Applying our power electronics to projects beyond our planetary frontiers, Clémence Cavayé, is leading our mission into Space! Clémence joined Watt & Well in 2019 in charge of testing and validating our space equipment. Her energy, expertise and project management skills meant that she was soon appointed Head of Space Equipment in 2022, before being appointed Director of the Space Business Unit in January 2023, and the youngest member of the executive committee. The maiden launch of Ariane 6 marks a key accomplishment.

What does the launch of Ariane 6 represent for Watt & Well and for you?

For Watt & Well, this is the first time ever that our power equipment, the fault-tolerant motor pump controller (CMTP), has been launched into space! We’ve been working towards this moment for a long time, and to see the launch last week was a historic moment, not just for us, but for all our partners and the European space industry. It’s a memory that will remain etched in everyone’s minds!
It has filled us all with a great sense of accomplishment, but it was also a moment of stress, because it was the first time that the equipment we designed, developed, assembled, and tested to the very highest standards, has been used in real launch conditions.

What were the main challenges of the Ariane 6 project?

Space represents a unique and challenging environment for electronic equipment. Thanks to our experience of producing downhole tools for the energy sector, we understand the constraints of high temperatures, pressures, and vibrations, but in space, we also need to consider the effects of radiation and functioning within a vacuum. Also, the equipment has been designed with maximum fault tolerance to avoid the need of redundancy in the launcher. Thanks to the system architecture, the equipment is tolerant to one fault, it can detect and isolate its own failure, automatically reconfiguring to ensure that the motor pump controller continues to work with needed performance. A key step in the project was the validation of this fault tolerance feature which was particularly stringent and technically challenging.

So, what’s the next mission for the Space BU?

Our next mission is to prepare for future launches. We have already delivered the CMPT for the next launch, but now we’re working with our partners and proposing improvements to scale up and optimize production.
We’re also working on projects for new space. Here the focus is less on fault tolerance and more on optimizing costs and reducing time to market. The aim is to drastically reduce costs and simplify development, while keeping a high degree of quality and reliability. We’re looking at one and a half years of development instead of six, which means we must go fast, and push ourselves to go even faster!

Want to find out more about Watt & Well ? Read our interview with Benoît Schmitt, our CEO