The Swiss Space Center has got five new members

In 2015, five more companies and institutions joined the Swiss Space Center. There are now 32 members in total.

EMPA

As an interdisciplinary research and service institute of the ETH Domain, Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, conducts cutting-edge materials and technology research. Empa’s R&D activities focus on meeting the requirements of industry and the needs of society, and thus link applications-oriented research with the practical implementation of new ideas. As a result, Empa is capable of providing its partners with customized services and solutions that not only enhance their innovative edge and competitiveness, but also help to improve the quality of life for the public at large. Through an efficient technology transfer Empa is turning research results into marketable innovations. As part of the ETH Domain, Empa is committed to excellence in all its activities.

Empa’s vision is to develop materials and technologies for a sustainable future. Empa has a long heritage of developing innovative materials and components for space research and technology, as well as cutting-edge instrumentation for material characterization and reliability assessment.

Bcomp

Since its founding in 2011, Bcomp has been focusing on understanding the specificity of natural fibers and their composites, and developing corresponding solutions bringing striking benefits – in addition to the lower ecological footprint – to the end product. In this context, Bcomp has developed a novel natural fiber composite solution with a higher performance-per-price ratio than standard composites currently on the market. For a given performance, the so-called powerRibs technology (patented) allows to decreasing weight by up to 50 %, simultaneously cutting cost and multiplying the damping properties, which is of particular interest for space industry. This novel reinforcement material can be combined with all types of structural materials, such as carbon fiber composites, glass fiber composites (GFRP) or non-woven natural fiber composites (NF Mat).

With its novel lightweight solutions, Bcomp has established its brand and corresponding products in the Sports & Leisure industry, and is currently expanding into the Automotive- and other Transport industries.

ELSE Engineering

Inspired by the success stories of the New Space Movement, ELSE is committed to demonstrating that small constellations of nano-satellites, built and operated from Switzerland, can generate profitable business. Since the very successful launch of the first Swiss satellite SwissCube in 2009, the requisite competences are available in Switzerland and ELSE has progressively brought them together to form a unique team. ELSE was founded on the 24th of September 2014 after the assessment of a competitive business model for a niche market in the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication services. The start-up has great ambitions: to become a big player in the international fast-growing nano-satellite market using its revolutionary CubeSat platform. Switzerland is known for quality, reliability and miniaturisation, all the ingredients needed to build top-notch nano-satellites. With the support of the Swiss Space Center as well as the EPFL Space Engineering Center (eSpace), ELSE will be able to launch a demonstration mission in 2017.

Lahniss

Lahniss is a software firm based in Geneva, Switzerland. It is specialized in the field of Test and Measurement, in particular Serial Data Analysis such as SpaceWire.

Thanks to Lahniss’s ties to Teledyne LeCroy, developments can be undertaken either autonomously, or in partnership. The Lahniss products are distributed via the Teledyne LeCroy network.

At this stage the company’s portfolio encompasses Serial Decoders for avionics, automotive as well as general purpose protocols.

SWISSto12

SWISSto12 supplies additive manufactured waveguide and antenna components for microwave and millimetre wave signals.

Components are 3D printed out of plastic materials before being metal plated to enable RF functionality. SWISSto12 products are currently of use in applications such as ground based satcom, connectivity on the move via satellite links, automotive radar or Test & Measurement applications. SWISSto12 recently started working on space compatible components where additive manufacturing brings advantages such as: reduced cost, reduced weight, reduced lead time, more compact monolithic components. Their work was proposed and successfully selected in the framework of the Call for Ideas 2015.