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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.
W-BAND HIGH POWER AMPLIFIER FOR THE GROUND SEGMENT (ARTES AT 6B.120) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
Objective: The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a W-band HPA for the ground segment. Targeted Improvements: Enabling W-band feeder uplink communications. Description: The use of W-band (71-76 GHz for downlink and 81-86 for uplink GHz) is expected to significantly increase the available bandwidth for Very High Throughput Satellite Systems (VHTS). W-band spectrum is also expected to reduce the number of gateways requi…
DUAL BAND KU- AND KA-BAND POWER AMPLIFIER FOR FUTURE FLEXIBLE PAYLOADS (ARTES AT 5C.515)
The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test an engineering model of a multi-band (Ku and Ka-band) integrated power amplifier for application in Lower Earth Orbit satellites, enabling seamless flexibility and reconfigurability for active antenna arrays. Targeted Improvements: Enabling technology for seamless Ku- and Ka-band flexible payloads:- reduces mass and volume by 50%,- improves reliability, bill of material and quali…
LUNAR OPTICAL COMMUNICATION PHOTON COUNTING RECEIVER (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 6C.018)
Objective: The objective of the activity is the development and testing of an receiver for lunar optical communication in a photon starved regime. Targeted Improvements: Photon-starved optical communications data and tracking receiver with 8 times increased bandwidth (1 ns versus 125 ps). Description: A photon-counting detector receiver package for free-space communications between a lunar satellite and Earth-based ground terminal does not exi…
SECURE SATCOM MODULE IN SUPPORT OF GLOBAL NAVIGATION SATELLITE SYSTEM SERVICE DELIVERY AND ROBUSTNESS (ARTES 4.0 SPL 4S 3A.196) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to design+ develop and manufacture a ground-based breadboard module allowing existing and auxiliary data from/linked to GNSS services to be securely delivered to their users via satellite communications using a secure protocol.
RELIABLE SIMPLE ELECTRICAL INSULATION FOR SATCOM PLATFORMS (ARTES AT 4F.172)
The objective of the activity is to test electrical insulation methods to replace reliable electrical insulation by reliable simpleelectrical insulation and to provide inputs to guidelines to ECSS-E-ST-20C Rev2.Targeted Improvements:Mass, volume, manufacturing time reduced by a factor of 2 compared to current reliable insulation technologies.Description: Double insulation rules lead tooversize electrical architectures to make them robust to s…
IN-ORBIT W-BAND CHANNEL CHARACTERISATION FROM GEOSTATIONARY ORBIT (ARTES AT 3E.018) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to carry out characterisation of the W-band channel affected by diurnal and long duration atmospheric changes, enabling future W-band system sizing. The activity will design, develop and test a W-band terminal hosted on a geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) spacecraft, and the associated ground terminals. Targeted Improvements:Increase in the acquisition time of W-band channel measurements for stable atmospheric pa…
NETWORK EMBEDDED HYBRID CONNECTIVITY OVER TERRESTRIAL AND SATELLITE 5G ACCESS (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3F.012)
Objective: The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test a 5G system to support upper layer Access Traffic Switching, Steering and Splitting (ATSSS) mechanisms relating a User Equipment (UE) data session across dual terrestrial and satellite 5G access, as well as over dual 5G satellite access.Targeted Improvements:- Enable dual 3GPP access- Significant part reduction - Network and device centric system- Enable 5G Core Network w…
PACKAGING OF PHOTONICS FOR LASER COMMUNICATION TERMINALS (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 5F.029)
Objective: The objective of the activity is to develop and test different sized packaging solutions with optical and electronic feed-throughs, which allow commercial photonic chips to be deployed in space. Targeted Improvements: By developing innovative packagingtechniques, some types of high-volume parts developed for terrestrial telecommunications markets can be made available for space. Description: This activity aims to establish a packagi…
PROTECTION OF SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS GROUND SEGMENT FROM INTERFERENCE/JAMMING INITIATED FROM LEO CONSTELLATION(S) (ARTES 4.0 SPL 4S 3D.030)
The objective of the activity is to examine the potential threat of New Space constellations to form a botnet able to generate intentional interference for other communications satellites, and to propose and assess relevant mitigation mechanisms.
