Wireless energy for satellites: the story of the Italian innovative start-up ORiS

An innovative start-up, spin-off of Politecnico di Torino (the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy), is working on a system for energy recharging in space through the creation of an orbiting power plant capable of remotely recharging other satellites. It is ORiS, a young company from Turin that intends to pave the way for new and important technological developments in aerospace.

The origins of the project

The story of ORiS – acronym for Orbital Recharge in Space – began with the participation of a group of master’s degree students in a pre-incubation path at I3P, the Incubator of Politecnico di Torino, in 2022. A few months later, the team had the opportunity to take part in a challenge organized by Politecnico’s Technology Transfer Service, in collaboration with I3P and ESA BIC Turin, the incubation program for space-related start-ups.

Subsequently, the student team, supported by Carla Fabiana Chiasserini, a lecturer at the University’s Department of Electronics and Telecommunications (DET), won a Proof of Concept (PoC) Instrument research grant sponsored by Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo. The team was then the winner of a second PoC grant sponsored by Telespazio and funded by Leonardo, as a prize in the T-Tec 2022 competition. During this time, the team came into contact with Stefano Mauro, Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (DIMEAS) of Politecnico di Torino, now a partner in ORiS and scientific advisor of the start-up.

An initial patent filing attracted the attention of Galaxia, an aerospace investment fund controlled by CDP Venture, which provided a PoC-type investment to develop the first prototype. In 2023, the team then submitted a project in response to a call for proposals from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) by combining, under the coordination of Stefano Mauro, the expertise of three departments at Politecnico di Torino, the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Lazzero Tecnologie. Winning the ASI call for proposals has enabled the University to initiate Ph.D.s on topics of energy transfer from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon.

The four students then founded ORiS in February 2024, and from the following April the start-up began its incubation path in I3P and ESA BIC Turin.

The prospects of the start-up

“What ORiS designed meets a need that has emerged within the space market: to be able to benefit from innovative charging sources for satellites. To date, in fact, the only commercially used system is solar panels aboard each individual satellite,” explained Andrea Villa, CEO of ORiS. “So what we propose is an energy charging system in space through the creation of an orbiting power plant capable of remotely charging other satellites. The recharging service is done by means of several satellites that make up the orbiting infrastructure whose task is to accumulate energy on board and transmit it through the use of a payload composed of a laser directly on the solar panels of the client satellite, recharging it.”

“The creation of ORiS has a somewhat unusual story because it originated from a group of students and is a demonstration of the potential that an education and research environment such as the Polytechnic can have,” commented Stefano Mauro, Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of Politecnico di Torino, Partner and Scientific Advisor to the start-up.

Having an infrastructure capable of delivering charging services can solve considerable problems. The sizing of satellites, for example, must take into account the ratio of surface area to generating capacity and the energy demand of the systems that operate the satellite. In addition, each satellite must discount a certain number of hours “in the shade” from the sun. An efficient recharging service could provide power to the satellites even when they are in shadow, or when more power needs to be available for particular operations.

In recent months, before and after participating in the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2024 in Milan, ORiS has been testing a range of technologies for building increasingly complex satellite systems. “It is very important for us vis-à-vis companies to have knowledge of the crucial aspects related to this type of service,” said Andrea Villa. “In fact, having the most precise indications possible puts us in a position to identify the most suitable solutions.” 

Alongside research and development activities, ORiS has raised additional funding and is in the process of completing fundraising, thus expanding the working team with new team members. The timetable of activities now includes on the one hand the continuation of technical development with a horizon to 2027 for the first launch of the technology into orbit, and on the other hand business development on different fields, still related to space activities, for example the issue of debris in orbit.