Highlights 2022

Real-time monitoring of the carbon capture and storage (CSS) process at Hellisheiði, Iceland

The Spectroscopy Group at RAL Space has developed and successfully deployed a Laser Isotope Ratio Analyser (LIRA) for measuring the concentration of sulphur isotopes in gases destined for carbon capture storage.

The challenge: The capture and storage of carbon produced in industrial processes will play an important role in reducing emissions into the atmosphere in the transition to a Net Zero economy. Some industries won't be able to eliminate carbon production completely. Even geothermal power, a green energy solution, produces some carbon dioxide and polluting gases.

A number of firms are proposing carbon capture and storage technologies including Carbfix, an Icelandic company turning carbon dioxide emitted at Reykjavik Energy's Hellisheiði geothermal power plant into rocks for long term storage.

They wanted to understand the carbon mineralisation process and monitor the level of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide being emitted by the power plant and captured for storage. Optimising these carbon capture technologies requires tools capable of continuously monitoring and analysing the concentration of dissolved emission gases in-situ – a process that is currently undertaken manually.

The solution: RAL Space scientists have developed the LIRA spectrometer which can be used to monitor the carbon capture and sequestration process.

To test the capabilities of LIRA – which was originally envisaged for use on other planets – the instrument was installed on one of Reykjavik Energy's operational turbines. The team used the instrument to measure the isotope ratio of hydrogen sulphide in the emitted gases, with the aim to get insights on the subsurface processes.

The outcome: The data generated will now help RAL Space scientists to develop a prototype instrument capable of monitoring emissions and sharing data in real-time, improving our understanding of what is being captured by carbon capture facilities. Continuous online monitoring offers a significant performance advantage over current manual testing methods and is a major step towards the goal of an autonomous monitoring and analytical system that will be vital for large scale carbon capture facilities.

Additional information: This work forms part of the Geothermal Emission Control H2020 project, led by Reykjavik Energy and funded by the European Commission.

“Carbfix are now in a phase where they want to deploy their carbon capture facilities on a large industrial scale – which is what we actually need to address climate change. To maintain a 1.5°C global warming scenario at the end of the century, about 5 Gigatonnes per year needs to be captured by 2030. Helping CCS to scale-up is therefore vitally important.”
^{Dr Damien Weidmann, RAL Space Spectroscopy Group Leader}

First images from the James Webb Space Telescope

A culmination of over 20 years of hard work and scientific innovation led to the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope on 25 December 2021 and after just six months, on 12 July 2022, Webb’s first full-colour images were released. These stunning first images were received with much excitement, not only by the public and astronomers who will use the data to study our universe, but by the people who have dedicated so much time and effort into building mankind’s most advanced space telescope.

The European contribution to Webb includes two of the four on-board instruments – one of which is the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). MIRI offers a sensitivity and resolution many times greater than any other mid-IR instrument and can see through the dust obscuring distant objects in space. The instrument is playing a key role in observing light that has travelled from the early stages of the Universe and will allow us to study the formation of stars and galaxies.

MIRI was designed, assembled, and tested by a European consortium of ten member countries, led in partnership with the United States by the UK and European Principal Investigator Professor Gillian Wright, Director of STFC’s UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC). After passing critical design reviews, MIRI was integrated and tested at RAL Space, and was the first of Webb’s instruments to be handed over to NASA in 2012. Following launch, scientists and engineers from RAL Space and the UK ATC were fundamental in MIRI’s commissioning phase and ensuring that the instrument operated as expected.

Webb’s extraordinary first images, and the many more that are still to come, are a testament to the scientists, technicians, engineers and support staff who contributed to all aspects of the mission, including MIRI. We’re exceptionally proud of our team and their involvement!

“As part of the engineering team here at RAL Space, we worked with our colleagues around the world for nearly two decades, all leading up to this moment. It is very rewarding to see these first results, and they are even more spectacular than I imagined. The scientific potential that Webb opens up is very exciting, and I look forward to seeing what it will discover in the years to come."
^{Tim Grundy, Lead Instrument Engineer and RAL Space MIRI project lead}

Space test services
and facilities

RAL Space's Environmental Test Division has grown from around seven members since it was formed in 2018, to 39 in 2022, and continues to provide thermal, vacuum, and mechanical testing services and facilities for customers, partners, and internal projects. Quality is a critical part of the test facility operation, and along with being re-certified to EN9100 this year, the facilities were audited by the European Space Agency (ESA) against the internationally recognised ECSS-Q-ST-20-07C standard.

