Portsmouth researchers are over the moon as space mission facilities get £100k funding boost

The final frontier just got a whole lot closer at the University of Portsmouth, home to the new Space Mission Incubator.

Inspired by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the facilities are designed to help teams realise what would otherwise remain their far-flung ideas for space missions.

This could involve anything from sending small satellites into orbit around the moon, to designing new telescopes or solving challenges posed by climate change from space.

The idea is to give researchers and academics access to the kind of heritage and expertise which would otherwise only be available within the industry, as they work together to plan missions from the early stages right up to execution.

And it’s clearly impressed the UK Space Agency, who have just granted the project £100,000 in funding to help see the Space Mission Incubator through its initial set-up phase.

Professor Adam Amara, director of the University’s Institute of Gravitation and Cosmology (ICG), said: “We want to realise the ambitions of the UK Space Strategy and make the UK a leading space nation.

“One of the ways we can do this is by lowering the barrier of access to space, so anybody can access a mission design service.

“What’s unique about this service is it’s going to be more than just a facility.

“It’s a service which will supply the most appropriate team of experts from diverse science and engineering backgrounds who will help accelerate the early stage of mission design from several months to weeks.”

This will all take place at the new concurrent design facility – the same kind used by the European Space Agency – which allows scientists, researchers and industry experts of all disciplines to collaborate on ideas.

It’s also kitted out with a full suite of computers, multimedia devices and software tools.

Dr Lucinda King, Space Projects Manager at the ICG, said: “The concurrent design facility has been built in our Dennis Sciama building and it looks impressive.

“There’s state-of-the-art equipment alongside the all-important whiteboards!

“The facility will allow scientists and industry experts to work in the same place at the same time and quickly assess whether a mission is feasible.

“We have been fortunate enough to be guided by experts at NASA JPL’s Mission Formulation Office, who pioneered these types of studies for space mission design.

“Space missions are complex and require a huge amount of expertise.

“We’re excited to be able to offer this expertise when someone has an initial idea and hope the service will shape that idea and allow scientists to have a robust mission design within a matter of weeks.”

The kind of clients Dr King has in mind at this early stage are UK-based academics and research teams, who have good ideas but lack the experience to make them a reality.

She added: “We’ll help them navigate this first step on the path to designing and leading a mission, and also support them with the next steps, like where to seek further funding.

“In the future as the service becomes more established, clients could also include small companies who don’t want to maintain the necessary expertise in-house, and startups who want to test the feasibility of a concept before seeking venture capital funding.

“We would like to expand to offer the service internationally, for example to small ESA Member States who don’t have well-established mission design capability.

“We’ll also use the Mission Incubator as a training tool for our students, who are preparing to become the next generation of space engineers.”

The facilities form part of the Portsmouth Research Institute for Space Missions, or PRISM, which works to connect academics with industry professionals in the space sector.