Dear Reader,

This special issue of Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio (ATMS) is entitled “Sustainability through Innovation: Advancing Space Access Capabilities from Europe” and is dedicated to the project ASCenSIon, funded in 2020 by the European Commission under the Excellent Science/Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action. The publication of the issue is the result of a tight and fruitful collaboration between the ATMS editorial board and the ASCenSIon consortium, coordinated by Technische Universität Dresden (TU Dresden). This collaboration started in February 2021, with the participation of 5 PhD students from ASCenSIon in the “Aerospace PhD Days” organized by AIDAA. The AIDAA XXVI Congress followed in fall of the same year, in which a day-long special session has been dedicated to the project. Under the guidance of Dr. Christian Bach, coordinator of the ASCenSIon project, 12 contributions were presented, covering most of the activities and results achieved by the project. Thanks to the constant efforts of the ATMS board, also supported by the AIDAA President Prof. Erasmo Carrera in the role of Editor, and the ASCenSIon project manager Ms. Alessia Gloder, this special issue is now provided to ATMS readers following the open access rules prescribed by the European Commission for funded projects. On behalf of AIDAA, we wish to thank the ASCenSIon Consortium for choosing ATMS to disseminate their valuable research and wish all the best for the project continuation.

Aldo Frediani,

ATMS Editor in Chief

Sergio De Rosa, Paolo Gasbarri

ATMS Associate Editors

Vittorio Cipolla

ATMS Managing Editor

1 The ASCenSIon Project

As the space sector rapidly changes and a multitude of diverse space actors emerge, the launcher market, enabler of the space utilization, must accompany this transition and adapt accordingly.

In this context, ASCenSIon, whose acronym stands for “Advancing Space Access Capabilities—Reusability and Multiple Satellite Injection”, has the vision to contribute to the establishment of an ecologically and economically sustainable space access for Europe (i.e., by reusable systems/components), which keeps into consideration the users’ and market’s needs (i.e., launch of several primary payloads to different dedicated orbits in one mission for a reasonable price).

To fulfill the vision, ASCenSIon promotes a new class of space scientists who are both excellent specialists in their respective field and also have a thorough understanding of the complexity, multidisciplinarity and internationality of launcher development.

The purpose of ASCenSIon is to develop a program that focuses on several specific areas of cutting-edge space access research, particularly on launcher systems that are (partially) reusable and capable of injecting multiple payloads into multiple orbits. Fields of research and training addressed by ASCenSIon include propulsion technologies and their reusability; Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC); aero-thermo-dynamics of re-entry and safe disposal. More than providing design concepts, the network aims to identify and advance critical technologies to prove their feasibility. Funded in 2020 and lasting until the end of 2023, ASCenSIon aims to advance a variety of technologies and ensure an efficient process and reliable results through both computational and experimental techniques.

1.1 The ASCenSIon Consortium

The ASCenSIon consortium is a group of 25 synergetic European partners which have been selected based on their expertise to cover all the aspects of the access to space domain and its market, from fundamental research to commercial applications (see Table 1). These entities include universities, small- to mid-size enterprises, big companies and governmental research institutes. They are further divided into beneficiary partners, who are the host institutions of the ESRs, and associated partners, who contribute to the project by bringing knowledge and expertise and hosting the ESRs during their research stays (secondments).

Table 1 The ASCenSIon project Consortium
Full size table

The core of the consortium are 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs), who are talented young professionals that have been selected among 276 applicants from all over the world. Last but not least, the consortium is supported by an Advisory Board, constituted by renowned world-wide experts. The Coordinator of ASCenSIon is Technische Universität Dresden, which is one of the German Universities of Excellence.

1.2 The Research Program

The ASCenSIon research program focuses on the main research areas of launch vehicle design:

  1. 1)

    Propulsion technologies and their reusability;

  2. 2)

    Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC);

  3. 3)

    Aerothermo-dynamics of re-entry and safe disposal.

During the four-year project, which started in January 2020, each of the 15 ESRs works on a specific Individual Research Project (IRP). Covered in this ATMS special issue are six works on technologies for sustainable access to space, reflecting the contributions of 8 ESRs. These investigations include health monitoring systems for reusable launch vehicles to detect any issues during their operation and enable predictions about further re-use. Furthermore, they cover an analysis of space launch vehicle failures, which highlights the importance and criticality of propulsion systems. Latter are addressed in multiple investigations, ranging from the impact of advanced nozzle configurations during retro-propulsive landings of reusable first stages over pump-fed green propellants for kick-stages to new production and performance assessment techniques for hybrid rocket motors. Note that a full list of the employed ESRs and their IRPs can be found on the ASCenSIon project website under www.ascension-itn.eu.