engineering

Luxspace

Luxspace is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Luxspace rather than just read about it. In short: LuxSpace is a European space systems contractor based in Betzdorf in Luxembourg. It was founded in November 2004 as a daughter company of OHB AG, and began operations in January 2005.

Key takeaways

Luxspace belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Luxspace to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Luxspace from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

LuxSpace is a European space systems contractor based in Betzdorf in Luxembourg. It was founded in November 2004 as a daughter company of OHB AG, and began operations in January 2005.

History On 23 September 2009 the PathFinder2A (a.k.a. Rubin-9.1, AIS-Pathfinder 2) payload aboard the Rubin-9 satellite (COSPAR 2009-051F; the Rubin-9 "satellite" was actually the upper stage of the carrier rocket that the payloads were solidly bolted onto; after the rocket had finished its mission with the primary payload, the upper stage remained in space and became "satellite" Rubin-9) was launched by a PSLV-CA rocket. This was LuxSpace's first orbital operation. The satellite carried another payload (Rubin 9.2) by OHB-System. As of 2019, both payloads (and thus the whole satellite) are non-operational. The company's first own, independent (no shared payload by another company) satellite VesselSat-1 was launched on October 12, 2011, as part of the GapFiller program; followed by its twin VesselSat-2 on January 9, 2012. In 2014 (launch 23 October 2014, 18:00 UTC), LuxSpace performed the 4M or Manfred Memorial Moon Mission, the first private Moon mission. The mission consisted of an amateur radio payload (total mass of payload was 14 kg) that was sent on a close lunar flyby aboard a Chinese Long March 3C/G2 rocket's upper stage. The 4M payload was solidly bolted onto the upper stage of the rocket and did not separate. The Chinese rocket performed the Chang'e 5-T1 lunar flyby mission to test technology for future lunar sample return mission Chang'e 5. The Chang'e 5-T1 test flight sent a space capsule on a flight around the Moon and back toward Earth, with the capsule landing on Earth in the end of the mission. The 4M payload's nominal lifetime was 8 days. LuxSpace built the ESAIL satellite for the Canadian operator exactEarth under ESA's SAT‐AIS programme (a part of ESA's Partnership Projects) for tracking ships. ESAIL is the first commercial microsatellite of the program. ESAIL was launched on 3 September 2021 aboard Arianespace Vega rocket. The launch will take place on the Vega Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) Proof of Concept (POC) flight.

Future missions In May 2021, LuxSpace started the development of their next platform, Triton-X, a microsatellite in the 50-200 kg wet mass range, with high on-board processing capabilities and targeting particularly the commercial space market. In Fall 2021, LuxSpace, in collaboration with RHEA and OHB, signed a long-term contract with the Luxembourg Ministry of Defense for the in-orbit operations of a Luxembourg Earth Observation satellite.

References

External links Official LuxSpace website

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Luxspace

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Luxspace claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Luxspace before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Luxspace ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Luxspace

In research: Luxspace appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Luxspace in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Luxspace is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Aerospace companies, Engineering companies of Luxembourg, Spacecraft manufacturers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Luxspace outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Luxspace in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Luxspace means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Luxspace out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Luxspace in simple terms?

LuxSpace is a European space systems contractor based in Betzdorf in Luxembourg. It was founded in November 2004 as a daughter company of OHB AG, and began operations in January 2005.

Why does Luxspace matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Luxspace?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Luxspace.