HIGH BANDWIDTH INTERFACE RADIATION MITIGATION IP CORE FOR PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC DEVICES (ARTES 4.0 AT 5C.489)
The objective of the activity is to develop, implement and test a 100 Gbps class interface radiation mitigation IP core for programmable logic devices for application in Low Earth and Geostationary Orbits. This includes hardware radiation characterisation and testing. Targeted Improvements: 3 to 4 times improvement of high-speed serial link data rate (from 32 Gbps to 112 Gbps) under radiation conditions. Description: State of the art programma…
END-TO-END ADAPTIVE OPTICS BI-DIRECTIONAL MODELLING TOOL FOR OPTICAL FEEDER LINKS (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 6C.035) - EXPRO+
Objective: This activity aims at developing a modular software tool allowing to simulate the improvement from employing adaptive optics (AO) systems in bidirectional optical ground station (OGS) to satellites optical communication and quantum links scenarios (e.g. GEO, LEO, MEO). Targeted Improvements: 50% improvement of design time and computation time to dimension optical communication systems operating through atmospheric turbulence enhance…
MULTI-BEAM RECEIVE ANTENNA FOR SATELLITE-BASED AIR TRAFFIC SURVEILLANCE (ARTES 4.0 AT 5B.225)
Objective: The objective of the activity is to design, implement and test a scaled engineering model with critical functions of a multi-beam receive antenna for satellite-based air traffic surveillance in the frequency range 950 - 1100 MHz, taking into account narrow beamwidth, directivity and mechanical constraints. Targeted Improvements:- Two-fold increase, compared to the state of the art, in the number of beams covering the visible Earth (…
5G AUTOMOTIVE MAKERSPACE (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3F.010)
Objective: The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test automotive prototypes following 5GAA workplans and increase the number of companies working on automotive satellite communications by 30%. Targeted Improvements: Novel hand-over methods between satellite and terrestrial networks supporting use cases as formulated by 5GAA and miniaturised automotive terminal baseband units.Description: The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA)…
UNCOORDINATED SATELLITE ACCESS SCHEME OVER-THE-AIR DEMONSTRATION IN MARITIME VHF BANDS (ARTES AT 3C.030) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to develop and test signal reception techniques that enable uncoordinated satellite access schemesin the maritime bands for VHF Data Exchange (VDE) by a population of maritime transmitters in the presence of in-band interference from maritime and external sources such as in-land terrestrial services. The techniques will be implemented and evaluated in a prototype receiver to be developed as part of the activity…
IMPLEMENTATION OF SOFTWARE MITIGATION SOLUTIONS FOR RADIATION-INDUCED SINGLE EVENT EFFECTS (ARTES 4.0 AT 5C.490)
The objective of the activity is to de-risk software mitigation techniques for radiation effects on a family of high-performance processors embedded in System on Chip (SoC) components. The activity will identify, on one or more processors of interest for the industry, radiation-induced failure modes and will implement appropriate software mitigation techniques with reuse or development of small FPGA IPs if needed. Targeted Improvements: Enable…
DEVELOPMENT OF A TESTBED TO ASSESS SPACECRAFT MATERIALS ROBUSTNESS AGAINST ATOMIC OXYGEN IN VERY LOW EARTH ORBIT ENVIRONMENT (ARTES AT 4A.101)
The Objective: The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture a testbed to determine materials behaviour of atomic oxygen fluence exposure representative in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) environment. With the help of the testbed, in a second step, an aerodynamic and oxygen fluence resistant coating will be developed and evaluated as needed for protection of exposed parts of the spacecraft to the VLEO environment.Targeted Improvements: E…
PROTOCOL STACK ENABLING VOICE-CALL USING NON-TERRESTRIAL IOT WAVEFORM (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3F.013)
