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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.
POWER MODULE WITH ADVANCED BATTERY MONITORING AND ELECTRICAL POWER SYSTEM TELEMETRY MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES (ARTES AT 4F.169 )
The objective of the activity is to develop, manufacture and test a power module with a new concept for Li-Ion battery management and with an advanced Electrical Power System Telemetry able to collect, store, retrieve and process large quantity of data related tothe Status of the Power System (SA, Battery, PCDU). A digital oscilloscope for the Built-In Test function and a function to analysein flight the degradation of solar arrays will be imp…
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…
DVB/3GPP HYBRID TERMINAL FOR BROADBAND APPLICATIONS (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 7B.078)
Objective: 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 connectivity with LEO satellites. Description: There is today a significant interest to provide broadband connectivity to cars. This request is associated to the need to guarantee emerg…
KA-BAND RADIO FREQUENCY FRONT-END RESISTANT TO INTENTIONAL INTERFERENCE FOR SECURE TTC (ARTES 4.0 4S SPL 4G.041)
The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a Scaled Engineering Model of rugged Ka-band RF front-end for secure TTC applications that will enable technologies for mitigation of intentional interference. Targeted Improvements: Ability to operate under severe Radio Frequency Interference. Description: TTC is a key equipment for all satellites since it provides the umbilical cord to the control station(s). It has to operate…
PIONEER PARTNERSHIP PROJECTS (PIONEER 4.0) - OPEN CALL FOR PROPOSAL
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 statesto participate in the programme. It will b…
SOFTWARE DEFINED NETWORKING-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR EFFICIENT DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICES PROTECTION OF 5G NON TERRESTRIAL NETWORKS (ARTES 4.0 SPL 4S 3D.027)
The objective of this activity is to identify+ develop and test Software Defined Networking (SDN) based solutions for 5G Core Network (CN)+ capable of addressing efficiently and effectively Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) attacks against 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks. This activity will develop a testbed of SDN implementation for 5G CN to test protection mechanisms against various attack scenarios for relevant 5G NTN use cases+ and study t…
SOFTWARE DEFINED SATELLITE AVIONICS DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT (ARTES AT 4G.046)
The objective of the activity is to produce a software development environment able to configure and build the full avionics software of a satcom using a model-based approachTargeted Improvements:- Reduction of up to 50% of the development time of the avionics system functions,- Enable one avionic platform to support many missions while being fully reconfigurable in flight.Description:The availability of System-on-Chip, powerful micro-control…
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…
IN-ORBIT EXPERIMENT OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE DATA TRANSPORT, SWITCHING AND PROCESSING TECHNOLOGIES FOR TELECOM APPLICATIONS IN LOW EARTH ORBIT (ARTES AT 3E.017) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of this activity is to design, develop and perform an in-orbit experiment of high-performance data transport, switching and processing technologies consisting of several key building blocks like processors, mass memory, switches and optical interconnects, allowing a data throughput of up to 10 Terabit per second to enable future high performance telecommunication applications. Targeted Improvements: Improvement by a factor of two…
STANDALONE SATELLITE TELEMETRY RECORDER AND TRANSMITTER (ARTES AT 4G.045) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test an engineering model of a standalone subsystem that will collect telemetry and command logs. In the event of mission failure the device will communicate this to the mission operations team to improve the speed and depth of understanding behind the root-cause of the mission failure. Targeted Improvements: Enabling higher operational reliability of nano- and microsatellites by impr…
FREE-SPACE COHERENT OPTICAL LINK FOR TIME AND FREQUENCY TRANSFER (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 5F.041)
The objective of the activity is to develop and prototype a free-space optical Frequency and Timing transfer solution over a coherent optical link optimised for the use case of linking critical infrastructure and metrology applications.Targeted Improvements:The two parameters to be improved over existing RF-based techniques are time and frequency transfer accuracy (factor 5 to 10 improvement), resistance to interference and robustness of the l…
ZERO-TRUST ARCHITECTURE FOR LOW EARTH ORBIT REGENERATIVE PAYLOADS ( ARTES 4.0 SPL 4S 3D.029)
The objective of this activity is to design+ implement+ and validate a zero-trust architecture for a Low Earth Orbit regenerative 5G gNodeB+ that mitigates the security risks specific to 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks.
