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This image taken by the CaSSIS camera - on board the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) - shows a fascinating (and otherworldly) landscape in the Southern highlands on the planet Mars. CaSSIS relies on the multilayer coating (MLI) produced by FHP - Frezite High Performance since its launch in 2016, but which is still working in great conditions. These dark traces are caused by "dust devils" (dust swirls) that occur, both on Mars and Earth, when hot air rises rapidly into cooler air. Since its arrival on Mars, the TGO spacecraft has also provided the planet's best inventory of atmospheric gases, as well as mapping the planet's surface for potentially water-rich locations. And it will provide data relay services for the second ExoMars mission when it reaches Mars next year.
The company was represented at the conference held in Long Beach, California. The trip to the United States of America, at the end of May, was made to participate in the debate about the future of the aerospace industry. In this way, FHP seeks to reach North American entities.
The Frezite Group's space company was highlighted in the newsletter released by the Portuguese Space Agency at the end of last month. The article emphasizes the path of FHP, whose hardware flies from Porto to the rest of the universe, referring to the growth and path traced over its 15 years of existence and its participation in important space projects and missions.
FMT – Frezite Metal Tooling (the company's Metal Division) and FHP participated in the 9th edition of AED Days, a hybrid event that brought together the main aeronautics, space and defense players to discuss the present and future challenges of the sector. Between May 24 and 27, conferences and workshops, a forum and B2B meetings were held at the Taguspark Congress Center, in Oeiras (Portugal), for companies seeking business partnerships.
The german EnMAP hyperspectral imaging satellite, which features several multilayer coatings and an optical baffle designed, manufactured, and assembled by FHP has proven to be a success. The first images of the satellite for VNIR/SWIR presented by the German Space Agency (DLR - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) demonstrates the excellent performance of the system. So, FHP is continuing its successful foray into commercial satellites.
Searching for new partnerships in that country, FHP participated in the Portugal-Luxembourg Economic Forum that took place on the 12th of May at the Ritz Hotel, in Lisbon. During the morning sessions, themes such as Digital Economy of Tomorrow, Space, Sustainable Construction and Business and Touristic Events were discussed. The ceremony that counted the presence of, among others, the Grand Duke Henri de Luxembourg and the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
On March 21st, the space company of the FREZITE Group celebrated 15 years of activity. By this reason, FHP presented the graphic design it will adopt in 2022 to mark this important milestone and a video that reminds its path. The anniversary programme ended with a teambuilding action.
Watch German astronaut Matthias Maurer taking the ANITA-2 (Analysing Interferometer for Ambient Air) out of its packaging and place it in Destiny Lab - NASA's first permanent orbital research station. FHP configured the instrument and manufactured parts of the hardware (housings, metallic components, and coatings). The ANITA-2 instrument is currently operating in perfect conditions, monitoring the air on the International Space Station (ISS).
The catalogue Portugal Space - Overview of the Portuguese Space Ecosystem presents an in-depth portrait of the Portuguese space sector ecosystem. This document includes 52 companies, namely FHP - space company of the FREZITE Group - and 30 research centres.
See the catalogue here: https://lnkd.in/d-4qr2tE
The first phase of the expansion of FHP facilities, in Oporto, was concluded, creating a more attractive space for the employees and to receive clients and visitors. With this, FHP doubled the area of offices, where the divisions of Research & Development, LMC - Lightweight Mechanical Components, MHW - Mechanical Hardware, THW - Thermal Hardware and Quality are now installed.
This is the main meeting point in Europe for space business, technology, and innovation. The event with the participation of FHP - at the collective Portugal Space booth - was held between the 16th and 18th of November in Bremen, Germany. Between the exhibition and the Space Tech Expo Europe conferences the latest developments of technical designers, sub-system suppliers, manufacturers, and components through system integrators for civil, military, and commercial space were presented to the market.
The article appears on the CORDIS portal, which publishes research results in the European Union, and refers to FHP's participation in LEA - Large European Antenna, the first large deployable reflector subsystem in Europe. The ever-increasing demand for information collected by satellites requires larger on-board antenna reflectors. With a diameter of five meters, the LEA has been subjected to several tests on the ground, to prove its suitability for use in space. FHP was involved in the antenna's structure. See here the reference to the FREZITE space company.
On the 26th of October FHP received a visit from the Country Desk Officer of Portugal from the European Space Agency that visited the space company of the FREZITE Group together with a team from Portugal Space. The ESA representative is part of the Industrial Policy Division of the European organization that oversees the space area. This initiative to visit the Portuguese companies supplying ESA with the highest turnover in the last years, was promoted by the Portuguese aeronautics cluster and proved to be very useful to both entities. It’s FHP sharing its ambitions, with doors open to the world.
The EuRoC - European Rocketry Challenge, a European contest to launch rockets designed and assembled by university students involved, for the first time, a Portuguese team. FHP provided technical support to this team, from IST - Instituto Superior Técnico de Lisboa, in the event happened between October 11 and 17 at the Ponte de Sôr aerodrome. The initiative took place simultaneously with the 5th edition of the Portugal Air Summit (PAS), the largest aviation, space and defence summit in the Iberian Peninsula also one of the largest in Europe. See here.
