E.T.PACK : Innovative technology has the potential to revolutionise the space debris challenge

E.T.PACK is an EIC Pathfinder (FET-OPEN) project funded with EUR 3 million by the European Commission. The project aims to provide a deorbit kit that will be mounted on launcher upper stages and satellites in the future. This will allow those spacecrafts to be eliminated at the end-of-life, instead of the actual trend of leaving them in orbit. The drag force on the electrodynamic tether causes the re-entry of the satellite to the Earth’s atmosphere and its elimination at the upper layers, combatting thus the problem of space debris. Unlike conventional technologies, it does not need a propellant and works passively.

E.T. Pack received also a funding support via the Innovation Launchpad project, BMOM aiming to make a business model for the Deorbit Device based on electrodynamic tether technology that is currently under development in the framework of the E.T.PACK project.

Therefore, the launch of SENER Aeroespacial’s satellite with the E.T.PACK technology demonstrator will be a decisive step in validating this innovative technology.

On October 26, SENER Aeroespacial and Rocket Factory Augsburg AG (RFA) have agreed on a launch service contract. The launch of the E.T.Pack deorbit device will demonstrate this novel electrodynamic tether technology for deorbiting satellites and launcher upper stages without chemical or electrical propulsion.

This innovative technology has the potential to revolutionise the space domain and at the same time it will also tackle the space debris problem that is one of the most important space challenges currently and of the future.

EIC boosts the development of new technologies and helps to put them close to the market. 

See the project in the EIC datahub