Objective: The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a magnetic bearing system for high-speed rotary mechanisms in telecommunication spacecraft applications (e.g. reaction wheels or thermal control pumps and compressors). Targeted Improvements:- Increase rotation speed by a factor of 2 (resulting in higher angular momentum capability). - Increase lifetime by a factor of 2 (due to contact-less bearings and no lubrication)…

This activity aims at the development of RF ADC, RF DAC and HSSLs IP cores; manufacturing, validation and rad-hardness evaluation of the IPs; integration with NG-Ultra core and update of NG-Ultra RF programming tools to allow configuration modes of the ADC/DAC and HSSL. 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 C…

The objective of the activity is to study, design and develop a cyber testing tool to support a comprehensive analysis of security and privacy risks of satellite communication systems. A testbed comprising computers, custom software in order to probe terminals for vulnerabilities, communication channel emulators, will be developed.Targeted improvements: Enabling data link and physical layer vulnerability testing and training in simulated satco…

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 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…

Objective: The objective of the activity is to develop advanced manufacturing techniques for electric propulsion components in order to improve their performance.Targeted Improvements:Increase the thermo-mechanical, thermo-optical and magnetic performances by 10-15% and the sputter retention of electric propulsion components (e.g. anode, cathode, discharge chambers).Description: Large low Earth orbit satellite constellations will be using elec…

The objective of this activity is to analyse the control plane procedures and signalling in 5G New Radio (NR) standard and adapt itto the peculiarities of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) based on Non-Geo Stationary Satellite Systems and test it via a demonstrator.Targeted Improvements: New capability related to the design of 5G NTN control plane not existing today in ESA member states.Description:In recent years, several players from both satel…

Objective:The objective of the activity is to develop and qualify a faint pulse laser source for space-based quantum key distribution systems.Targeted Improvements:Increase the technical readiness level of faint pulse laser sources suitable for quantum key distribution applications from 5 to 7. Description:Quantum key distribution systems using protocols based on faint laser pulses require a photon source emitting less than one photon per puls…

The objective of the activity is to develop rapid and flexible advanced manufacturing techniques, with a full digital workflow, forhigh volume production of complex-shaped composite reflector antennas from 1 to 3.5 metres in diameter.Targeted Improvements:Reduction in composite reflector manufacturing time by a factor of five in comparison to standard metallic mould processes.Description:Today, the manufacturing lead time of reflector antennas…

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…

Learning from the experience collected thus far through dialogue with industry, SatCom operators participating in the 5G Task Forceand other stakeholders, there are some well-recognised opportunities brought by the advent of the new 5G communication networks. Among them:1) Boost the societal impact of space-based applications, addressing new use cases and user communities through either integration of 5G SatCom and terrestrial networks and/or…

A key role of ESA within the satellite telecommunications sector is to promote high levels of Research and Development activity within Participating State industry to help ensure both their preparedness and competitiveness in both the short and long terms. ARTES Core Competitiveness Element Programme Component "A" Advanced Technology (ARTES AT) is concerned with the early development stages of new systems and the exploitation of new…

The objective of the activity is to develop a propagation model for the Very High Frequency band (VHF) that includes high latitudesand equatorial zones. The model will be able to predict signal impairment caused by various propagation effects. This model will beimplemented in a system and user modelling tool and is intended to be proposed to ITU-R for adoption. Targeted Improvements: Enabling the development of VHF telecommunication missions w…

The objective of the activity is to develop, manufacture and test an electric propulsion thruster that does not require a neutraliser to operate nominally with a minimum of 25% of thrust efficiency (based on operation with air as the propellant).Targeted Improvements:Increase thrust efficiency by more than 50% to reach a minimum of 25%.Description: Traditional Electric Propulsion (EP) technologies make use of an electron emitter, or cathode, t…

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 the activity is to develop and test techniques for exploiting multi-satellite diversity on the forward and return user links of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations when user terminals have two or more satellites in visibility. The techniques will be implemented in a software testbed to fully evaluate the improvement of user terminal peak data rate and outage probability.Targeted Improvements: An average of 50% improvement in…

Water is one of the most important substances on Earth and covers 70% of the planet. However, every year competition for a clean, copious supply of water intensifies. Fresh water is threatened by a myriad of forces including overdevelopment, polluted runoff and global warming. Space applications can help to alleviate water scarcity problems in numerous ways. The "Water Scarcity" Kick Start offers 75% funding of up to 60,000 EUR for t…

The objective of the activity is to design and validate the baseband receiver of a user terminal to compensate for beam squint adopting equalisation techniques. The goal is to maintain the end-to-end performance for wideband carrier, large phased arrays and largescanning angles.Targeted Improvements: Up to 3 dB link quality improvement for wideband carriers (500 MHz or larger) and large scan angles of representative active antenna array operat…

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…

The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test a breadboard of a high-power amplifier in Ku-band or above with 10 W/mm class of power density in continuous wave operation. The selected manufacturing process will allow a smaller chip size with reduced junction temperature, reduced thermal memory effects and improved efficiency.Targeted Improvements:- 3-5 times improvementin power density.- Junction temperature reduction of te…

The objective is to develop a multi-model informed predictive tool of atmospheric parameter variability for mission design and operation.Targeted Improvements:- Enabling a new European tool allowing prediction of atmospheric conditions (e.g., density, composition, radiation) over time, including local state and total dose.- To reduce initial mission design margins hence avoiding overdesign.Description: The recent loss of several communication…

The objective of this activity is to develop, manufacture and test a highly efficient Q-band spatial power divider and combiner forapplication in Q-band Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPA). Experimental performance verification shall be carried out on a 40 - 60 W (nominal operating point) Q-band SSPA breadboard. Targeted Improvements: Improved power added efficiency of 5 - 10% of Q-band SSPAs in comparison to the state of the art. Description:…

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

The objective of the activity is to identify, design, manufacture and test critical technology and hardware elements needed for a high voltage electric power system (EPS) for high power telecom applications. This shall include typical primary and secondary DCDC converters and protection circuits (e.g. latching current limiters). Targeted Improvements:- Increase bus voltage up to > 300V, enabling direct drive for electric propulsion;- Reduce…

The objective of the activity is to design, develop, manufacture, test and demonstrate an ad hoc ground based network system whereby nearby cars pool resources to improve satcom throughput. Cars within a terrestrial radio range of a nearby car can be used to achieve higher throughput over satcom when they are not transmitting or receiving themselves, thus creating a mesh network between localcars. Cars form ad-hoc local networks connecting and…