Professor André Monfils, creator of the CSL, passed away this Monday 2nd of March at the age of 94. We wished to pay tribute to him by republishing an article written in 2011 which presents the career of this pioneer of Liège space optics.
A text written by Théo Pirard
Fifty years ago, in the circle of Professor Pol Swings (1906-1983), André Monfils, a young teacher at the Astrophysics Institute of Liège, gathered a team of researchers and technicians around him to carry out experiments by means of optical instruments. This team, known under the name of IAL space, grew to become the CSL (Centre Spatiale de Liege) at the heart of a “spatiopole”.
André Monfils is the “father” of space optics in Liège. The association Promoptica, which he created and led, paid homage to him at the beginning of spring at the Liège space centre. The key role played by Professor Monfils was recalled by his successor at the head of IAL Space, Claude Jamar, who is the current chief executive of the company AMOS. Professor Monfils’ role enabled the University of Liège to acquire its reputation for experiments in space with optical systems.
Originally from Blankenberge, where he was born on the 25th of July 1925, André Monfils obtained a degree in Chemistry at the ULB but it was at the University of Liège that he completed his doctoral thesis in physics. This thesis, which he defended in November 1952, was the opportunity to specialise in the science of molecular spectroscopy which was taking off at the time. His work in infrared, Raman and acoustic spectroscopy and nuclear quadrupole resonance has been the subject of some thirty publications that constitute works of reference. In the mid-fifties, he was at Harvard and Ottowa for research activities under the patronage of Gerhard Herzberg, the winner of the Nobel Prize for physics in 1971. With him, he co-signed articles on the molecules of Hydrogen and Deuterium and knowledge relating to them represented a major step in astrophysics.
On his return to the country in 1958, André Monfils offered his services to the International Geophysics Year (1957-1958). Together with Pol Swings, he contributed to the excellence of Belgian research. It was during this period that the space age began with the launch of the first satellites in the USSR (Sputnik) and the US (Explorer). It then became possible to conduct an “in situ” study of the upper atmosphere of the Earth and observe the effects of solar radiation on its behaviour. Europe, which had a duty to be involved in this with its expertise, had difficulties in taking firm and coordinated decisions. But Belgium showed its determination to oversee the development and triumph of this European cooperation in space. From 1960, the two professors Swings and Monfils championed this cause: they participated in the setting up of a European spatial science programme by means of rocket-probes and satellites.
At the Astrophysics Institute of Liège, the experiments group for distant UV (ultraviolet light) or Optics and Space Physics department was set up under the direction of André Monfils. It was a dynamic team of young researchers who became involved in three programmes that were proposed at COPERS (European Preparatory Commission for Space Research) for its first five-year plan of activities with rocket-probes and satellites. These included:
COPERS gave rise to ESRO in 1962, the European Space Research Organisation which became operational in March 1964 and was to become the basis of the ESA (European Space Agency) ten years later.
The first objective of the Space Physics and Optics Department within the scope of its capability was the UV spectroscopy of polar auroras thanks to rocket probes launched from the Esrange centre in Kiruna (Sweden). This team of pioneers of the European programme for rocket probes endured a lot of initial problems by being confronted with the hazards of the space technology of the era.
The first experiment with the R 81 spectrometer which was built and tested in Cointe took place on the 20th of November 1966 but did not produce a result because the payload fairing of the French rocket Centaure didn’t open. The following 11 flights of Centaure, between February 1967 and November 1971, made it possible to analyse the interactions between the particles of the solar wind and our atmospheric environment. This involvement of IAL Space was thanks to the support of the Belgian science policy office.
IAL Space, under the leadership of Professor Monfils, called upon Belgian industry to develop the instruments to fly on board the rockets launched from Kiruna (Sweden), Andoya (Norway) and Fort Churchill Canada. His industrial partners were SABCA for mechanics and ETCA (Thales Alenia Space) for electronics. He gained renown with the stellar UV telescope –experiment S2/S68-on board the first European astronomy satellite TD-1.
This equipment, totally new in Europe, constituted a great advance in space exploration for IAL Space, within the ULg. Its development put the researchers from Liège in contact with Matra (today the manufacturer of EADS satellites Astrium). Professor Leo Houziaux of the polytechnic faculty of Mons, where he developed the Astrophysics Department with an atomic spectroscopy laboratory, is associated with the scientific preparation and exploitation of the telescope’s observations.
In order to calibrate the instrument on the flight-a telescope of 0.27 m coupled with a spectrometer, in conditions close to those of the environment of space, the ULiège Astrophysics Institute had to equip itself with a space simulation chamber for photometric calibration tests in a vacuum. While the unit was developed by a French project manager, the chamber, with a diameter of 2 metres and 5 metres in length which housed a high-vacuum and thermal variations, was built in the workshops of la Meuse in Liège. The Liège Company, which gave rise to AMOS in 1983, thus became involved in the development of space simulators: FOCAL-2 (Facility for Optical Calibration at Liège) is still operational today within the infrastructure of the testing capabilities of CSL.
