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.
ARTES 4.0 SPL OPTICAL COMMUNICATION - SCYLIGHT: INTEGRATED PHOTON SOURCES FOR SPACE BASED QUANTUM TELECOMMUNICATIONS (5F.014/SL.031) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
Objective:The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test integrated entangled photon source and faint pulse source for space Quantum Key Distribution. The high level integration combines low mass, volume, and higher reliability and is therefore ideally suited for space applications. The expected output of the activity is an engineering model of an entangled photon source and a prototype faint pulse source, which have been eva…
5G HUB OVER-THE-AIR VERTICAL SEGMENT VALIDATIONS (ARTES SPL 5G 2-.019)
The objective of the activity is to demonstrate minimum viable 5G satcom solutions for Industry 4.0 use cases. To deliver such solutions, the activity will develop system demonstrators that will validate 5G satcom solutions in realistic operational conditions using over-the-air field trials. Targeted Improvements: Enabling the adoption of satcoms by Industry 4.0 verticals. Description: The prospect of 5G satcom for Industry 4.0 is far-reaching…
FAST COMPOSITE REFLECTOR MANUFACTURING (ARTES AT 5B.192)
Antenna reflectors are key products for telecommunication payloads. The manufacturing time and complexity of reflectors are known to be driven bythe need of a temperature-stable or temperature-compensated mould. The conventional approach for reflector manufacturing is to cure the compositesandwich in an autoclave in order to meet the stringent surface accuracy requirements dictated by the frequency of operation. Out-of-autoclavecomposite manuf…
BACKGROUND LIGHT AND ATMOSPHERE METROLOGY FOR QUANTUM KEY DISTRIBUTION AT URBAN LOCATIONS (4S SAGA)
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…
DEMISABLE PRIMARY STRUCTURAL JOINTS FOR LOW EARTH ORBIT TELECOM PLATFORMS (ARTES 4.0 AT 4E.090)
The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test demisable primary structural joints suitable for future low Earthorbit (LEO) satellite communication platforms. Targeted improvements:- Increase compliance of LEO satcom platforms to the ESA on-ground casualty risk requirement (current threshold 1:10000) by one order of magnitude.- Enabling direct heat flux to internal unitsduring re-entry to facilitate demisability.Description:…
LUNAR ECONOMY APPLICATIONS - ENABLING STUDY - EXPRO+
The Lunar Economy Applications Enabling Study shall develop, characterise and assess the technical feasibility, commercial viability and desirability by potential customers of new service concepts that would benefit from Moonlight lunar communication and navigation services and that address the relevant needs of downstream customers and users in the lunar environment or down on Earth; plan for the implementation and commercial rollout, exploit…
IRIS2 SECURE CONNECTIVITY PROGRAM - ELEMENT 1 PHASE 2 - FIXED CALL FOR PROPOSAL
The Union Secure Connectivity Programme aims at deploying an EU satellite constellation: IRIS' (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite). It will provide for a Union satellite-based, multi-orbital communication infrastructure for governmental use, while integrating and complementing existing and future national and European capacities in the frame of the GOVSATCOM component of the Union Space Programme,…
BREADBOARDING OF CRITICAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR A MULTI-BEAM SATELLITE RECEIVER FOR AIRCRAFT MODE-S SIGNALS (ARTES 4.0 4S SPL 5A.082) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to design, develop and test payload technologies compliant with multi-beam receivers for satellite-based air traffic surveillance. Critical breadboarding will be carried out to demonstrate the concept suitable for use on small satellites in LEO or MEO. Targeted Improvements: 50% reduced payload power consumption, mass and volume compared to current technology.Increase the probability of message detection by a f…
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…
HANDOVER, DATA ROUTING AND RADIO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FOR VERY LOW EARTH ORBIT (VLEO) BROADBAND CONSTELLATIONS (ARTES 4.0 AT 3C.043)
The objective of this activity is to develop and test handover, data routing and radio resource management techniques for a broadband satellite constellation in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO). The techniques will be implemented, and their performance assessed in a software system testbed. Targeted Improvements:Enabling system techniques for VLEO broadband systems not existing today in ESA member states.Description: The VLEO orbit is now the centr…
SPECTRUM SHARING MAKERSPACE (ARTES AT 3A.111) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
Objective:The objective of the activity is to establish an agile framework to prototype a number of promising spectrum sharing techniques that would enable more efficient use of satellite spectrum and an improved sharing with terrestrial systems.Targeted Improvements:Improving the efficiency up to 10% in the use of the spectrum by coexisting satellite systems and enabling sharing with terrestrial systems.Description:More and more, the satellit…
SPACE FOR RESILIENT UTILITIES (ARTES 4.0 4S SPL)
The utilities sector, including water, sewage, and energy networks amongst other, is considered a critical infrastructure, meaning that the loss, or interruption of them would result in a significant impact of the functioning of the state and/or significant economic and social impacts. These networks, as well as their associated equipment and personnel are increasingly monitored and controlled by communication technologies. While this digitali…
