Funding
This page displays the ARTES Invitation To Tenders (ITTs) which are published on ESA-STAR. If you are looking for a specific element select from the list provided and click on the Apply button to start the search and display the results.
Funding of the individual Prime or subcontractors, for ARTES Core Competitiveness and ARTES Applications activities, is subject to authorisation of the required ARTES budget by the related National Delegations. Therefore, bidding teams are requested to inform their National Delegation(s) of their intention to participate in funded activities already before submitting a proposal.
The official information platform for providing potential bidders all the relevant documentation and details concerning the intended and issued Invitations To Tender (ITTs) for Open Competitions and Direct Negotiations is ESA-STAR - managed and operated by the ESA Procurement Department.
SPACE FOR LEVEL CROSSING SAFETY - EXPRO+
In August 2021, the European Union revealed plans for a Single European Railway Area (SERA) to connect the block and to meet carbone mission goals. The shift to rail transportation has been identified by policymakers as a key element in reaching carbon emission goals (carbon neutrality) by 2050, where about 11% of passengers and goods today are being transported by rail in Europe (e.g., through the elimination of short-haul flights).Increasing…
END-TO-END MANUFACTURING PROCESS FOR SOLAR ARRAYS FOR CONSTELLATIONS (ARTES 4.0 AT 4F.162)
The objective of the activity is to spin-in terrestrial multi-junction solar cell manufacturing processes and to develop and test photo voltaic assembly techniques to reduce the end-to-end manufacturing complexity of solar arrays for constellations. Targeted Improvements:Reduction of manufacturing complexity and manufacturing time of solar arrays by a factor of two in comparison to the current state-of-the-art solar arrays based on multi-junct…
POLYCHROMATIC LASER GUIDE STAR SYSTEM FOR OPTICAL FEEDER-LINKS (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 6C.019)
Objective: The objective of the activity is to develop a Polychromatic Laser Guide Star (PLGS) system to measure and compensate allwave-front distortions in an optical feeder links to terabit telecommunication satellites. This includes tip/tilt, or uplink beam wander, that is not directly measurable otherwise. Targeted Improvements: Being able to measure Tip/Tilt, in addition to higher orderwave-front aberrations, has a 75% improvement on the…
OPTICAL FEEDER LINK SITE-DIVERSITY PROTOCOLS FOR SATELLITE CONSTELLATION NETWORKS (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 3A.170)
Objective: Design and demonstration of link protection and restoration protocols that can be deployed to provide optical feeder link diversity in mega-constellations with inter-satellite links. Targeted Improvements: >30% increased optical network throughput witha reduced number of ground stations and reduced CAPEX. Description: Optical feeder links for LEO satellite systems suffer from frequent disruptions due to cloud blockages that rende…
IAP.KS.PT.000 PROPTECH - KICKSTART
Property Technology, or "PropTech", is a term that encompasses the application of information technology and platform economics to real estate markets. PropTech has proliferated over the last 35 years initially due to the development of mainframe and personal computers, tools such as Lotus and Excel, more comprehensive software solutions for architecting, engineering and construction, and finally the Internet era and online marketpla…
ESA BA AMBASSADOR GERMANY 2022-2026
The objective of this activity is to execute the overall implementation and management of an ESA Business Applications Ambassador Platform in Germany to help encourage new activities for ESA Business Applications. This shall include the following main activities:- Generate new activities for ESA Business Applications through supporting the submission of:- 24 Activity Pitch Questionnaires (APQs) to the Call for Proposals in Downstream Applicati…
BROADBAND Q-V BAND BEAMFORMING NETWORK FOR FLEXIBLE ON-BOARD FEEDER LINK ACTIVE ANTENNA PAYLOADS (ARTES 4.0 AT 5C.488)
The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test a breadboard of a highly integrated Q-V band beam forming network forflexible on-board feeder link active antennas. Targeted Improvements: Enabling a European source for Q-V band beamforming for feeder links. Description: Feeder links in next generation Very High Throughput Satellites (VHTS) rely on a full RF chain in Q-V band. Today, mechanically steerable multi-feed antenna archit…
