Satellite System

空间飞行活动目前正处于过渡阶段。这导致以前使用可靠、成本密集和低性能技术的概念转变为基于风险更大但成本效益高和高性能技术的方法。这一新的空间开发目前由美国领导。在低地球轨道（LEO），这种发展已经大规模应用，越来越多的紧凑，高性能和成本效益的商业组件用于卫星任务。然而，利用这些组件探索更高轨道极具挑战性，因为那里的辐射条件很高。即使有辐射硬组件，这些轨道也很少使用。尽管如此，对这些轨道的利用为缓解高度利用的低轨道提供了巨大的潜力，并且对于离开地球轨道的飞行任务来说也是极其重要的，因为它们必须经过这些关键的轨道区域。（中地球轨道），使用小型卫星使命罗密欧（中地球轨道研究和观测），采用成本效益高但可靠的技术。罗密欧卫星将被发射到低地轨道，然后利用其自身的推进系统进入远地点在中地球轨道、近地点在低地轨道的椭圆轨道。这确保了在辐射带内的作业，并仍然是按照《欧洲空间碎片缓减行为守则》进行可靠的处置。基于商用现货（COTS）的新技术示范罗密欧使命的工程科学目标是调查地球和空间天气的环境条件下的组成部分。这些技术特别是一个坚固而强大的卫星航空电子核心、一个创新的绿色推进系统以及一个自适应通信系统。该使命还包括一台Earthshine望远镜作为科学有效载荷，用于观测气候变化最重要的参数之一--地球反照率--它是评估地球辐射收支的关键值之一。罗密欧使命目标轨道的远地点位于范-艾伦辐射带内。辐射带对空间天气起着重要作用，罗密欧使命将对辐射带进行分析。为此目的，使命包括一个测量空间辐射和地球磁场的仪器包。罗密欧轨道的独特形状和姿态使使命对空间天气分析特别有意义。

Space flight activities are currently in transition. This leads to a change from former concepts using reliable, cost intensive and low performance technologies towards approaches based on riskier, however cost efficient and highly performant technologies. This New Space development is currently lead by USA. In low Earth orbit (LEO) this development is already applied on a large scale and more and more compact, high performance and cost efficient commercial components are utilised on satellite missions. The exploitation of higher orbits with those components is however extremely challenging due to the high radiation conditions there. Even with radiation hard components these orbits are rarely used. Nonetheless, the exploitation of these orbits provides an immense potential to relieve the highly employed lower orbits and is extremely relevant for missions leaving the Earth orbit, since they have to pass these critical orbit areas.The University of Stuttgart’s Institute of Space Systems is aiming to advance the exploitation of MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) using the small satellite mission ROMEO (Research and Observation in Medium Earth Orbit), employing cost efficient and yet reliable technologies. The ROMEO satellite shall be launched to LEO and, by using its own propulsion system, will then reach an elliptical orbit that has its apogee in MEO and its perigee in LEO. This ensures an operation in the radiation belt and still a dependable disposal according to the European Code of Conduct for Space Debris Mitigation.The ROMEO mission has two major goals: The demonstration of new technologies basing on Commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) components within the environmental conditions of the MEO and the scientific observation of Earth and space weather.The engineering scientific goal of the ROMEO mission is the investigation of relevant technologies enabling future satellite missions that are exposed to critical radiation conditions; those are in particular a robust and powerful satellite avionics core, an innovative green propulsion system as well as an adaptive communication system. The mission furthermore includes an Earthshine telescope as scientific payload, to observe one of most important parameter for climate change, the Earth albedo – it is one of the key values to evaluate the Earth radiation budget.The apogee of the ROMEO mission’s target orbit is within the Van-Allen radiation belt. The radiation belt plays a major role for the space weather and shall be analysed by the ROMEO mission. For this purpose, the mission includes an instrument package measuring space radiation and the magnetic field of Earth. The unique shape and attitude of the ROMEO orbit makes the mission specifically interesting for space weather analysis.