Tour of industrial and scientific facilities
In the afternoon of May 22nd 2025, the Local Organizing Committee has scheduled the visit of two different facilities :
- ArianeGroup facility in Saint Médard en Jalles
- CEA Megajoule Laser in Le Barp
The location of both facilities is indicated on the map below.
The visits are included in the conference fee and are thus free of charge. Registration to these visits BEFORE the conference will however be MANDATORY not later than February 28th 2025, and will require participants to provide biodata.
Registrations will only be possible on ESA FAR2025 website (to be opened soon)
As both visits are scheduled at the same time, you will have to make the choice between the two proposals upon registration.
A transportation service will bring participants from Arcachon to facilities and back. Provisional estimation of duration from departure to return in Arcachon is approximately 4 hours. More details will be given later.
Important notice :
- Access to these sites is subject to specific rules and prior agreement, and may therefore be denied.
- Tour of ArianeGroup facility is limited to 50 participants, tour of LMJ is limited to 100 participants.
Tour of ArianeGroup facility
After the initial challenge of escaping Earth’s gravity to venture into space with our launchers, another feat awaits us: returning to Earth. In all cases, we must face extreme conditions (debris, deceleration, intense heat, etc.)
Ariane Group invites you to visit some of our facilities. The Saint-Médard Issac site specializes in the design and implementation of composite materials, thermal protection, and wiring for both civilian and military launchers. The Saint-Médard Issac site was responsible for the thermal shields for space probes such as ExoMars, Mars Express, and Cassini-Huygens. During the visit, we will showcase these capabilities and others, including the assembly of Ariane 6 booster structures and plasma tests.
Tour of Megajoule Laser
The Laser Mégajoule (LMJ), developed and operated by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), is a state-of-the-art research facility located at the CESTA site in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
Designed to study matter under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure — similar to those encountered in thermonuclear plasmas — the LMJ has been operational since late 2014.
It plays a crucial role in safeguarding the reliability and safety of France’s nuclear deterrent by enabling advanced high-energy-density physics experiments.
Laser Megajoule building
The LMJ design uses 176 beamlines in a parallel system of flashlamp-pumped, neodymium-doped glass lasers emitting light at a wavelength of 1.053 µm (a wavelength which is the only one that can be produced at the target energy level) .
These beams undergo frequency tripling to achieve a wavelength of 0.351 µm (ultraviolet light, a better wavelength for laser/matter interaction) before being precisely directed onto a target located within a 10-meter-diameter aluminum spherical chamber.
This configuration allows the LMJ to deliver shaped laser pulses with adjustable durations ranging from 0.7 to 25 nanoseconds.
At full capacity, the system should achieve a maximum energy of 1.3 megajoules and peak power of 400 terawatts in ultraviolet light.
In 2017, the LMJ’s capabilities were supplemented with the addition of PETAL (PETawatt Aquitaine Laser), an ultra-high-power short-pulse laser.
PETAL can deliver pulses lasting between 500 femtoseconds and 10 picoseconds, reaching energy levels of up to 1 kilojoule.
This broadens the experimental range of the LMJ, enabling the exploration of previously inaccessible regimes in high-energy-density physics and fundamental science.
Access to the LMJ-PETAL facility for academic research is managed by the Association Lasers and Plasmas (ALP) (https://www.asso-alp.fr/), which coordinates experimental proposals and fosters scientific collaborations between researchers and the CEA in the framework of the CEA opening program.
Experiments conducted at LMJ-PETAL provide insights into processes like stellar nucleosynthesis, planetary formation, and inertial confinement fusion, a promising approach for clean energy generation.
This partnership ensures that the LMJ-PETAL remains at the forefront of scientific innovation, facilitating groundbreaking research and technological advancements.
In summary, the Laser Mégajoule is a cornerstone of high-energy physics research, uniquely positioned to explore matter under extreme conditions. Its dual role in supporting national defense and enabling cutting-edge scientific discovery highlights its significance as an invaluable asset for advancing our understanding of the universe and developing transformative technologies for the future.