Addressing issues of relevance in the field of Biomedical Engineering, the second edition of the Biomedical Engineering Summit 2021 provided the sharing of knowledge on the latest technological advances in the health area. It took place between 3 and 5 September at Ordem dos Engenheiros – in Lisbon and Porto – and was supported by FHP, which challenged the participants to explore the potential of aerospace technologies in biomedical applications area. This is FHP investing in cutting-edge partnerships.
FHP is involved in the development, manufacturing, integration, and testing of a structure (Cover Assembly) for the ELOIS instrument - a compact and lightweight hyperspectral imager for a Belgian company acting in aerospace technology. In this way, FHP makes its debut supplying simultaneous the thermal and structure protection. Besides the MLI multilayer coating, FHP will supply the panels of the structure, the OSR mirrors (optical solar reflector) and the radiator, assuring more complex and integrated solutions to its customers. The contract also includes a pre-test (shaker test) of the final structure before delivery of the final hardware.
It constitutes an important achievement, not only for the WeLEA - Europe ´s consortium of highly specialized companies, but also for FHP, by opening doors for other activities that converged in a contract to supply a deployable antenna for the Copernicus CIMR mission. With a diameter of 5 meters, the LEA - Large European Antenna has in its structure composite tubes (and thermal protection) produced by FHP to support all the loads incurred during the launch of the antenna (rigidity), as well as to guarantee the necessary stability for the good performance of the antenna during its period of use around the Earth. The LEA project started in 2017 and has been concluded by conducting several tests on the ground to prove that the antenna is capable of being used in Space. It is the first hardware of its kind in Europe and the successor mission, CIMR, will fly as early as 2025.
The 72 hours bake-out of the Radiation-hard Electron Monitor (RADEM) aims to protect the sensitive instruments on board the satellite that integrates the mission of ESA - European Space Agency to Jupiter (JUICE). This operation was carried out in the bake-out chamber that FHP - Frezite High Performance has installed in its headquarters in Porto. The molecules are potential contamination threats in case of condensation on sensitive surfaces. RADEM is now ready for use and will soon be integrated in the launch of the JUICE satellite next year. Scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in 2029, JUICE will spend at least 3 years observing in detail the planet Jupiter and its three largest moons, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa.
FHP - Frezite High Performance is participating in the manufacture of the carbon tubes that is part of the structure of a large reflector, supported by an arm that can fly on the next Copernicus mission. It is a folding structure weighing 42 kilos and measuring about six meters developed - from materials to engineering - entirely by European countries. An investment of half a million euros with launch scheduled for 2026. At stake is Europe's independence in terms of Earth observation.
JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) is one of the major scientific missions of the European Space Agency's Cosmic Vision programme. The satellite, to be launched in 2022, is expected to reach Jupiter after a long gravity-assisted journey around Venus, Earth and Mars. The built-in multi-layer-coated antenna (MLI) produced by FHP should provide two-way communications between the JUICE satellite and Earth to analyse the atmospheres and gravitational fields of the planet and several of its moons. Another relevant FHP participation in the exploration of the planet Jupiter! Watch a video of the functional tests here:
FHP will participate in the manufacture of new satellites for the European programme Copernicus whose objective is to put at least 12 more satellites in orbit for better Earth observation. FREZITE heads a list of four Portuguese companies and one institute involved in a 10 million euro funded contract under ESA - European Space Agency.
FHP in the Satlantis camera The Spanish optical telescope will be launched today in a Japanese JAXA HTV-9 spacecraft for the International Space Station, which represents human presence in space. It incorporates Portuguese hardware developed by FHP. Pride!
As part of the Atena project, CEiiA (Centre of Excellence for Automotive Industry Innovation) is involved in the production of a prototype ventilator and has FHP as its supplier. The goal is to leverage the production of fans to combat the Covid-19 virus in Portugal.
By the end of April CEiiA is expected to produce 100 ventilators and it is estimated to produce a few thousand in the coming months.
Photo: Pedro Granadeiro/Global Imagens
Image credits: ESA/ATG Medialab
The probe developed with NASA support, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the United States of America (USA) and its mission is to collect information about the Sun's poles.
This project counted with the FHP participation in the development of multilayers isolations (MLIs) for the thermal dummies.
The Orbiter Solar Probe is already in space and has Portuguese technology incorporated.
The MLI blankets have been manufactured in FHP’s cleanroom in Porto and assembled at Uni Bern (https://cheops.unibe.ch/).
CHEOPS is scheduled to launch on a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 09:54 CET on 17 December 2019 and, could be followed here https://esawebtv.esa.int/.
This is an important milestone since these are the first set of tubes produced by FHP and should be the start of a business area considered strategic for the Company future.
FHP is also expected to send a total of 120 tubes to the customer by the end of the year, thereby ending its participation in the LEA project and gaining structure to provide tubes in ESA future missions.
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