System Requirements Review

Following its official kick-off in June 2024, the ICARUS project has successfully completed the first design loop, focused on conceptual design and feasibility assessment. This effort culminated in the achievement of the first major milestone: the System Requirements Review (SRR).

The SRR process was launched in December 2024 and concluded at the end of March 2025, marking a critical point in the project’s progression. The main outcomes of the review are:

• Confirmation of the mission’s feasibility alongside a viable system;
• Production of a robust set of mission and system requirements;
• Availability of a finalized set of inputs to proceed with the next phase (i.e.: preliminary design loop and ground development).

Here’s what we’ve achieved so far and what’s coming next.

1. Mission Feasibility Assessment

During the conceptual design phase, the team focused on assessing the overall feasibility of the mission taking into account scientific objectives on the one hand, and operational constraints on the other.

As main outcome, the mission will be carried out in ESRANGE on board a Red-Kite Sounding Rocket fully dedicated to the ICARUS mission.

The mission feasibility assessment ended out with the definition of a Concept of Operations (ConOps) and a baseline mission scenario as depicted in the figure below.

2. System Conceptual Design

A preliminary system architecture was designed through a System Engineering (SE) loop involving different key disciplines as aerodynamic and aerothermodynamics, trajectory analysis, mechanical and thermal analysis, avionics engineering, and CAD engineering.

This integrated approach enabled the development of a reference configuration that balances system flyability, optimization of internal layout, and compatibility with the launch vehicle.

The system design was supported by:

• ad-hoc engineering of the key enabling technologies: the Flexible Thermal Protection Systems (Flexible TPS) and the Inflatable Structure (IS);
• sizing of system resources including load-bearing structure, avionics, and gas generation;
• analysis and definition of the onboard sensors suite to allow for flight test rebuilding and evaluation.

As outcome of the engineering action, the system configuration of the ICARUS Re-entry Vehicle (RV) is currently based on a synergy/combination of the upper inert part of the Sounding Rocket with on the top a demonstrator of the Inflatable Heat Shield.

3. Next Steps

The team is interacting with the European commission to finalize the System Requirements Review (SRR), to consolidate the preliminary results and move forward with the next project phases targeting the Preliminary Design Review maturation before the end of the year.

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