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 of the activity is to design, manufacture and test an accelerometer for drag compensation in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO). Targeted Improvements: - Enabling real time compensation of drag by the propulsion system. - Miniaturisation of instrument by a factor 10 compared to existing payload grade accelerometers. - Increase accuracy by factor 10 compared to existing accelerometers used for orbital control.Description: While intere…

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…

The objective of this activity is to enable rapid delivery of small proof-of-concepts and technical investigations that are addressing emerging cybersecurity challenges in the field of cybersecurity for satcom systems.Procurement Policy: C(2) = A relevant participation (in terms of quality and quantity) of non-primes (incl. SMEs) is required. For additional information please go to:…

The objective of the activity is to design a system concept based on distinct transmit-only and receive-only satellites for the user link. The goal is to enable at the system level simultaneous two-way low data rate communication services such as Internet of Things, messaging, and VDES operating in frequency range from VHF to C-band. The system concept will be implemented and tested in an end-to-end system testbed. This includes the user termi…

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 (…

The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a tribology-free mechanism breadboard for both platform and payload pointing applications on telecom satellites. The lifetime of the developed mechanism shall be assessed, and endurance testing shall be carried out. Targeted Improvements: Enabling a European source of compact, tribology-free pointing mechanisms with no backlash or friction hysteresis effects. Description: Today p…

The objective of the activity is to design a compact L-band RF front-end for telecom applications which is based on a GaN Low NoiseAmplifier (LNA). A breadboard of a GaN microwave monolithic integrated circuit will be developed and tested. The RF front-end including the filtering function shall be modelled.Targeted Improvements: up to 30% mass and volume saving of the RF front-end (LNA and filtering) and 20 dB improvement of the LNA dynamic ra…

The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test channel estimation and adaptation techniques as needed for Q/V band feeder links of LEO/MEO constellation with regenerative on-board processors. An end-to-end system testbed will be developed that includes varying channel, antenna and hardware impairments in the downlink and uplink depending on the elevation angle. The testbed will include the baseband, analogue and RF domain to tes…

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…

The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a set of highly efficient (minimum 25% power added efficiency) Q-band Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMIC) for active antenna applications in GEO, MEO and LEO. The packaged devices will be based on European technology covering the 10 Watt power class (GEO) down to a few 100mWs for LEO applications. Targeted Improvements: Enabling critical building block technology deve…

Development of tools and hardware and the execution of a measurement campaign for background light and atmosphere conditions for Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) at urban location (major cities and metropolitan areas) under ARTES 4.0 Space Systems for Safety and Security (4S) Strategic Programme Line. These measurement results are an important check point to validate the design of the SAGA system. The background light and atmosphere metrology ac…

The objective of this activity is to design, develop and validate a system architecture and suitable waveform for an Aeronautical Mobile-Satellite (Route) Services (AMS(R)S) constellation in C-band for safety and security services.

The objective of this activity to design, manufacture and test a Ku- or Ka-band faceted reconfigurable reflect array operating in receive band for reconfigurable coverage applications. RF and thermo-elastic performance shall be experimentally evaluated.TargetedImprovements: - Reduction up to 20% the reflector aperture diameter in comparison to today's shape reflector technology.- Improvement of the directivity performance at the edge of t…

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…

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…

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 an integrated structural antenna concept for high aspect ratio satellites. The antenna concept shall be frequency and size scalable. Critical breadboarding shall be carried out to evaluate the concept for mobile satellite communication systems in Low Earth Orbit. Targeted Improvements: Enabling stackable satellites with efficient launch volume occupation with an improvement of 30% in comparison to e…

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…

The objective of this activity is to implement and test the signal processing portion of a 5G LEO satellite payload capable of handling several high throughput beams assuming an active antenna configuration. The demonstrator shall be based on a processor capable of controlling a reconfigurable beam-forming network (BFN) and performing signal (re-)generation andchannelisation of 5G waveforms. Targeted Improvements: Enable 5G regenerative payloa…

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 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…