DRAG AND ATOMIC OXYGEN RESISTANT CARBON FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER FOR VERY LOW EARTH ORBIT TELECOM SATELLITES (ARTES AT 4A.092) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to develop and test a coating material (e.g. for substrates such as carbon fibre reinforced polymer, polymers, etc) with improved atomic oxygen and drag resistance to be used on the external satellite surfaces for very low Earth orbit applicationsTargeted Improvements:- Enabling technology not existing today; allowing telecommunication satellites with conventional construction materials in much lower orbits tha…
ARTES 4.0 SPL OPTICAL COMMUNICATION - SCYLIGHT: RF AND OPTICAL HYBRID GATEWAY ANTENNA (6C.002/SL.024)(ON DELEGATION REQUEST) - EXPRO PLUS
Objective:The objective of this activity is to investigate a telecom gateway antenna able to work simultaneously in both the RF (Ka- Q/V-Band) and optical wavelengths.Targeted Improvements:This product is currently not available and it would allow a phased migration from RF communications to optical communications.Description:There is a clear trend in the need to increase bandwidth in order to increase the data rate, within the telecommunicat…
PREPARATION OF WRC-2023 (ARTES FPE 1D.021)
The latest World Radio Conference (WRC) concluded at the end of November 2019 with outcomes considered broadly favourable to the satcom community. The agenda items for the subsequent conference (to be held in 2023) were also agreed at last year's conference. The WRC is effectively a multi-year process culminating in the month-long collocated sessions, and work on the agenda items for WRC-23 has therefore already started and will continue…
SPACE FOR GREEN CONSTRUCTION FEASIBILITY STUDY - EXPRO+
The European Space Agency's "Space for Green Construction" opportunity offers support and funding to companies looking to develop services supporting sustainability in the construction lifecycle using space-based technology and/or data. This opportunity enables companies to carry out in-depth analyses of the technical feasibility and economic viability of applications across several domains. The construction process involves sev…
VLEO AIR-BREATHING ELECTRIC PROPULSION IN-ORBIT EXPERIMENT (ARTES 4.0 AT 3E.016)
The objective of the activity is to develop and carry out on ground tests as well as Very Low Earth orbit (VLEO) tests of a small-scale air-breathing electric propulsion system. The on ground test data and the in-orbit experiment in VLEO atmosphere will provide the necessary data in order to significantly improve the models of the plasma physics, thrust efficiency and ingestion. This will enable significant design improvements allowing to reac…
MASS PRODUCTION THRUSTER TESTING TECHNOLOGY (ARTES AT 4B.175) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to develop a concept for efficient testing of thrusters for large constellations that reduces the test-setup complexity and test duration by an order of magnitude. The concept shall be implemented and experimentally validated in ascalable testbed for high volume testing of the electric propulsion systems. Targeted Improvements: Increase the number of electricthrusters (minimum of 4 to 8) to be tested simultaneo…
ARTES 4.0 SPL OPTICAL COMMUNICATION - SCYLIGHT : DEMONSTRATION OF RELIABLE HIGH DATA RATE OPTICAL LINKS UNDER STRONG ATMOSPHERIC TURBULENCE CONDITIONS (3B.042 / SL.015)
Objective:The objective of this activity is to demonstrate reliable high data rate optical transmission through the atmosphere (>100Gbps) in a scenario representative (in terms of link attenuation and optical turbulence) of an optical link between a telecom satellite and an Optical Ground Station for elevation angles down to 5deg. Targeted Improvements:Improve the service quality and availability of high data rate optical links through the…
MULTI-LAYERED SATCOM SYSTEMS ( ARTES FPE 1B.131)
Whilst the commercial Satcom sector has been dominated by the use of Geostationary orbits (GSO) from its inception, the use of Non-Geostationary Orbits (NGSO) has been a constant and steadily growing feature of the industry for some years now. Historically, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) systems served entirely separate markets and customers to systems deployed in GEO with little overlap between the two technology/application areas. E.g. Low data rate…
IAP.KS.SM.000 SUSTAINABLE MICRO-MOBILITY KICKSTART - OPEN CALL FOR PROPOSAL
The aim of this Kickstart is to help tackle sustainability challenges relating to batteries, electrical products, electronic waste,and the ICT sector. Solutions can target any part of the product lifecycle, whether it's improving sourcing of materials for the micromobility industry or helping to recover useful components from landfill sites. Winning teams will receive 80% funding of up to 200,000 to run a year-long feasibility study. This…
AIR INTERFACE FOR FEEDER LINKS OF REGENERATIVE MULTI-GIGABIT SATELLITE SYSTEMS (ARTES 4.0 AT 3C.037)
