ESA selects a consortium formed by BCMaterials and CRITICAL Materials SA for the development of the next-generation technologies to control Magnetic Field Perturbations induced by Thermo-Electric Effects.

BCMaterials, Basque Center for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures and Critical Materials SA (CMT), a company specialized in technology solutions for critical systems, were awarded with a contract from ESA – European Space Agency – for the development of the new generation of technologies designed to mitigate Magnetic Field Perturbations generated by Thermo-Electric Effects.

The project implementation starts on October 2017 and includes a collaboration between the Basque Centre for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures and Critical Materials in a consortium led by CMT.
The project is focused on:

• The identification of which physical processes are involved in the generation of thermo-electrical currents
• The development of new approaches to deal with thermoelectric and thermomagnetic phenomena
• Extend thermoelectric/ magnetic formulations to better understand specific conditions that occur in space mission scenarios and to predict the magnetic fields generated from thermoelectric currents in space mission environments, with the objective of identifying and developing possible mitigation technologies.

The developed solutions will be virtually prototyped and tested in a laboratory environment. This project is a milestone in the development of technology for improved Space Operations, with impact in the accuracy of measurements and in the robustness of instrumentation.

The combination of expertise is a fundamental aspect to achieve the project objectives, merging capabilities that are complementary between consortium members.