It would take five years, from January 1967 to 1972, for the instrument S2/S68 to become a reality. The Caroloregienne Company ETCA designed and developed its micro-electronics. The satellite weighing 473 kilos was launched on March 12 1972 by an American launcher Thor-Delta (on which the acronym TD-1 is based) from the Vandenberg military base in California. But the TD-1 experimentation team were not out of the woods yet. Two months after being placed in orbit, the two recorders on-board broke down. A rescue plan took the form of a global mobilisation of a network of stations to directly collect the data. The observatory worked, with highs and lows, until May 1974. It made possible the establishment of two catalogues of the spectra of stars in Ultra-violet which even today remain tools of reference for the study of hot stars.
For IAL Space and the pursuit of its activities in the service of European space study, TD-1 met with disappointing times. The oil crisis in 1973 obliged countries to reduce their spending on science and technology.
Professor Monfils had to deal with a crisis caused by a shrinking of the space budget allocated to ULg. He had to manage a serious situation with resources that were halved, going from 24 to 13 million Belgian francs at the time (from 0.6 to 0.3 million Euros). But space technology requires important funding. It opted for a close collaboration with industry, notably with Matra, not only for optical systems tests, but also for the design and development of innovative instruments. Andre Monfils, aware of this necessity, was on the alert and had to manoeuvre in a delicate situation which was made all the more so because any activity with industrial overtones was not to the taste of everyone within the university.
From this test of its ability to survive, IAL Space finally came of age. Professor Monfils and his team whose tenacity had prevailed and who were used to taking up scientific and technological challenges, had to take on another great challenge, by putting their research and testing tool at the disposal of the European space programme. The radiometer that Matra had designed for Meteosat-1, the first European satellite for meteorology, came to Liège for its optical calibration. The future of IAL Space saw the signing of a protocol agreement between the University of Liège and the ESA (European Space Agency). The integration of the know-how of the Liège infrastructure into a European network of space testing capabilities was an acknowledgement of IAL Space as a centre of excellence in Europe for the qualification of opto-electric instruments which have to function in the extreme conditions of space.
This solution of making IAL Space a coordinated facility of the ESA saved Professor Monfils’ team and preserved the technological skills which contributed to the renown of the University in the area of space exploration. The quality of its contribution to the ESA and the European space industry was confirmed with the European detector of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) satellite and the Giotto mission of a European probe to the famous Halley’s Comet. The Halley Multicolour Camera (HMC) which on March 14th 1986 succeeded in taking the first close-up photos (within 600 kilometres) of the core of a comet was calibrated by IAL Space in FOCAL-2. However, this simulator became too restricted and its performances were too limited, especially at a time when the ESA satellites were becoming more ambitious, complex and voluminous.
IAL Space, in order to test the astrometry satellite Hipparcos designed by Matra, designed FOCAL-5 (Advanced Mechanical and Optical Systems) which was created in 1983 in the workshops of La Meuse. In 1984, to welcome FOCAL-5, IAL Space, with the financial support of the Wallonia region-thanks to ministers Jean-Maurice Dehousse and Melchior Wathelet- set up in the Sart Tillman Scientific Park. A building of some 4,000 m² -property of the University-was constructed around a clean room which housed three simulation chambers. Prodex financing, to which Belgium contributes, involved the University of Liège in in a good number of scientific missions in orbit for the study of the sun, analysis of auroras, and knowledge about the Universe. A team of engineers endeavoured to restart the activity which had characterised the first beginnings of IAL Space, the design and development of original instruments for both for both ESA and NASA satellites.
In 1988 under the impetus of the Wallonia region, IAL Space witnessed the birth in its own neighbourhood and with members of its own personnel, of the Spacebel twins, two space systems commercial companies:
In 1991 the founding director of IAL Space reached retirement age: Professor Monfils was replaced by Claude Jamar, one of his students and researchers. From April 1992, IAL Space showed new ambition by taking the name of the Liège Space Centre (CSL). Its objective is to make an essential contribution to the economic reconversion of the Liège industrial area.
In 2001, Wallonia Space Logistics (WSL) took shape with the first incubator in Europe of young companies with products and services with a high added value that are derived from research work and developments in the techniques of space and engineering science. For his part, A. Monfils created his own small company, NEOC (New Electro-Optical Concepts), which allows him to remain active in the area of optical instruments.
A key figure in French politics in the 80s, Robert Badinter was awarded an honorary doctorate by ULiège on March 22, 2000, at the initiative of the Faculty of Law and its Dean, Prof. Georges de Leval.
The ceremony to swear in new members of the Academic Staff and honor as well as emeritus, honorary and retired members of the Academic Staff took place on Wednesday November 29, 2023.
More than 700 students and staff members met the Civil Engineer and Doctor in Engineering Sciences graduate, just before the start of his astronaut training.