SINGLE-CHIP 71-86 GHZ TRANSCEIVER RFIC FOR AERONAUTICAL SATCOM APPLICATIONS (ARTES AT 6A.074) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test an integrated W-band transceiver Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) configurable as transmitter and receiver covering the 71-86 GHz band for aeronautical satcom applications. Targeted Improvements: Enable satellite aeronautical broadband services in W-band. Description: The maturity of Silicon technologies allows for the implementation of multifunctional and reconfigurable…
CRITICAL FUNCTIONS CONTROLLER FOR LOW EARTH ORBIT SATELLITES (ARTES AT 4G.036)
The objective of this activity is to develop and test a critical function controller for On-Board Computers (OBC) for new space, Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components-based missions. A reusable IP core will be developed that will be able to perform critical OBC functions, such as provide communication with ground stations, allow ground control access for deorbiting and act as a controller for the main OBC, thus increasing overall reliabil…
INTEGRATED ACCESS-BACKHAUL NODES FOR AUTONOMOUS AND RECONFIGURABLE SATELLITE-TERRESTRIAL 5G/6G NETWORKS (ARTES SPL 5G 7A.072)
The objective of the activity is to develop and test an engineering breadboard of a satcom access/backhaul node capable of responding to changing link conditions facilitated by reconfigurable, regenerative, and software-defined payloads. The activity will also provide the system demonstrator to test the breadboard and to assess the performance in a laboratory environment.Targeted Improvements: Adding flexibility to integrated satcom nodes need…
STUDY AND DEMONSTRATOR OF HEO PAYLOAD ARCHITECTURE FOR 5G-CONNECTED MOBILE SERVICES (ARTES SPL 5G 5A.084)
The objective of this activity is to demonstrate the suitability of HEO payloads for 5G-connected mobile services. Key parameter trade-offs like orbit optimisation, maximum achievable throughput shall be analysed. The study shall identify key enabling technologies to support 5G type of services on a regional coverage. Targeted Improvements: - Reduce the complexity and total cost of the required constellation to provide 5G services to mobile us…
ON CHIP INTEGRATED POWER CONVERTER FOR ADVANCED FIELD PROGRAMMABLE GATE ARRAYS (ARTES AT 5C.440) (RE-ISSUE)
The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test an on-chip integrated power converter for high performance Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) applications to reduce size and footprint. Targeted Improvements: 50% reduction in FPGA application footprint, fourfold increase in reliability and 20% increase in efficiency. Description: Currently external power supplies are used to power FPGAs in space applications. This limits the…
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…
AUTONOMOUS AND ROBUST ATTITUDE AND ORBIT CONTROL SYSTEM OF VERY LOW EARTH ORBIT SATELLITES (ARTES 4.0 AT 4C.067)
The objective of the activity is to design, develop and evaluate an Attitude and Orbit Control Subsystem (AOCS) and software to enable autonomous control and operation of Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) satellites, which is robust to the uncertain and variable environment. Targeted Improvements: Enabling autonomous orbit control of satellites in VLEO, where the use of specific spacecraft control techniques is required to cope with the uncertain an…
IAP.KS.PT.000 PROPTECH - KICKSTART
Property Technology, or "PropTech", is a term that encompasses the application of information technology and platform economics to real estate markets. PropTech has proliferated over the last 35 years initially due to the development of mainframe and personal computers, tools such as Lotus and Excel, more comprehensive software solutions for architecting, engineering and construction, and finally the Internet era and online marketpla…
Q/V BAND DIRECT QUADRATURE DEMODULATOR RF INTEGRATED CIRCUIT (ARTES 4.0 AT 5C.497)
The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test an Engineering Model of a Direct Quadrature Demodulator Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) operating in Q/V band for feeder link active antenna applications where digital beam forming is used.Targeted Improvements:Compared to standard heterodyne down conversion approach: - Reduction in power consumption by 10%- Reductionof mass and volume by 50%.Description: Future Q/V- band…
AI FOR OPTIMAL RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR GOVSATCOM SERVICES (GSHE-1)
This activity aims at the definition of an AI model to accurately forecast future demand for governmental/institutional satellite communication services and allocate resources more efficiently.The activity will be processed in Open Competition, subject to ESA's procurement rules and procedures adapted as per Financial Framework Partnership Agreement (FFPA) and Contribution Agreement and the tasks entrusted to ESA for GOVSATCOM.
COMPUTER GENERATED HOLOGRAMS (CGH) FOR OPTICAL AND QUANTUM COMMUNICATION TERMINALS (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 5F.037)
Objective: The objective of the activity is to develop CGH to replace classical optics (e.g. (dichroic) beam splitters, lenses...)in optical/quantum communication terminals. In addition, performance simulations shall be validated on CGH test samples. Several CGH device shall be manufactured, and their performance tested. A-thermal designs shall be investigated. Targeted Improvements: 50% reduction in the size, footprint and mass of classical b…
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,…
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…