Objective:The objective of the activity is to develop scintillation mitigation techniques based on femtosecond pulses for optical feeder uplinks. Their performance will be experimentally verified using the fine acquisition sensor on Alphasat's laser communication terminal.Targeted Improvements:25dB link budget improvement under strong turbulence conditions.Description:The adoption of optical feeder links will largely depend on their abili…

The objective of this activity is to develop the necessary 5G New Radio (NR) ground segment prototypes for servicing the Future Railway Mobile Communication System (FRMCS) via satellite and demonstrate the capability with end-to-end in orbit testing.Targeted improvements:Ensure compliance to the FRMCS safety and performance requirements by demonstrating the feasibility of servicing via a satellite link, complementing the terrestrial network. P…

The objective of this activity is to extend the thruster lifetime and optimise the operating point of the thruster and to develop afinite element model of the grids system together with the plasma in between to allow health checks.Targeted Improvements:- 20%increase in thruster lifetime.- 20% decrease of grid thruster failure probability (erosion).Description: Telecom platforms couldbenefit from gridded ion thrusters in the near future, but c…

The objective of this activity is to develop and test a receive Q-band prototype, and a transmit V-band beamformer, both supporting2 beams scanning in a large field of view for the mobility market (e.g. aeroplanes, buses, trains). Targeted Improvements:Enabling technology for Q/V band user terminals for the mobility market (aeroplanes, buses, trains). Description:Today, terminal antennas are mainly exploiting the Ka- and the Ku-frequency bands…

Objective: The objective of the activity is to develop and test a system simulator testbed capable of modelling and assessing the performance of communication satellite constellations operating in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO). This includes the assessment of the emerging waveforms (5G NTN, European Protected Waveform).Targeted Improvements: Enable the design and assess the constellation system performance of communication satellites operating i…

The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test a W-band/E-band phased array antenna including the passive RF front-end taking advantage of additive and hybrid manufacturing techniques in order to reduce its complexity and mass compared to conventional subtractive techniquesTargeted Improvements: 30% mass reduction, removing screws and assembly interfaces.Description: With the multiplication of broadband communication satelli…

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…

The objective of the activity is to develop and test a multifunctional hinge technology to accommodate a large multi panel active antenna array on a spacecraft platform, with integrated sensing to avoid adverse local deflections due to spacecraft dynamics.Targeted Improvements:Enabling technology for very large active antennas with disperse panels to be accommodated on a spacecraft platformfor future 5G/6G (direct to handheld) satellitesDescri…

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…

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…

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.

Objective:The key objective of this activity will be the investigation of the demise behaviour of different optical communicationterminals for current and future applications on-board satcom platforms in LEO (e.g. future constellations) and therefore the development of breadboard of the design for demise solutions and technologies identified to reduce the on-ground casualty risks associated with these elements.Targeted Improvements:Reduce by a…

The objective of the activity is to select an off the shelf European slipring technology for terrestrial applications and demonstrate its suitability for Satcom applicationTargeted Improvements: Improving by 20% of power density, lifetime, mass, volume, and lead time.Description: Solar Array Drive Mechanism (SADM) require complex slip-ring technology often leading to long delivery times. However, slipring technologies for terrestrial applicati…

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…

The objective is to develop and test a Ku or Ka band transparent phased array antenna to provide broadband connectivity on board cars. Targeted Improvements: Develop a new class of phased array antennas for cars able to guarantee a seamless broadband connectivitywith LEO satellites. Description: There is today a significant interest to provide broadband connectivity to cars. This request is associated to the need to guarantee emergency service…

This Call for Proposals covers the industry initiated activities for the four Programmes lines identified below:ARTES Core Competitiveness Generic ProgrammeLine- Component B: Competitiveness GrowthARTES Strategic Programme Line Space for 5G/6G and Sustainable Connectivity ARTES Strategic Programme Line Space Systems for Safety and Security (4S)ARTES Strategic Programme Line Optical and Quantum Communication - ScyLight. The participating state…

This Call for Proposals covers the industry initiated activities for the Civil Security for Space programme.

The Pioneer programme, implemented under the ARTES 4.0 Generic Programme Line "Partnership Projects", aims to supports the emergence of Space Mission Providers (SMPs), i.e. commercial entities interested in becoming one-stop-shop service providers for public and private customers. The Open Call for proposals is aimed to offer the opportunity for new companies from across all ESA member states to participate in the programme. It will…

The objective of this activity is to develop a testbed that allows the demonstration of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) 5G services viasatellite. Using existing satellite assets and on-ground antenna for mobile applications (not necessarily aesthetically attractive), the test bed shall address both forward and return link traffic, to support the definition of future V2X applications and associated technical enhancements. The set of services to be…

The objective of this activity is to develop and evaluate efficient digital beamforming algorithms and techniques that are compatible with non-uniform antenna arrays or non-uniform beam lattices. The developed techniques will be implemented and evaluated on a representative processor test bed. Targeted Improvements: 30 to 70% power reduction on the implementation of digital beamforming algorithms with non-uniform input/outputs with respect to…

Objective: To develop a simulator of optical propagation based on a high-resolution numerical atmospheric simulator, to be used forthe long-term characterisation and the forecast of the signal scintillation and other propagation effects in the area around a ground terminal for Earth-Space optical communication system. Targeted Improvements: Breakthrough to achieve regional optical channel performance assessment; achieve high resolution channel…

The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test in orbit an inflatable drag device for de-orbiting small satellites from Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Performance data will be gathered (deployment imagery and positional telemetry) in a fully representative space environment (including drag effects) that would not be possible to simulate or test on ground. Targeted Improvements:Reduce de-orbit time by a factor of 5 (for altitudes of 4…

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…

The objective of the activity is to develop and test a power-efficient, high-throughput and fault-tolerant network switching architecture for regenerative processors using COTS System-on-Chip (SoC) components as software-defined network switches. This will include radiation testing and development of fault mitigation methods (at system and software level). Targeted Improvements: Enabling reliable software-defined packet switching using COTS co…

The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a prototype of an on-board timing equipment for secure communications. Targeted Improvements: Enabling secure communications thanks to high accuracy and resilient timing synchronisation (sub micro seconds). Description:Governmental communications make use of secured waveforms, which implement modern techniques like frequency hopping or direct sequence spread spectrum, and require…