Working directly for the European Space Agency is not something that anyone does. However, this applies to Jakub Mašek and his colleagues from the Institute of Aerospace Engineering of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at BUT. They have been developing a thermal switch for space applications for several years, in which they also involve students. They have recently completed the first phase and received a green light from ESA to develop a more detailed version.

"I came across it by accident as part of my dissertation. At that time, we worked with an Italian company that also wanted to develop the switch. But the company went bankrupt, we had the know-how and the technology, so we decided to continue," the doctoral student Jakub Mašek, who is responsible for the technical solution of the project, recalls.

As a part of his diploma, Mašek designed a device that can simulate the conditions of Mars or the Moon. That is, the environment for which the "space switch" is intended. "It should be a two-position switch, similar to the one you have on the wall at home. However, ours is not designed to conduct electricity, but heat. Its purpose is to regulate the temperature inside the satellite or probe, because the electronics or batteries in such a device must neither overheat nor subcool,” Mašek describes.

The conditions to which the light switch is exposed in your living room and the conditions of space vary, of course. "In space, we are talking about temperatures from about -150 to +200 degrees Celsius," Mašek says. Its simulator can create temperatures from -150 to +80. It is also possible to simulate a vacuum that corresponds to the conditions of free space and can also artificially create a Martian atmosphere full of CO2.

The switch has a size of 5x3 centimeters and weighs about 150 grams. The task was to operate autonomously, without the use of electricity. "There is a paraffin capsule that melts due to excess heat inside. By changing the state, it opens, moves the piston and mechanically closes like a switch,” Mašek explains.

ESA is monitoring here

Not only the developed technology is unique, but also the project itself. BUT appears in it as a so-called "prime contractor", i.e. the primary supplier of technology for ESA. "Companies have more orders in this regime, but it is quite exceptional for Czech universities, I estimate that there are lower units, if any, for such projects in our country," Mašek says. There is no longer an intermediary between the experts from the Aviation Institute and the European Space Agency, and ESA is closely monitoring the whole development.

"It's quite difficult to plan and manage, because we report to ESA every month as we progress. We have an online meeting with their representative and we also have technicians directly at ESA who oversee the quality of the project,” Mašek says.

Despite the strict supervision of ESA, the team also lets engineering students into the development. In the first phase alone, 17 final or semester theses were created on the project. After a year and a half of work, ESA approved the first stage of development and at the same time gave the green light to the second phase, which is to continue for another year and a half. "Of all the possible solutions, we have identified one that has the potential to work during development. We will now work on it, prototypes will be created, we must undergo a complete series of testing and the like," Mašek describes.

The switch won't look into space yet. Until the technology is completely finished and successfully tested, no planned mission envisages it. It would be too risky. "It is because, for example, ten years ago, ESA thought that similar technology would be useful for it and began to address its development. However, he expects to use it in another ten, twenty, thirty years, for example. That's just how space research works, things are planned for decades to come," Mašek concludes.