SOLAR ARRAY TO POWER DIRECTLY AN ELECTRICAL PROPULSION SYSTEM (ARTES AT 4F.163) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to develop and test coupons to pave the way for high-power, high-voltage solar arrays (e.g., 300 Vplus) feeding directly electric propulsion systems. Targeted Improvements:- Increased solar array output voltage from 100V to at least 300V for high power solar arrays.- Enabling direct feed of solar array power to electrical propulsion systems. Description: Inorder to feed power generated by solar arrays directly…
KU AND KA DUAL-BAND TRANSMIT ACTIVE PHASED ARRAY (ARTES AT 5B.236)
The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test enabling technologies for multi-frequency transmit active antennas. This will include antenna radiating elements, beamforming techniques (analogue vs hybrid), active elements customised in order to cover both the Ku and Ka transmit frequency bands, integrated into a breadboard. Targeted Improvements: Enabling dual Ku and Ka-band transmit active phased arrays. Description: Active ant…
ATMOSPHERIC TURBULENCE EFFECT MITIGATION BY SECONDARY MIRROR ACTUATION (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 6C.020)
Objective: The objective of this activity is to simplify optical feeder links systems in Optical Ground Stations by replacing the secondary mirror with an active (deformable) one and to demonstrate the improvement in transmission budget and complexity. Targeted Improvements: 30% increased optical throughput in optical communication ground stations. 20% reduction of complexity in adaptive optics and beam pre-distortion in feeder-link systems. R…
ARTES 4.0 SPL 4S 3A.199 RADIO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES FOR JAMMING MITIGATION IN NGSO CONSTELLATIONS
The objective of the activity is to design, develop and test jamming mitigation strategies for NGSO broadband secure systems based on adaptive radio resource management algorithms.
DIGITAL TWIN OF A HIGH VOLTAGE MODULE FOR ELECTRONIC POWER CONDITIONERS (EPC) OR POWER PROCESSING UNITS (PPUS) (ARTES AT 4B.183)
The objective of the activity is to develop a digital model of a high voltage module typically used in power processing units for electric propulsion or travelling wave tube amplifiers. This model or "digital twin" shall enable an in-depth evaluation which is today only possible by test.Targeted Improvements: Enabling a new approach to achieve innovation acceleration of high voltage module design and test, leading to:- decrease of th…
REAL-TIME DEMONSTRATION OF ERASURE CORRECTING CODE FOR OPTICAL FEEDER LINKS (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 3C.048)
The objective of the activity is to develop and test a real time 100 Gbps erasure code (both coder and decoder components) for optical feeder link protection.Targeted Improvements:Ensure high availability nominally required in feeder links by exceeding 99.5% of link availability due to atmospheric turbulence.Description:The use of terrestrial COTS optical transceivers in optical ground-space and space to space link will enable high throughput…
RESILIENT AND SECURE MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATIONS FROM UNMANNED AERIAL/MARITIME VEHICLES USING MULTIPLE UNRELIABLE NETWORKS (ARTES 4.0 4S SPL 3A.172) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of this activity is the design and demonstration of network protocols that can use multiple unreliable satellite and terrestrial networks for increased resilience and security for retrieval of multimedia data with multiple QoS classes from drones and unmanned maritime vessels. Targeted Improvements: This technique will allow at least 50% increase in the number of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) that can be supported in the same s…
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…
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…
EUROPEAN CHIP INDUCTOR FOR POINT OF LOAD CONVERTERS IN TELECOMMUNICATION SATELLITES (ARTES 4.0 AT 5C.499)
The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test surface mount chip inductors enabling low voltage (down to 0.8 V range) stability, fast transient response, high-speed switching capability and efficient power conversion of point of load(POL) converters, as needed for next generation digital integrated circuits in telecommunication satellites.Targeted Improvements:- Enablinga European source.- 20% mass and volume reduction and 2…
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…
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…
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…