France’s aerospace research agency ONERA is modernizing its space-environment testing facilities in Toulouse, building a higher-power proton accelerator to study how radiation degrades the materials and systems that spacecraft are built from.
The agency, ONERA, has begun the design and manufacture of the new accelerator under its HERMES (High Energies for the Irradiation of Materials with Electrons and protons) program, renewing facilities that have replicated the space radiation environment for more than 40 years. Commissioning is scheduled for late 2028.
ONERA said the upgraded facilities will give France a capability unique in Europe to study, qualify and improve the radiation resistance of space materials and systems.
The Toulouse lab’s two existing accelerators were commissioned in the 1960s. When complete, HERMES will comprise five electron and proton accelerators reaching energies of 5 megaelectronvolts (MeV), up from 2MeV in the current facility.
Coupled together, the accelerators will allow more precise simulation of how radiation ages space materials and systems and affects their survivability, both in Earth orbit and on future exploration missions.
ONERA awarded the contract for the first proton accelerator on August 25 after an international tender to National Electrostatics Corp (NEC) of Middleton, Wisconsin.
French group Kardham is managing the expansion of the bunker that will house the accelerator and is overseeing the construction work. The project is led by ONERA and supported by the Occitanie Region and the regional prefecture.
For more than 20 years, solar generators on French satellites and on many European and international spacecraft have been tested and qualified at ONERA’s facilities, most recently the solar panels on the European Space Agency’s Juice probe before its launch toward Jupiter.
Emmanuel Chiva, chairman and CEO of ONERA, said, “For several decades, ONERA has had resources that are unique in Europe for simulating the effects of the space environment and qualifying the systems that will be exposed to them. With HERMES, we are preparing for the next generation. This is a strategic investment to ensure that France and Europe have sovereign capabilities to support both civilian and defense space ambitions.”
In a press release, ONERA framed the investment as a matter of national sovereignty amid rapid growth in orbital activity and new satellite constellation and said that the capability will serve civil, defense and future space exploration needs. The project draws €1.62 million (US$1.8 million) from the European Regional Development Fund and €1.5 million (US$1.7 million) from France’s National Fund for Regional Planning and Development, supplemented by €2.2 million (US$2.5 million) of ONERA’s own funds.
