ArianeWorks moving forward for next generation European rockets

Summer'20 update on ArianeWorks, the innovation platform initiated by ARIANEGROUP and CNES to boost the Ariane rocket roadmap.

In spite of the Covid crisis, ArianeWorks has been transiting in the last few weeks from a so called "pilot phase" to a more intense stage, enabled by the pre-award of an European Space Agency contract for THEMIS, a demonstration for a low cost and reusable rocket stage that shall pave the way for the 2030 European space fleet. Better than lenghty explanations, you can get a look at the notional plan herebelow and pay of visit at ArianeGroup latest post to figure out ambitions for this project, which is building upon CALLISTO experimental vehicle and PROMETHEUS new European rocket engine.

The successful transition for ArianeWorks from the "pilot phase" is a result of a number of achievements completed during the past 18 months : swiftly pre-engineering of the THEMIS rocket vehicle, work on tech ideas for future Ariane concepts, and set up of a volontarist experimental approach. This last part - experiments - is the easiest to illustrate, with pictures of hardware popping up here and there on the historic (Ariane 1!) PF20 zone in ArianeGroup Vernon. Subscaled or scale 1 tanks showed here are meant for test & learn of operations, interfaces, tanking...etc. Though of course not yet flight hardware, they include some of the features targeted for THEMIS, such as common bulhead or internal feed lines.

These achievements are also enabled by the involvement of several industrial partners who joined the collaborative ArianeWorks platform, bringing together background, skills and inspirations for incubating next generation of European rockets. Current partners include ONERA, SABCA, APCO, ADF, RUAG, and the community will likely soon expand for tackling the challenges of Ariane NEXT (or Ariane 7, as Thierry Breton named it).    

Last but not least, herebelow a glimpse on a often overlooked aspect of THEMIS, although it stands high on our agenda : eco-conception. Ariane 2030 vision do include both an economic and an ecological responsibility ambition. And THEMIS is meant to serve as pathfinder on both fronts. Manufacturing, energy, transport, facilities...herebelow an overview of some of the actions / strategical options considered, supported by Life Cycle Analysis to weight options and help steer upcoming design choices. Zoom in and get a closer view !

Cannot conclude without highlighting that next generation of rockets desserve next generation of rocketeers ! We feel very grateful for trainees, apprentices, OpenSpaceMakers amateurs or student teams from the Perseus program that are bringing fresh ideas and passion to these projects. We need you, so stay tuned for upcoming opportunities.