The team have been busy making exciting progress towards the development of the National Satellite Test Facility (NSTF). The internal shrouds have been fitted to the large (7m) space test chamber, and tanks are now in place which will hold over 100,000 litres of liquid nitrogen to operate the chamber. Dynamics testing facilities have been installed and are expected to be handed over to RAL Space by the end of this year, with commissioning taking place in 2023.

For our existing facilities, October 2022 saw the completion of Airbus’ Sentinel-4 test campaign, which marked the first campaign to be completed in the first of our 5m thermal vacuum chambers. Sentinel-4 will monitor key air quality trace gases and aerosols over Europe as part of ESA’s Copernicus programme, and the completion of its test campaign at RAL Space represents an important step towards readying the instrument for integration onto EUMETSAT’s Meteosat Third Generation satellite.

“I wish to congratulate the RAL Space teams for mastering the development of these complex space test chambers, and the successful transition into service. RAL Space have demonstrated their capability to provide this kind of key test service and together we have laid the foundation for the ECSS certification which will formally prove this to space industry. We are very much looking forward to returning to RAL Space for testing and characterising our second instrument in the near future.”
^{Christoph Erhart, Airbus Defence and Space Sentinel-4/UVN project manager}

“I am delighted that we have recruited most of the team required for the operation of our existing and upcoming facilities. We are in the final stages of the equipment installation in the NSTF, and will start to take operational ownership of facilities at the end of this year. Critical to the test centre operation is the processes we follow, and I am pleased that we are re-certified to EN9100, and well on the track to being certified to ECSS-Q-ST-20-07C.”
^{Matt Fletcher, Environmental Test Division head}

Partnering up to reach net zero ambitions

The challenge: To implement its strategy for creating world-class research and innovation, UKRI supports a wide variety of digital research infrastructure (DRI) which is crucial for researchers to carry out their work. This research often has a part to play in enabling the transition to Net Zero. However, DRI can come at a considerable cost to the environment, and the use of computers of all types in research and innovation means that the very research itself can have considerable environmental impact.

The solution: The team at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) is leading a 19-month scoping project to identify the principal constraints and opportunities affecting implementation of the UKRI Sustainability Strategy across the DRI. It will also advise on the most effective ways forward. The Net Zero DRI scoping project is undertaking a wide range of technical studies and engagement activities in order to inform future recommendations. These are being undertaken with a wide range of partners and stakeholders, through workshops and small commissioned projects. The scope of the project will cover all the UKRI-owned and majority-funded DRI.

The outcome: With the scoping project well under way, CEDA has already published an interim report titled “Complexity, Challenges and Opportunities for Carbon Neutral Digital Research,” which summarises the key evidence-based recommendations for reaching UKRI’s Net Nero targets.

This interim report will feed into the final report (due in June 2023,) which will summarise all the evidence-gathering activities undertaken by the project and provide final recommendations. It will produce a clear roadmap for how UKRI can take action to reduce the carbon emissions from data generation, analysis, storage and dissemination from DRI, and will study how the entire UKRI DRI estate can deliver carbon neutral computing by 2040 or earlier.

Enriching young people’s education through partnerships

RAL Space collaborated with five new partners including the Jon Egging Trust (JET) to support disadvantaged young people raise their confidence and aspirations, and explore career opportunities in STEM. In 2022, the disadvantage gap index for pupils aged 7-11 in England increased to 3.21 (i). Pupils from more deprived backgrounds achieved lower grades, which will likely influence their future employment prospects (ii). We co-delivered four workshops for 43 pupils with JET, and our ambassadors helped them build STEM knowledge, teamwork and leadership skills in exciting space mission challenges. We inspired 53% of them to pursue STEM careers and will continuing raising their science capital over a three-year programme as part of this partnership.

“I found it exciting getting to come to RAL Space and see what they actually do. We got to do a lot of stuff that we wouldn’t normally get to do, and we got to see a lot of scientific projects and learn more about space. It was really fun and it was a good learning experience - I would like to come again!”
^{Year 8 pupil from Carterton Community College} 

^{(i) Key stage 2 attainment Academic Year 2021/22, Department for Education, 2022.
(ii) Education inequalities, IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities, Farquharson, C., McNally, S. and Tahir, I., 2022.}