Space Systems
Space systems with electric propulsion have special requirements and require dedicated solutions. Alta's experience in space systems design is a result of active involvement in a number of space programmes, from conceptual design, to implementation and flight, to post-flight analysis. Alta's capabilities in space systems range from specialist support to mission design for electric propulsion aspects, to end-to-end mission design, to flight hardware design, qualification and post-flight inspection.
Alta contributed to a wide variety of mission and system design activities, from the Shuttle-based EMITS experiment, to the ISS-based STEPS facility, to the autonomous orbital vehicle LEILA, to the Mars Ascent Vehicle propulsion module, to the electric upper stage for the Vega launcher, to the scientific small spacecraft SPES for active plasma physics experiments in space, to the ASI-funded lunar mission. Alta's hardware was flown on the ASIA - Eneide mission to the International Space Station. The company specializes in the design and simulation of space vehicles and missions with electric propulsion, focusing on the integration of the EP system with the spacecraft and the interaction with the other onboard subsystems.
The company maintains a number of proprietary software tools to assist in propulsion systems design and to assist in space mission analysis, including low-thrust interplanetary trajectory simulation, onboard resource management for EP vehicles, ion beam simulation and plasma dynamics.