Biannual reports

A snapshot of our engineering activities on the basis of a limited selection of the most fascinating results:

2023-2024:

• SEMPAS – Engineering an instrument for operation at the North Sea
  To detect emissions from ships in the North Sea, SEMPAS is designed, manufactured and assembled under the responsibility of the Engineering department of BIRA-IASB.
  
  
• VenSpec-H – From concept to breadboard
  The concept for VenSpec-H, a high-resolution infrared spectrometer, was refined, leading to the construction of the first full breadboard model.
  
  

2021-2022:

• ALTIUS: getting ready for Belgium’s O3 mission operations
  The ALTIUS mission is currently in its implementation phase in which our teams are developing the “level 2” processors: the algorithms which retrieve the O3 information from raw observation data.
  
  

• Engineering helps to open night windows at Venus
  The EnVision satellite will study Venus from below the surface to the high atmosphere. BIRA-IASB is leading the development of the VenSpec-H spectrometer on board.

• PICASSO: Farewell to the Golden CubeSat
  The first CubeSat mission of the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy ended its mission in 2022 and taught us valuable lessons about new technology.

• Radiation analysis for EnVision’s VenSpec-H instrument
  Use of the in-house developed Space Environment Information System (SPENVIS) to assess the impact of the space radiation environment on the VenSpec-H instrument.

• Up down front back left right … charged particles everywhere
  3DEES is an electron spectrometer. The design, manufacturing and surface treatment of the instrument structure, and the structural qualification of this very compact instrument were in the hands of the BIRA-IASB’s Engineering division.

• Follow the Sun ... but do it small scale
  It is time now to retire the first-generation trackers. A second-generation mini solar tracker is ready to take over. It is much more compact and better equipped to withstand the harsh weather conditions it will have to operate in.

• NO2 camera, a combination of remote sensing and imaging
  The original instrumental concept was optimized for observing NO2 in industrial smoke plumes or above urban areas. The interest in such technology is now rising in the air quality community, and we will demonstrate the added capabilities of this innovative instrument.

• Regular airborne mapping of NO2 above Berlin and Bucharest
  BIRA-IASB equipped research aircraft in Germany and Romania with several versions of the in-house developed imaging instrument SWING to produce regular mappings of NO2.
  
  

2019-2020:

• A combined electric and magnetic field sensor
  In the context of ESA’s Comet Interceptor mission aiming at a comet flyby, BIRA-IASB has designed and built a combined electric and magnetic field sensor.

• ALTIUS team succeeds at mission preparatory phase activity
  Micro-satellite dedicated to the monitoring of stratospheric ozone and other atmospheric trace gases that affect air quality and climate.

• Exploring Jupiter and its icy moons with MAJIS
  BIRA-IASB was in charge of the electro-optical characterization of the MAJIS flight model detector, which extends to the visible and near-infrared (VIS-NIR) channel.

• PICASSO: The Golden Satellite
  The two onboard instruments serve as successful proofs-of-concept for providing scientific measurements delivered using CubeSat technology.

• Aurora Borealis brought to light
  Aurora can be studied by investigating the polarisation of the observed light with the polarimeter instrument ASPA based on passive optical filtering.
  
  
• EnVision, maybe back to Venus
  For the new mission to Venus called EnVision, BIRA-IASB’s Engineering department is heavily involved in the design of VenSpec-H.

2017-2018:

• ALTIUS: Atmospheric Limb Tracker for the Investigation of the Upcoming Stratosphere
  ALTIUS is a satellite instrument that will measure global altitude-resolved concentration profiles for a number of atmospheric species in the domain of stratospheric depletion of ozone and climate change by greenhouse gases..

• PICASSO: a PICo-satellite for Atmospheric and Space Science Observations
  PICASSO is a low-cost satellite that will retrieve the ozone distribution in the stratosphere, the temperature profile up to the mesosphere, and the electronic density and temperature in the ionosphere.