The Swedish National Space Board would like Prisma to give Swedish space technology a flying start in the European satellite market. It has already provided results, despite there being at least one year remaining until the satellite’s launch.

Sweden has a long history of successful satellites behind it. These extend from the entirely Swedish Viking, Freja, Astrid 1 and 2 and the micro-satellite Munin, to the international successes of Odin and
SMART-1.
 
Sweden is also population-wise and economically a relatively small country. It is therefore difficult for Sweden to run large-scale internal satellite projects. Despite this Sweden is far advanced for being a small country and Swedish technology and Swedish project leadership in the satellite field measures up to that of the best. The technology showcase Prisma is an opportunity for the Swedish space industry to demonstrate what it can do in the international arena.
 
Crossroads
The Swedish National Space Board and the Swedish Space Corporation were established concurrently in 1972. The Swedish National Space Board was at that time a one man authority and was primarily represented by the Swedish Space Corporation. Having those commissioning and those executing activities too tightly intertwined with each other does not always turn out well, so the two organisations were gradually separated. Since the start of the decade the Swedish National Space Board and the Swedish Space Corporation have been two separate entities, with the state owned Swedish Space Corporation continuing to develop, amongst other things, satellites and the Swedish National Space Board is the state authority which places the orders.
 
“But now we have reached a crossroads”, says Christer Nilsson, project commissioner for Prisma at the Swedish National Space Board. “We don’t have the finances to build satellites under Swedish production. At the same time we have extremely valuable competence within the Swedish Space Corporation which has been built up primarily with funding from the Swedish National Space Board and that we would like to give the opportunity of reaching a larger market”.
 
The Swedish National Space Board therefore took the decision to initiate the Prisma project as an opportunity for the Swedish Space Corporation and the Swedish aerospace industry to showcase itself with the intention of then being able to take the definitive step out into the European arena. This strategy appears to be on track for being successful. Prisma has already generated European orders for the corporation.
 
Two opportunities
The Swedish National Space Board’s aim was that Prisma would provide the Swedish Space Corporation with two opportunities. For the first part they would be system integrators for an international satellite project. Secondly they would prepare for being able to deliver satellite sub-systems in the future.

“The role as system integrators we believe is very good for the Swedish Space Corporation. The Swedish financing for this type of participation can then perhaps be limited to 20 percent, which is completely OK from our point of view”, says Christer Nilsson. “The Swedish Space Corporation is also adept at, as system integrators, running the project according to the Swedish model – fast and cost-effective”.
 
Formation flight has been on the table since the 1990’s, but no-one had really taken the plunge. When the Swedish Space Corporation then chose this as a goal for the project the Swedish National Space Board thought that this was a good choice.
 
Unique opportunity for new Swedish technology
One of the Swedish National Space Board’s requirements was that Prisma should attract interested parties from other countries.
“It is a prerequisite in order for the project to have the groundbreaking effect we hope for. An entirely Swedish project would disappear much more easily in the background noise”. 
 
In this area the Swedish Space Corporation has succeeded. Both the French National Space Board CNES and the German DLR have joined the project, as well as Denmark’s Technical University, DTU.

Yet another role for Prisma was to provide a site for testing new Swedish technology.
 
“Space is something of a catch 22”, says Christer Nilsson. “Parts must already have flown in order for customers to take them seriously, while those that customers don’t take seriously don’t get to fly ...”
 
So the Prisma project now consists of three main parts: the platform itself which the Swedish Space Corporation provide, the instrumentation and experiments for formation flight which CNES, DLR and DTU are responsible for, as well as technology demonstrations for other Swedish companies. The Institute for Space Physics and Chalmers University of Technology will also contribute with a newly developed instrument called Prima that will measure the cosmic radiation with the help of innovative technology.


Kim Bergström
November 2007

Read more about the Swedish Space Corporation on www.ssc.se