With precise plans to develop a commercially driven, hybrid, multi-orbit global constellation, the Paris based startup — ROVIAL — responded to EU Commissioner Thierry Breton’s strong interest, as articulated recently to an audience of nearly 500 European space sector companies, for the EU private sector to develop a space-based system for secure connected services in Europe and across the globe. That system, to be focused on the telecommunications sector, is going to be designed to be Europe’s “third pillar” after the Galileo and Copernicus systems.
The target is to install a network to complement existing telecommunications infrastructure and serve Europe’s global requirement for 100% covered and always-on connectivity services and meet the exploding demand for multimedia content. Europe´s constellation will be end-to-end quantum encrypted to ensure secure communications. The satellites will be uniquely designed to provide services in geosynchronous and non-geosynchronous orbits that are environmentally friendly and sustainable, scalable, density-adaptive for user demand, and operate in millimeter wave using free space optical (FSO) technology to ensure a very large system capacity to support anticipated exponential demand for connected services.
ROVIAL expects to launch a “pathfinder” demonstration mission in late 2022. As the system´s owner-operator, the firm is leading a consortium at the core of which are the co-founding members:
Mynaric, a German developer of laser communications systems.
ISAR Aerospace, a German launch systems provider.
Reflex Aerospace, a German designer and manufacturer of satellite platforms.
The consortium is currently expanding to include European new space SMEs that specialize in satellite and ground system components and subsystems. To better evaluate these SMEs’ services and products, the consortium is organizing a series of workshops in various EU member states.
The first such workshop was held recently at ISAR’s Munich headquarters. About 30, German-based, space-tech SMEs introduced their capabilities and expertise in such areas as solar panels, propulsion systems, payload components, specialized radiation-hardened components, and ground system elements that can be included in the design and build-out of ROVIAL’s constellation.
Speaking on behalf of the consortium, Raghu Das, a co-founder of ROVIAL and co-founder of the GEO satellite operator ProtoStar Ltd. and the mobile IOT operator, Helios Wire Ltd., said, “ROVIAL and the consortium were very impressed by the breadth, quality, and capabilities of the German SMEs’ services and products. We expect that many of them can be leveraged to help realize our vision to develop an EU-built state-of-the-art constellation. The success of this workshop has encouraged us to now organize similar SME workshops in other parts of Europe to further strengthen our consortium’s supply chain..”
Dr. Ernst K. Pfeiffer, CEO of HPS Group GmbH and Chairman of the German SME association (Best-of-Space.de), said, “The German aerospace SME eco-system has long been a critical contributor to the advancement of the European Union’s old and new space sector economy, and is very excited to learn about Rovial’s planned constellation and the significant benefits it will bring to Europe and the rest of the world. We look forward to working closely with the Consortium’s founding members and supplying key services and products for this exciting project. ROVIAL is definitely about to surround itself with the industrial elite to ensure access to cutting edge technology and the rapid deployment of our constellation.”