BIOMASS – an important ESA mission with Polish participation

The key elements of the BIOMASS mission, which was launched into space at the end of April, were prepared by Polish specialists. The main contractor of the satellite was Airbus, with the participation of Airbus Poland. Sener Polska, PIAP Space and GMV also participated in the preparation of the mission.

The mission , which is expected to provide unparalleled information on Earth's forests and the carbon cycle, was launched on April 29. An hour after launch, ground stations received preliminary information that the instrument was operating correctly.

The satellite is equipped with the first P-band synthetic aperture radar, which can penetrate tree canopies to measure woody biomass—trunks, branches, and limbs—where most carbon is stored. These measurements serve as an indicator of how much carbon is stored.

This, as scientists emphasize, is key information for predicting climate evolution. It is estimated that forests absorb about 8 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, but deforestation, which occurs mainly in the tropical zone, causes the release of carbon back into the atmosphere. The satellite will allow for a detailed understanding of the carbon cycle in forests.

Polish experts played an important role in preparing the mission. The main contractor for the satellite was Airbus, with the participation of Airbus Poland.

Sener Polska has manufactured and tested ground mechanical equipment (Mechanical Ground Support Equipment – ​​MGSE), supporting the installation of the satellite. This is no easy task, because it measures 12 meters wide and 20 meters long. The MGSE set includes, among others, devices for mounting and dismounting solar panels.

Additionally, the company’s engineers designed a container and devices enabling the transport of panels together with instruments.

"Sener Polska has been operating since 2006, and one of its specializations is ground support devices for missions. Our team has supplied devices supporting assembly, transport and test procedures for the most important missions of the European Space Agency, including JUICE and EUCLID - for this mission we created a set of MGSE devices consisting of 13 elements, a record on our market at that time. It was this experience that allowed us to obtain a contract for cooperation with OHB Italia on the Biomass mission," the company's specialists told PAP.

PIAP Space also participated in the construction of MGSE, preparing advanced mechanical structures that meet rigorous ESA standards, taking into account the requirements of the cleanroom environment.

"We were selected in the tender thanks to the combination of high technical competence, competitive price offer and short lead time. Our experience in designing and integrating MGSE systems, knowledge of ECSS standards, ability to work in cleanroom conditions and ability to cooperate with international partners were of key importance. Additionally, our offer included innovative technical solutions that met ESA requirements and supported technological development in the region," explained Mateusz Krawczak from PIAP Space.

As he noted, the biggest challenge was to ensure full compliance of the designed devices with the rigorous ESA standards, while maintaining high quality, reliability and optimisation of costs and implementation time.

"MGSEs are critical devices for the safety of space components, which is why they must meet very high requirements for precision, structural stability and cleanliness – especially when working in a cleanroom environment. The need to adapt to changing project requirements and close cooperation with international partners also required great flexibility and an advanced engineering approach," added Jerzy Miquel-Wrotek.

The Polish branch of GMV also played a significant role in the program, with tasks including planning how the satellite should move in orbit to collect useful data. The company also prepared key ground-based components of the data processing system, which allow the "raw" data transmitted by the satellite to be transformed into information useful to scientists.

As GMV Polska specialists explain, thanks to the algorithms developed by this team, it will be possible to aggregate, validate and initially interpret over 950 terabytes of data from the satellite's radar.

"Since the beginning of preparations for the BIOMASS mission, the Polish branch of GMV has been an integral part of the consortium and has collaborated on creating a solution that will meet all the mission assumptions. Our task was to develop tools that will allow the data collected by the satellite to become a valuable source of knowledge for the scientific community around the world," emphasized Agnieszka Rojek, Mission Analysis Engineer, Project Manager BIOMASS at GMV.

"We are pleased that Poland is playing an important technological role, especially in a project of such great importance for science and the environment. This proves that our country has the potential to participate in the most important ESA projects, creating innovative and key solutions," she added.

Marek Matacz

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