The objective of the activity is to develop and test uplink and downlink air interfaces for the feeder link of regenerative multi-gigabit throughput satellite systems. Geostationary and non-geostationary systems will be considered. Goal is to reduce the number ofrequired gateways by maximising the feeder link s spectral efficiency while minimising the impact on payload resources and implementation complexity. The air interfaces will be impleme…
AERONAUTICAL EXPERIMENT IN Q/V BAND (ARTES 4.0 AT 7C.079)
The objective of the activity is to design and perform an aeronautical experiment in Q/V-band involving a bidirectional link.Targeted Improvements:50% increase of available spectrum for aeronautical services over existing Ku- and Ka-band.Description:One of the main areas of growth for the satcom market is the provision of high data rate Internet services to airplanes, especially in areas where only satellite coverage is feasible, such as cross…
IN-ORBIT EXPERIMENT OF BEYOND LINE-OF-SIGHT GROUND TO LEO LINKS USING IONOSPHERIC REFRACTION (ARTES AT 3E.002) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to test the performance of beyond line-of-sight narrow-band communication links between ground andLEO satellites in operational conditions. One of the key aspects of the experiment is the effect of ionospheric refraction and reflection as an enabler of satellite links beyond the line of sight. The activity will include the development of a small payload and aground terminal. Targeted Improvements:Enabling new s…
EFFICIENT TESTING APPROACH FOR SOLAR ARRAY DEVELOPMENT (ARTES 4.0 AT 4F.160)
The objective of this activity is to form a European consortium and to develop a solar array test approach as needed for the preparation of the ECSS E-20-08 handbook, in the case of a design or process change. The new test approach will be validated by Development Validation Testing (DVT) coupons. Targeted Improvements: Substantial reduction (50%) in the delta-qualification time of solar panels, which deviate slightly from existing qualified d…
HIGH EFFICIENCY SILICON-BASED AMPLIFIER FOR KA-BAND USER TERMINALS (ARTES AT 7B.067) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test Ka-band high efficiency amplifier monolithic microwave integratedcircuit (MMIC) based on silicon technology for user terminals. Targeted Improvements:- Amplifier power added efficiency above 30% with a noise power ratio of 15 dB minimum- Key building block for future highly integrated Ka-band user terminal active antennas. Description:The satcom market requires highly integrated…
ON-BOARD AUTONOMOUS COLLISION AVOIDANCE DETECTION TESTBED (ARTES 4.0 AT 4C.065)
The objective of the activity is to design, develop, and test an on-board Autonomous Collision Avoidance Detection (OCAD) system for satellites.Targeted Improvements:Enabling a ground-independent, on-board collision avoidance detection system.Description: The large number of commercial and institutional satellites is posing a serious risk of accidental collisions, which at present is mitigated by time-consuming collision avoidance procedures b…
BATTERIES BASED ON EUROPEAN COMMERCIAL OF THE SHELF BATTERY CELL TECHNOLOGY (ARTES AT 4F.145) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of this activity is to develop, design, manufacture and test a battery with European Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) battery cells for telecom space applications. Targeted Improvements:- At least 20% mass reduction at battery level;- Enabling European independency and continuity of technology sourcing. Description: Current state-of-the-art space Li-Ion cell technology can provide around 180 Wh/kg, while Li-Ion COTS cell technolog…
EVAPORATION MODELLING FOR LONG LIFE MECHANISMS USED IN GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITES (ARTES AT 4E.087) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to develop and correlate an evaporation software model for long life (15 years and above) mechanisms (e.g. solar array drive mechanism, reaction wheels, electric propulsion and antenna pointing mechanisms) as needed for geostationary spacecraft. The developed evaporation software model will be validated through testing of mechanism test-vehicles. Targeted Improvements:- increase the accuracy of the current anal…
VERY LOW EARTH ORBIT GAS GENERATOR FOR AIR-BREATHING ELECTRIC PROPULSION GROUND TESTING (ARTES 4.0 AT 4B.174)
The objective of the activity is to develop, build and test a gas generator to reproduce the gas flow density and composition of a Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) environment with high fidelity for on-ground testing of air-breathing electric propulsion systems.Targeted Improvements:Enabling a European gas generators for ground testing of VLEO missions.Description: Electric propulsion technologies developed for Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) applicati…