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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.
HIGH POWER W-BAND TRANSMIT-RECEIVE DIPLEXERS FOR GROUND STATIONS (ARTES AT 6B.118) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST) - EXPRO+
The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test a high-power Tx/Rx W-band diplexer for ground terminals.Targeted Improvements:Enabling technology for ground stations W-band gateway links with high power handling and low PIM.Description:The useof the available spectrum in W-band (71-76 GHz for downlink and 81-86 GHz for uplink) is attractive to satcom systems asit could beadopted in the gateway of Very High Throughput Satellites (…
IP-CORE DEVELOPMENT FOR CCSDS-BASED OPTICAL PAYLOAD DATA RECEIVERS (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 3C.047)
Objective: The objective is to design, implement and test the IP Cores of the receiver for the coding and synchronisation layer of the two CCSDS telemetry waveforms for optical communications. Targeted Improvements: New market opportunities for optical terminal and equipment manufacturers, addressing both photon-starved links up to 8Gbps and high data rate links up to 10Gbps. This activity will target to reduce by 50% the development costs in…
VERY LOW FREQUENCY COMMUNICATION EXPERIMENT FOR FUTURE INTERNET OF THINGS APPLICATIONS (ARTES AT 3E.025)
The objective is to develop, embark and carry out an in-orbit experiment to investigate the performance of specific air interfaces over very low frequencies (in the 24 to 72 MHz range) for very low data rate (Internet of Things (IoT), emergency paging etc) from satellite to ground and vice versa. This experiment will include the channel characterisation (including space weather effects) and communication performance assessment in outdoor and i…
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/MACHINE LEARNING FRONT-END MODULE FOR SATCOM 5G/6G INTEGRATED ACCESS-BACKHAUL TRANSCEIVERS (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 6B.119)
The objective of the activity is to develop, implement and test a breadboard of a digital transceiver front-end capable of switching between access and backhaul modes of operation for integrated satcom-terrestrial 5G/6G networks. The transceiver core shall be supported by an AI/ML engine implemented for a set of commercially available hardware and software platforms. The activity shall also provide the testbed to test the AI/ML-based transceiv…
POWER EFFICIENT 75W CLASS SOLID STATE POWER AMPLIFIER MODULE FOR ACTIVE ANTENNA APPLICATIONS (ARTES AT 5C.519)
Objective: Power efficient 75W class solid state power amplifier module for active antenna applicationsTargeted Improvements: - Reduced mass and volume by more than 50% compared to travel wave tube amplifiers.- Increased power efficiency by 20% in comparison to current state of art, reaching at least 40% PAE at the nominal operation point in Ku-band or 35% in Ka-bandDescription: Satellite telecommunication systems have experienced an evolution…
GREEN RECEIVER ARCHITECTURES AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR SATELLITE TV BROADCAST AND BROADBAND SERVICES (ARTES 4.0 AT 7B.073) - RE-ISSUE
The objective of this activity is the design, development and test of a more energy efficient receiver hardware architecture at system level. The activity shall include the investigation of more efficient receiver hardware design, use of narrower time slices and waveforms aimed at reducing demodulator complexity and produce a breadboard prototype.Targeted Improvements:50% energy reduction in receivers in TV broadcast and broadband user termina…
LARGE ROTATION RANGE, FLEXIBLE PIVOT WITH HOLLOW INNER SHAFT (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 5B.221) - EXPRO PLUS (ON REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to develop a breadboard of a flexible pivot a with large range of rotation angle (goal90 degrees),which features a hollow inner shaft to route an optical beam for optical communications or cables/waveguide in other applications.Targeted Improvements:One order of magnitude improvement in operating lifetime of coarse pointing mechanisms in optical communication terminals compared to ball bearing mechanisms, and a…
SATELLITE COMMUNICATION TEST-BED ON-BOARD THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ARTES AT 3A.118) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
Objective: The objective of this activity is to develop, deploy and operate a flexible software-defined radio communication testbedwith a frequency flexible RF front end on the International Space Station, supporting a wide range of frequencies up to Q/V band addressing 5G, signal processing and advanced techniques. Targeted Improvements: Enabling innovative and fast developments of future satcom applications from UHF to Q/V band that are diff…
SPECTRUM SHARING TECHNIQUES FOR BEYOND 5G (B5G) AND 6G 3D NETWORKS (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3A.185)
The objective of the activity is to investigate and develop spectrum reuse and sharing techniques for integrated NTN-TN 3D networksthat allow them to pool, share, and rapidly reallocate spectrum on demand among their heterogeneous components/segments. The techniques will be prototyped in a testbed to be implemented as part of the activity.Targeted improvements:Enabling spectrum reuse and sharing in integrated NTN-NT 3D networks.Description:Spe…
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…
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…
OPTIMISED VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS FOR CONSTELLATIONS (LEO, MEO, OR MULTI-ORBIT) AND GEO SPACE NETWORKS ( ARTES 4.0 SPL 4S 3D.031)
The objectives of this activity are to design, develop and test techniques enabling integration of existing and new VPN solutions suitable for space networks (LEO constellation, MEO constellation or GEO) for the purpose of comparison, performance evaluation and optimisation, while maintaining compatibility with terrestrial networks.
SOFTWARE SIMULATOR FOR AIR/SPACE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT VIA SATELLITE FOR HYPERSONIC SPACE PLANES (ARTES 4.0 4S SPL 3A.155 / 4S.013) - EXPRO+
Objective: The objective of the activity is to design and develop a physical layer simulator in order to assess the communication needs, and develop a system concept to support air/space traffic management considering emerging transport means such as hypersonic space planes. Targeted Improvements: Enabling communications for a future European Air/Space Traffic Management System in support of hypersonic space planes. Performance improvement wit…
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…
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…
SUPPORT TO QUIC STANDARDISATION (ARTES FPE 1D.019)
Satellite communication links have specific characteristics that undermine the performance of commonly used Internet protocols, notably TCP, in part because performance over satellite was not a major consideration during the development of those protocols. Specifically, the long propagation delay imposed by GEO satellite links and their asymmetric nature lead to poor TCP performance. Unless addressed, this can result in a poor user experience,…
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…
ARTES 4.0 SPL OPTICAL COMMUNICATION - SCYLIGHT: SCINTILLATION MITIGATION TECHNIQUES BASED ON FEMTOSECOND PULSES FOR OPTICAL FEEDER UPLINKS (5G.014/SL.033) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
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…
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…
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…
Q/V BAND PHASED ARRAY ANTENNAS FOR GROUND TERMINALS (ARTES AT 7C.070) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
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…
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.
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…
MASS MEMORY UNIT WITH 100 GIGABIT PER SECOND WRITE RATE CLASS FOR LOW EARTH ORBIT COMMUNICATION APPLICATIONS (ARTES AT 5C.498) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test a memory unit breadboard offering interface port and memory read and write speeds at 100 GigaBit per second and a capacity of at least 3 TeraBits for interconnected constellation telecommunication systems. Targeted Improvements: Improvement of the write speed by a factor of 10 compared to FLASH-based mass memories. Description:Future Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations with hig…
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…