The objective of this activity is to develop the software protocol stack for Release 18 enhancements related to 5G New for Radio (NR) for Non-Terrestrial Networks. The software protocol stack development shall be based on a testbed considering both the User Equipment (UE) and g-NodeB (gNB) features and operational procedures.Targeted Improvements:Enable 5G NR NTN system performance simulations with the latest Release 18 modifications.Descripti…
DATA, CONTROL AND SIGNALLING PROTOCOLS FOR SPECTRUM SHARING AMONG CO-EXISTING SATELLITE INTERNET-OF-THINGS NETWORKS (ARTES AT 3C.044) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to develop and test data, control and signalling protocols to enable spectrum sharing among co-existing satellite Internet-of-Things (IoT) networks for new frequency allocations (i.e. below 5 GHz according to resolution 812 WRC 2019) that are on the agenda of the World Radio-Communication Conference (WRC) in 2027. The activity will include a measurement campaign to quantify the interference environment using ex…
WEATHER-PROOF OPTICAL COMMUNICATION GROUND TERMINAL (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 6C.050 ) EXPRO PLUS
The objective of this activity is to evaluate the pros and cons of a weather-proof optical ground terminal (without protective domeenclosure) and to breadboard critical sub-systems. Targeted Improvements:At least 50% faster optical ground station deployment.Description:Today telescopes for ground based free-space optical satellite communication are originating from astronomical telescopes. The current need for optical ground telescopes has cha…
ARTES 4.0 SPACE SYSTEMS FOR SAFETY AND SECURITY (4S) ROLLING WORK PLAN 2020-2021
1. Introduction.Four new technology and product development activities are added in 2021, that have already been identified as useful to the foreseen development of next-generation 4S solutions over the coming years. These work plan activities will be issued under the legal framework of the ARTES 4.0 Strategic Programme Line (SPL) Space Systems for Safety and Security (4S).2. ImplementationPhasing: phasing of the contractual activities may be…
USER TERMINAL SIGNALLING FOR NON-GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE NETWORKS (ARTES 4.0 AT 7B.074) (RE-ISSUE)
The objective of the activity is to design, implement and validate signalling and control techniques for satellite user terminals in a non-geostationary satellite network where the user terminals can login and function in the network without necessarily relying on the assistance from global navigation satellite services. Targeted Improvements: Enable autonomous commissioning, login and operation of satellite user terminals within a non-geostat…
HANDOVER ENGINE AND TESTBED FOR SATELLITE-BASED 5G NON-TERRESTRIAL NETWORKS (NTNS) (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3F.015)
The objective of this activity is to develop a machine learning (ML) engine that optimises handover between two different 5G networks, where at least one of them is a satellite-based non-terrestrial network (NTN). The activity will also provide the testbed to assess the handover key performance indicators in a laboratory environment.Targeted Improvements:Identify and avoid higher risk handovers improving thus the handover success rate to reach…
NGSO SIMULATOR FOR 5G VEHICLE-TO-EVERYTHING (V2X) (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3A.183)
Objective: The objective of the activity is to develop and test NGSO networking techniques for 5G V2X services. The developments will be implemented and verified in a simulator modelling realistic system scenarios of 5G LEO satellites. Targeted Improvements: Enabling the provision of 5G V2X services by satellite. Description:Due to their low altitudes, LEO satellite systems may offer low-latency 5G connectivity that, paired with on-board edge…
POWER EFFICIENT ONBOARD ANALOGUE PHOTONIC INTERCONNECTS FOR HIGH THROUGHPUT SATELLITES (HTS) (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 5F.050)
The objective of the activity is to develop very low power analogue photonic interconnects for linking antennas to the on-board digital processor in high throughput satellites, also in view of an all-optical satellite implementationTargeted Improvements:Increase connector density by 100% through the replacement of the coaxial cable connectors with multi-fibre connectors, more than halvingthe harness mass and volume linking the antennas to the…
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…