ARQUIMEA

ARQUIMEA is a Madrid-based Spanish aerospace technology company founded in 2005, specializing in thermal control systems — particularly heat pipes and loop heat pipes (LHPs) — and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) solutions for space applications.

ARQUIMEA's thermal products have accumulated substantial mission heritage across some of Europe's most demanding space programs: the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (ESA/Roscosmos), Intelsat commercial GEO telecommunications satellites, Europe's Galileo navigation satellite constellation, Sentinel Earth observation satellites (Copernicus programme), and NASA's Mars Perseverance rover — giving ARQUIMEA a portfolio spanning ESA, NASA, and commercial customers across planetary, navigation, Earth observation, and telecommunications missions.

Heat pipes and loop heat pipes are passive two-phase thermal devices that transport heat over long distances using the evaporation and condensation cycle of a working fluid (ammonia for space applications) through a sealed tube with a porous wick structure. They require no moving parts, no power, and achieve effective thermal conductivities thousands of times higher than solid aluminum — making them essential for distributing heat from electronics to spacecraft radiators or for maintaining temperature uniformity across structures with non-uniform heat loads. Loop heat pipes (LHPs) extend this to larger distances and variable heat loads, enabling flexible routing around spacecraft structure.

ARQUIMEA's LHP technology was critical for the ExoMars TGO mission requiring precise temperature management in Mars orbit's extreme thermal environment, and for Galileo's stringent clock stability requirements where temperature gradients threaten atomic clock performance. For Mars Perseverance, ARQUIMEA developed thermal solutions managing the power electronics heat loads through the rover's Martian day-night thermal swings.

Beyond thermal, ARQUIMEA develops pyrotechnic release mechanisms (separation nuts, cable cutters) and microelectronics for space qualification. The company employs approximately 150 engineers and operates cleanroom assembly facilities in Madrid. ARQUIMEA competes in the European space thermal market with Advanced Cooling Technologies (USA), Terma (Denmark), and Bradford ECAPS for thermal engineering services and flight hardware.