Engineering news
Lots of things don’t mix well: chalk and cheese, milk and orange juice, water and oil. But it requires an imaginative mind to combine outer space and trains, which is exactly what the European Space Agency (ESA) is attempting to do with its latest “trickle-down” space technology initiative.
In an effort to cross-fertilise innovation from its publicly-funded space sector research into the rail sector, last month the ESA launched the Space4Rail initiative.
The program seeks to identify ESA projects that could be exploited by the rail sector and build awareness of the benefits of integrating space technologies into rail systems. It wants to create partnerships for technology development and will fund rail industry research.
We’re not talking rocket-powered trains here, but satellite-based technology such as navigation, tracking and Earth observation to support train operations.
Michele Castorina, technical officer for the Telecommunications and Integrated Applications Directorate at ESA, says: “The use of space-based assets for rail has been receiving an increasing level of attention in recent years as a possible option to reduce cost
“A hundred years ago in the rail sector everything was done with one company, the trains, the tracks, operations. It’s very different now, but it’s still quite a conservative sector.
“Integrating space and rail technology is interesting but a challenge. We have to first build awareness of the benefits that utilisation of spaced-based services provides, and that there is an economic advantage.”
One of the largest technical challenges is to adapt space technology to the various national rail networks, many of which have unique characteristics and requirements. Another is the move to safety-critical applications.
“One of the main challenges is when we use this technology for safety of life applications,” Castorina says. “It’s a completely different technology than what is used today, which are mechanical and electrical based systems.”
Although the commercial use of space-based assets isn’t common yet, there are several places in Europe where they are in use, for the tracking of trains, although not for signaling, and also for the providing internet and communications. The Thalys trains that run from Brussels to Amsterdam and on the Cologne route to provide on-board connectivity to passengers using technology provided by a product called 21net.
Castorina believes that satellite technology will play an increasingly important role in the rail sector in the future. “There will be more opportunities to apply space technology in the rail sector as satellites such as the Galileo constellation are completed,” he says.
He says: “We welcome any type of idea and we can offer to projects technical/ business expertise and typical fund up to 75% to certain TRL’s.”