-house, and integrated with their dedicated Flight Operations Segment (FOS), enabling control throughout the commissioning phase and nominal operations.

Eaglet II represents a new generation of small Earth Observation satellites, whose primary mission is to acquire high-resolution RGB images through an electro-optical instrument capable of transmitting X-band data to ground stations with low latency. In addition, each satellite collects and relays AIS (Automatic Identification System) messages for vessel tracking, providing persistent surveillance capabilities and resources for rapid, targeted responses.

OHB Italia is responsible for the satellite development, launch, in-orbit management, and operation of this dual-use space asset, which offers unprecedented persistent surveillance capabilities. The services generated by the constellation will support maritime and terrestrial surveillance, climate change monitoring, atmospheric studies, security, and emergency management.

Under a programme of and funded by the European Space Agency. The view expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency

Features:

COMET INTERCEPTOR

It is a new fast class ESA mission comprising three spacecrafts, with the target to visit a truly pristine comet or another interstellar object that has just begun its journey into the inner Solar System. It will offer a new insight into the evolution of comets as they migrate inwards from the periphery of the Solar System.

The mission comprises one main spacecraft and two small probes that will fly together towards a yet-to-be-discovered comet. The main spacecraft and the two probes will separate prior to arriving and intercepting the comet’s coma, each performing simultaneous measurements and offering the opportunity to proceed with science observations at multiple locations.

In addition, they will carry complimentary remote sensing and in-situ measurement payloads to investigate the comet’s nucleus, its outgassing and trailing materials and the plasma environment.

OHB Italia responsibilities as Prime Contractor include: Mission Analysis / System Engineering; Procurement; Satellite Integration; Testing for both Spacecrafts CI and Spacecrafts A; Scientific Instrument Interface; Engineering; Communication Subsystems.

Under a programme of and funded by the European Space Agency. The view expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Space Agency

SATURN

SATURN (Synthetic Aperture radar cUbesat formation flyiNg) is an innovative ASI technology demonstration mission designed to demonstrate a new approach to radar observation from space.

It aims to validate the concept of Cooperative Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) Swarms of SAR MicroSats, a breakthrough approach that replaces a single large radar satellite with a coordinated formation of smaller and simpler spacecraft.

The mission features a constellation of three 16U-class microsatellites, each equipped with a miniaturised Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instrument. By combining and synchronising the signals from each node of the swarm, SATURN can achieve radar imaging performance comparable to much larger systems, with greater flexibility, lower cost, and enhanced revisit capability.

This distributed architecture allows the constellation to observe Earth’s surface regardless of daylight or cloud cover, offering rapid and reliable monitoring for a wide range of Earth Observation applications such as environmental monitoring, disaster management, infrastructure surveillance, and climate research.

SATURN represents a major step toward the next generation of cooperative small-satellite radar systems, paving the way for scalable, resilient and cost-effective solutions in Earth Observation.

The industrial team is led from OHB Italia as Prime Contractor, the subcontractors are Aresys, ON AIR Consulting & Solutions, Airbus Italia.

Activity carried out under ASI contract.