The Polish company Thorium Space, together with the European Space Agency (ESA), is working on the first Polish telecommunications satellite. The SmallGEO device could go into orbit in five years. The initial total value of the project is estimated at €75 million.
Thorium Space SA on 30 November joined HummingSAT, a partnership project of the European Space Agency. The programme, which also involves the Swiss company SWISSto12, involves the construction of small telecommunications satellites for geostationary orbit (GEO). Among other things, the Polish company is responsible for defining the entire mission, for the design of the SmallGEO satellite and for the development and construction of the digital payload (data payload).
„We have been waiting for this moment for six years, that is, since Thorium Space was founded. These have been years of hard work so that we could build telecommunications satellites based fully on Polish technological solutions. We wanted it to be done by Polish engineers in cooperation with the Polish Space Agency”, says Paweł Rymaszewski, the creator and chairman of the board of Thorium Space.
The SmallGEO satellite will weigh about a tonne, which is many times less than older generation orbiters. The device can be used for military or government use, but Thorium Space assumes that the first satellite launched will be commercial. It is intended to operate for 15 years – which is the length of time the platform on which the device will be placed can take its fuel. After that, it will go from orbit to the space ‘satellite graveyard’. The deorbitisation of SmallGEO will be carried out by SWISSto12.
The initial value of the project is estimated at €75 million. Funding from ESA for the telecommunications payload designed and built by Thorium Space will amount to €8 million for the first phase of the mission, which will last two years, and €25 million for the subsequent three-year phase. The company is in talks with companies and institutions from several countries for the remaining funds needed.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński