Thales Traveling Wave Tubes Space Adventures

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Mercury 1 mission

Venus 4 missions

Near Earth 1 mission

Earth

Mercury 1 mission

Mars 7 missions

Jupiter 3 missions

Dwarf planets 1 mission

Small bodies 5 missions

Saturn 2 missions

Uranus

Neptune

Sun 4 missions

Universe 6 missions

DWARF PLANETS

URANUS

EARTH

SMALL BODIES

UNIVERSE

VENUS

SUN

MERCURY

NEPTUNE

JUPITER

MARS

SATURN

MICROWAVE & IMAGING SUB-SYSTEMS

Microwave & Imaging Sub-Systems

With over 60 years of expertise in aerospace, Thales MIS remains present in the long-term in all space solutions ranging from TWT technologies to new amplification solutions for very high throughput satellites (VHTS), flexible satellites as well as constellations. Our portfolio continues to expand to include new solutions in development such as our newest Dual TWT as well as our SSPA or our HEMPT EV0 for electrical propulsion.

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH3609 (2 units) RF Power: 20 Watts Cumulated working time: 163,700 hours

Parker Solar Probe

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4704C (4 units) RF Power: 71 Watts

Solar orbiter

Ulysses

Launch February 2020 Arrival to destination June 2020 End of mission 2027- 2030 (planned) Outcome By combining observations from Solar Orbiter’s instruments, scientists hope to find answers to some questions: What drives the Sun’s 11-year cycle of rising and subsiding magnetic activity? What heats up the upper layer of its atmosphere, the corona, to millions of degrees Celsius? What drives the generation of the solar wind? What accelerates the solar wind to speeds of hundreds of kilometres per second? And how does it all affect our planet?

Missions

Launch October 2006 Arrival to destination December 2006 End of mission October 2014 Outcome The objective of the mission is the study of coronal mass ejections by the Sun. It employs two twin satellites, one preceding the Earth in its revolution around the Sun and the other following it, which provide a three-dimensional image of the phenomenon from its genesis to its interactions with the interplanetary and space environment of the Earth.

Characteristics The Sun is the star of the Solar System. Solar energy transmitted by solar radiation makes life on Earth possible by providing light energy and heat energy, allowing the presence of water in its liquid state and the photosynthesis of plants. DistanceBetween Earth to the Sun: 150 million km

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4704C (3 units) RF Power: 60 Watts Cumulated working time: 225,500 hours

Stereo (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory)

Name Sun Diameter 1,392,000 km

Launch August 2018 Arrival to destination November 2018 End of mission 2025 (planned) Outcome Parker Solar Probe travels through the Sun’s atmosphere, closer to the surface than any spacecraft before it, facing brutal heat and radiation conditions to provide humanity with the closest-ever observations of a star.

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) and 32 GHz-band Reference: TH4604C (3 units) and TH4606C (3 units) RF Power: 11 Watts and 34 Watts

Launch October 1990 Arrival to destination June 1994 End of mission June 2009 Outcome Ulysses’ principal findings include data that showed that there is a weakening of the solar wind over time (which was at a 50-year low in 2008), that the solar magnetic field at the poles is much weaker than previously assumed, that the Sun’s magnetic field “reverses” in direction every 11 years, and that small dust particles coming from deep space into the solar system are 30 times more abundant than previously assumed.

Mission

BepiColombo

Launch October 2018 Arrival to destination December 2025 (planned) End of mission 2026/2027 (planned) Outcome This mission is on a seven year journey to the smallest and least explored terrestrial planet in our Solar System. When it arrives at Mercury in late 2025, it will endure temperatures in excess of 350 °C and gather data during its one-year nominal mission, with a possible one-year extension.

Name MercuryDiameter 4,879 kmCharacteristicsMercury is the closest planet to the sun, one of the four telluric planets of the Solar System, and has a rocky structure like the Earth. It is also the smallest of the planets. DistanceTo the Sun: 58 million km To the Earth: varies between 80 million km to 220 million km

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) and 32 GHz-band Reference: TH4604C (4 units) and TH4606C (4 units) RF Power: 37 Watts and 37 Watts

Thales TWT Band: 32 GHz-Band Reference: THL32070C (3 units) RF Power: 70 watts

Veritas

Magellan

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH 3609 (2 units) RF Power: 20 Watts Cumulated working time: 47,200 hours

Launch 2031/2032 (planned) Arrival to destination 2034/2035 (planned) End of mission 2038/2039 (planned) Outcome EnVision is designed to study volcanic gases in the atmosphere, atmosphere-surface interactions, surface composition, and the interior structure of Venus, and will return high-resolution radar images of the surface.

Thales TWT Band: 32 GHz-Band Reference: THL32150C (1 unit) RF Power: 150 watts

Launch May 1989 Arrival to destination August 1990 End of mission October 1994 Outcome Complete radar mapping of Venus surface, allowing the study of its geological features. Magellan imagery of Venus is still the most complete and detailed available today, these are the most precise images we have to date.

Launch November 2005 Arrival to destination April 2006 End of mission December 2014 Objectives/Results - Study of atmospheric circulation: rotation speed, general circulation mechanisms - Role of the greenhouse effect on the past evolution of the planet and its impact on its evolution - Study of present tectonic and volcanic activity - Origins of the divergence between the evolution of the Earth and that of Venus.

EnVision

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH 4704C (2 units) RF Power: 67 Watts Cumulated working time: 74,200 hours

Name VenusDiameter 12,104 kmCharacteristicsCovered of volcanoes and lava flows, Venus is considered to be a sister of Earth because of their similar size and composition. DistanceTo the Sun: 108 million km To the Earth: varies between 42 million km to 280 million km

Launch 2031 (planned) Arrival to destination 2031/2032 (planned) End of mission 2034/2035 (planned) Outcome VERITAS will study the planet's surface and interior with a powerful new generation of scientific tools. It will create incredibly detailed radar maps of Venus' surface, vastly improving the maps made by NASA’s Magellan mission in the 1990s.

Venus Express

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) and 32 GHz-band Reference: TH4300C (3 units) and TH4606C (2 units) RF Power: 100 Watts and 34 Watts

Exo Mars

Launch November 1996 Arrival to destination September 1997 End of mission November 2006 Outcome Mars Global Surveyor became the first successful mission to the red planet in two decades. The mission has studied the entire Martian surface, atmosphere, and interior. One of the most exciting observations of the spacecraft's wide-angle camera system is that the red planet has very repeatable weather patterns.

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH3908 (2 units) RF Power: 20 Watts Cumulated working time: 87,100 hours

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4704C (2 units) RF Power: 66 Watts

Name MarsDiameter 6,779 kmCharacteristicsA telluric planet half the size of Earth. Like Earth, Mars has seasons due to the tilt of its axis of rotation. DistanceTo the Sun: 228 million km To the Earth: varies between 56 million km to 400 million km

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4300C (2 units) RF Power: 102 Watts

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4704C (2 units) RF Power: 50 Watts

Launch August 2005 Arrival to destination Mars 2006 End of mission Not planned today Outcome NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is on a search for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long periods of time. While other Mars missions have shown that water flowed across the surface in Mars' history, it remains a mystery whether water was ever around long enough to provide a habitat for life.

MMX (Martian Moons eXploration)

Mars Global Surveyor

Launch November 2011 Arrival to destination Landed on August 2012 End of mission 2026 (planned) Outcome Early in its mission, Curiosity's scientific tools found chemical and mineral evidence of past habitable environments on Mars. It continues to explore the rock record from a time when Mars could have been home to microbial life.

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4704C (2 units) RF Power: 70 Watts

Launch March 2016 Arrival to destination October 2016 End of mission 2026 (planned) Outcome The program comprises two missions. The first launched in 2016 consists of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli, an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module. The second is planned for launch in 2022 and comprises a rover and surface science platform. Together they will address the question of whether life has ever existed on Mars.

Launch 2024 Arrival to destination 2025 End of mission 2029 Outcome Mars has two moons known as Phobos and Deimos. MMX is planning to perform a series of observations and collect surface material from Phobos and bring it back to the Earth (sample return).

Mars reconnaissance orbiter

Mars Express

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4300C (2 units) RF Power: 102 Watts

MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN)

Mars Science Laboratory (curiosity rover)

Launch 2013 Arrival to destination September 2014 End of mission 2030 (planned) Outcome Scientists will use MAVEN data to determine the role that loss of volatiles from the Mars atmosphere to space has played through time, giving insight into the history of Mars' atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability.

Launch June 2003 Arrival to destination December 2003 End of mission 2022 Outcome To study the martian atmosphere and climate, the planet’s structure, its mineralogy and its geology, and to search for traces of water.

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART)

Giotto

Psyche

Launch November 2021 Arrival to destination 2022 Outcome DART is a planetary defense-driven test of technologies for preventing an impact of Earth by an asteroid. DART was the first demonstration of the kinetic impactor technique to change the motion of an asteroid in space. The asteroid Didymos was the target for DART demonstration.

Launch 2023 (planned) Arrival to destination 2029-2030 (planned) End of mission Not planned today Outcome The Psyche mission is a journey to a unique metal asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. What makes the asteroid Psyche unique is that it appears to be the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet, one of the building blocks of our solar system.

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH3908A (4 units) RF Power: 30 Watts Cumulated working time: 329,300 hours

Launch July 1985 Arrival to destination March 1986 End of mission July 1992 Outcome Making encounters with comets Halley and Grigg–Skjellerup, Giotto was ESA’s first deep-space mission. It imaged a comet nucleus for the first time and found the first evidence of organic material on a comet.

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4704C (1 unit) RF Power: 60 Watts

Name Small bodiesCharacteristics The small bodies of the Solar System (asteroids, comets, Kuiper belt objects, icy moons, rings, and dust) represent archives of the state of the proto-solar disk at various times and places during the history of our Solar System’s formation.

Rosetta & Philae

Launch March 2004 Arrival to destination August 2014 End of mission September 2016 Outcome Rosetta's main objective was to rendezvous with and enter orbit around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, performing observations of the comet's nucleus and coma.

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4300C (3 units) RF Power: 102 Watts Cumulated working time: 52,000 hours

OSIRIS-REx

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH3609 (2 units) RF Power: 20 Watts Cumulated working time: 61,400 hours

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4300 (2 units) RF Power: 100 Watts

Launch September 2016 Arrival to destination December 2018 End of mission September 2023 (planned) Outcome OSIRIS-REx will travel to a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu and bring a small sample back to Earth for study.

Launch 2023 (planned) Arrival to destination 2031 (planned) End of mission 2035 (planned) Outcome JUICE will perform detailed investigations of Jupiter and its system in all their inter-relations and complexity with particular emphasis on Ganymede as a planetary body and potential habitat. Investigations of Europa and Callisto would complete a comparative picture of the Galilean moons.

Launch 2024 (planned) Arrival to destination 2034 (planned) End of mission Not planned today Outcome NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft will conduct a detailed survey of Jupiter's moon Europa to determine whether the icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life. The spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter, will make about 45 close passes over Europa, shifting its flight path for each flyby to soar over a different location so that it eventually scans nearly the entire moon.

Europa Clipper

Juice (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer)

Name JupiterDiameter 139,822 km

Juno

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) and 32 GHz-band Reference: TH4704C (4 units) and TH4606C (4 units) RF Power: 53 Watts and 29 Watts

Characteristics Fifth in line from the Sun, Jupiter is, by far, the largest planet in the solar system – more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined. As on other gaseous planets, violent winds of nearly 600 km/h run through the upper layers of the planet. DistanceTo the Sun: 778 million km To the Earth: varies between 591 million km to 960 million km

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4604C (3 units) RF Power: 26 Watts Cumulated working time: 141,700 hours

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) and 32 GHz-band Reference: TH4604C (3 units) and TH4606C (3 units) RF Power: 20 Watts and 35 Watts

Launch August 2011 Arrival to destination July 2016 End of mission July 2025 (planned) Outcome Juno's principal goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Underneath its dense cloud cover, Jupiter safeguards secrets to the fundamental processes and conditions that governed our solar system during its formation. As our primary example of a giant planet, Jupiter can also provide critical knowledge for understanding the planetary systems being discovered around other stars.

Name SaturnDiameter 116,460 km

Characteristics The most famous feature of the planet is its prominent ring system. Saturn is the second most massive planet in the Solar System. Saturn is classified as a gas giant because it is mainly composed of hydrogen and helium. DistanceTo the Sun: 1.4 billion km To the Earth: varies between 1.4 billion km to 1.6 billion km

Launch 2026 (planned) Arrival to destination 2034 (planned) End of mission 2036/2037 (planned) Outcome Dragonfly, a rotorcraft-lander expedition to Saturn’s large, exotic moon Titan, will explore dozens of locations across Titan, sampling and measuring the composition of Titan’s organic surface materials to characterize the habitability of Titan’s environment and investigate the progression of prebiotic chemistry.

Launch October 1997 Arrival to destination February 2004 End of mission September 2017 Outcome Orbiting the ringed planet Saturn and its numerous moons, the Cassini spacecraft and Huygens probe had been a keystone of exploration of the Saturnian system and the properties of gaseous planets in our solar system.

Thales TWT Band: X-band

Thales TWT Band: X-band (8.393-8.45 GHz) Reference: TH4300C (4 units) RF Power: 103 watts

Cassini-Huygens

Dragonfly

New Horizons

Name Ceres, Pluto, Eris, Makemake, HaumeaCharacteristics According to the International Astronomical Union, which sets definitions for planetary science, a dwarf planet is a celestial body that orbits the sun, has enough mass to assume a nearly round shape, has not cleared the neighborhood around its orbit and is not a moon. Ceres is located in the asteroid belt. Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea are in the outdoor solar system.

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4604C (2 units) RF Power: 15 Watts Cumulated working time: 119,500 hours

Launch January 2006 Arrival to destination July 2015 End of mission 2026 (planned) Outcome The New Horizons mission is helping us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system by making the first reconnaissance of the dwarf planet Pluto and by venturing deeper into the distant, mysterious Kuiper Belt – a relic of solar system formation.

Ulysses › see mission

Solar orbiter › see mission

Parker Solar Probe › see mission

STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) › see mission

BepiColombo › see mission

Magellan › see mission

Venus Express › see mission

Juno › see mission

JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) › see mission

Europa Clipper › see mission

Cassini-Huygens › see mission

New Horizons › see mission

Herschel › see mission

Planck › see mission

TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) › see mission

Euclid › see mission

JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) › see mission

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope › see mission

Launch 2027 (planned) Arrival to destination (Lagrange L2) 2027 (planned) End of mission 2032/2037 (planned) Outcome The Roman Space Telescope is a NASA observatory designed to settle essential questions in the areas of dark energy, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics.

JWST (James Webb Space Telescope)

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) and 32 GHz-band Reference: TH4604C (4 units) and TH4626C (4 units) RF Power: 23 Watts and 52 Watts

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4604C (6 units) RF Power: 35 Watts Cumulated working time: 451,900 hours

Herschel

TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite)

Launch April 2018 Arrival to destination July 2018 End of mission End of 2020 (planned) Outcome TESS will survey 200,000 of the brightest stars near the sun to search for transiting exoplanets.

Thales TWT Band: 32 GHz-band Reference: TH4626C (3 units) RF Power: 76 Watts

Launch 2023 (planned) Arrival to destination (Lagrange L2) 2023 (planned) End of mission 2028 (planned) Outcome Euclid is designed to give us important new insights into the "dark side" of the universe -- namely dark matter and dark energy, both thought to be key components of our cosmos.

Thales TWT Band: 32 GHz-band Reference: TH4626C (1 unit) RF Power: 11 Watts Cumulated working time: 9,700 hours

Launch May 2009 Arrival to destination July 2009 End of mission (Lagrange L2) April 2013 Outcome The Herschel Space Observatory's large telescope and state-of-the-art infrared detectors provide the first confirmed finding of oxygen molecules in space discovered in the Orion star-forming complex.

Planck

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (formerly WFIRST)

Euclid

Launch May 2009 Arrival to destination (Lagrange L2) July 2009 End of mission April 2013 Outcome Planck produced its first all-sky image in 2010. Analysis has already highlighted numerous star-forming clouds across the Milky Way galaxy as well as a previously invisible population of galaxies covered in dust billions of years old.

Thales TWT Band: 26 GHz-band Reference: TH4626C (2 units) RF Power: 52 Watts

Launch December 2021 Arrival to destination (Lagrange L2) 2022 End of mission 2027/2032 (planned) Outcome JWST is an orbiting infrared observatory that will complement and extend the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope. The longer wavelengths enable JWST to look much closer to the beginning of time and to hunt for the unobserved formation of the first galaxies, as well as to look inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming today.

Name UniverseCharacteristics The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. While the spatial size of the entire universe is unknown, it is possible to measure the size of the observable universe, which is currently estimated to be 93 billion light-years in diameter.

Rosetta & Philae › see mission

Giotto › see mission

Psyche › see mission

DART › see mission

OSIRIS-REx › see mission

MAVEN › see mission

Mars Science Laboratory (curiosity rover) › see mission

Mars reconnaissance orbiter › see mission

Mars Express › see mission

Exo Mars › see mission

Mars Global Surveyor › see mission

MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) › see mission

The 1980s sparked a revolution of knowledge in astrophysics and cosmology. Funded by ESA, NASA, JAXA, CNES and other National Space Agencies, over fifty deep space missions have been decided, starting with Mars (MARS OBSERVER), Jupiter (GALILEO) or Saturn (CASSINI). They have now targeted almost all of the major planets in our solar system, except Uranus and Neptune but including Pluto through the NEW HORIZONS mission. Besides, multiple probes such as ROSETTA have been sent to study comets and asteroids. To embrace cosmologic scales, advanced telescopes have been embarked on helio-synchronous satellites (HUBBLE for example) and since the 2000s, they are located at L2 Lagrange orbital point to improve their stability, in particular PLANCK, GAIA and tomorrow JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE. Satellites and probes collect data and images and download them to Earth using a microwave link. To deal with huge distances, millions to billions of kilometers, large receiving antennas have been built, up to 35 meters wide. At the other end, space amplifiers usually integrate high efficiency Travelling Wave Tubes (TWT). 20 years ago, communications were done in X-band but the high level of interference and the limited bandwidth now affected the efficiency. Millimeter wave links were therefore preferred, starting with Jupiter, Mercury and Sun missions, at 26 GHz and even 32 GHz despite higher atmospheric attenuation. Up to 1.5 GHz bandwidth is now available to increase data link throughputs and resilience. TWT amplifiers are also used to implement the satellite telemetry for platform maneuvers and scientific instruments management, and for deep space missions it is usually in X-band.

Thales heritage : from Deep Space to Earth

Microwave & Imaging Sub-Systems

Sun 4 missions

Mercury 1 mission

Venus 4 missions

Mars 7 missions

Small bodies 5 missions

Jupiter 3 missions

Saturn 2 missions

Dwarf planets 1 mission

Universe 6 missions

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4704C (4 units) RF Power: 71 Watts

Thales TWT Band: X-band (7.25-8.50 GHz) Reference: TH4300C (3 units) RF Power: 102 Watts Cumulated working time: 52,000 hours

Launch May 2009 Arrival to destination (Lagrange L2) July 2009 End of mission April 2013 Outcome The Herschel Space Observatory's large telescope and state-of-the-art infrared detectors provide the first confirmed finding of oxygen molecules in space discovered in the Orion star-forming complex.

Thales TWT Band: 32 GHz-band Reference: TH4626C (3 units) RF Power: 76 Watts

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Planck › voir mission

JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) › voir mission

Avec plus de 60 ans d’expertise dans l’Aérospatial, Thales MIS est un acteur incontournable des solutions d’amplification spatiale, allant de la technologie des Tube à Ondes Progressives (TOP) aux nouvelles solutions d’amplification pour les satellites à haut débit, les satellites flexibles ainsi que les constellations. Notre portefeuille produit continue de s'étendre pour inclure de nouvelles solutions en cours de développement, notamment notre dernier Dual-TWT, le SSPA et notre HEMPT EV0 pour la propulsion électrique

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope › voir mission

Herschel › voir mission

Euclid › voir mission

TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) › voir mission

Thales heritage : from Deep Space to Earth

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Veritas › see mission

EnVision › see mission

Dragonfly › see mission