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.
OPERATIONS DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT FOR OPTICAL AND QUANTUM GROUND INFRASTRUCTURE (ARTES 4.0 SL SPL 6C.031) - EXPRO+
Objective: To provide initial operational development support to optical ground stations (OGS) developed within the European Quantum Communication Infrastructure (EuroQCI) and the ESA nucleus ground station networks.Targeted Improvements: Tenfold increase in the operational readiness by optical and quantum communication ground stations.Description: Multiple European telescope sites have been identified to support ESA programs ScyLight, HydRON…
10W PER MM CLASS THERMALLY ENHANCED HIGH EFFICIENCY MICROWAVE POWER AMPLIFIERS (ARTES 4.0 AT 5C.491)
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…
BATTERIES BASED ON EUROPEAN COMMERCIAL OF THE SHELF BATTERY CELL TECHNOLOGY (ARTES AT 4F.145) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of this activity is to develop, design, manufacture and test a battery with European Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) battery cells for telecom space applications. Targeted Improvements:- At least 20% mass reduction at battery level;- Enabling European independency and continuity of technology sourcing. Description: Current state-of-the-art space Li-Ion cell technology can provide around 180 Wh/kg, while Li-Ion COTS cell technolog…
VEHICLE-TO-EVERYTHING (V2X) SERVICES DEMONSTRATION OVER SATELLITE (ARTES 4.0 SPL 5G/6G 3A.182)
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…
EMBEDDED THRUST VECTOR TILTING TECHNOLOGY BASED ON SMART DEVICES (ARTES AT 4B.168)
The objective is to develop, manufacture and test a miniaturised lightweight mechanical tilting technology suitable for thruster assemblies and to demonstrate its functional performance. The main actuation function shall be based on smart active technologies (e.g. shape memory, piezo, electroactive polymers).Targeted Improvements:mass saving by about 30% and an overall envelope reduction by about 30%Description:The increased need for agility b…
WIDEBAND BASEBAND RECEIVER WITH COMPENSATED BEAM SQUINTING FOR USER TERMINALS (ARTES 4.0 AT 7B.072)
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…
SPATIALLY COMBINED 40 W - 60 W Q-BAND SOLID STATE POWER AMPLIFIER (ARTES 4.0 AT 5C.494)
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:…
HOLOMONDAS OBSERVATORY UPGRADES FOR OPTICAL AND QUANTUM COMMUNICATION (ARTES 4.0 SPL OPTICAL COMMUNICATION - SCYLIGHT 6C.013 / SL.049)
Objective: To develop transmit and receive systems for optical communication and the reception of quantum keys. Targeted Improvements: Tenfold speed increase in data rates by optical communication between satellites and ground and implementation of a cyber-securequantum channel. Description: The Holomondas telescope has been identified to support the ESA programs ScyLight, HydRON as well as the SAGA Project for the preparation of the space seg…
AD HOC VEHICLE TO VEHICLE MESH NETWORK FOR IMPROVED SATELLITE THROUGHPUT (ARTES 4.0 AT 6B.117)
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…
EURIALO DEMONSTRATOR
The Project 's overarching objective is to design develop and test of an in flight demonstrator representative of a novel satellite-based independent European surveillance system. The final system objectives being to prove that aircraft positioning obtained through a satellite based only system can provide complementary Air Traffic Management (ATM) surveillance services in accordance with aircraft positioning requirements , without rel…
LIGHTWEIGHT POST-QUANTUM KEY EXCHANGE PROTOCOL FOR IP DATA TRANSFERS OVER SATELLITE (ARTES 4.0 4S SPL 3D.017)
Objective: The objective of the activity is to implement and test a lightweight version of the Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) key exchange mechanism that includes post-quantum cryptographic key exchanges. The activity will implement an open-sourced reference implementation of the protocol and perform assessment in a satcom simulator of the protocol on realistic use cases (processing power, data being transferred, latency, available ba…
MEMORY CONTROL SUB-SYSTEM FOR LOW EARTH ORBIT APPLICATIONS (ARTES AT 4G.035)
The objective of the activity is to develop and test a technology independent and adaptable memory control sub-system for modern, integrated system-on-chip devices for low earth orbit applications. This will include radiation testing of low voltage, high speed memory technology. Targeted Improvements: Enabling integrated software defined radios utilising DDR3 and 4 memory; Resilience to radiation induced destructive events in LEO. Description:…
BROADBAND TUNEABLE KA-BAND FREQUENCY MULTIPLEXERS (ARTES AT 5C.430) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test two breadboards corresponding to a reconfigurable 4-channel 30 GHz low power Combiner Frequency Multiplexer (CMUX) and a 4-channel 20 GHz low power frequency Demultiplexer (DMUX). Targeted Improvements: Replacement of conventional fixed-bandwidth CMUX and DMUX equipment with a tuneable solution capable of supporting agile traffic management.Description: Current broadband satelli…
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…
WDM LASER SOURCES AT 1064NM (ARTES 4.0 SPL OPTICAL COMMUNICATION - SCYLIGHT 5F.018) - RE-ISSUE
Objective: The objective of the activity is to develop low noise and small footprint semiconductor laser diodes at 1064nm compatible with WDM operation and the associated low-power consumption driving electronics. The activity shall also investigate technologicaloptions to further reduce the footprint and the power consumption of the low-power section of an optical transmitter at 1064nm (e.g., integration of multiple lasers diodes, optical mod…
END-TO-END MANUFACTURING PROCESS FOR SOLAR ARRAYS FOR CONSTELLATIONS (ARTES 4.0 AT 4F.162)
The objective of the activity is to spin-in terrestrial multi-junction solar cell manufacturing processes and to develop and test photo voltaic assembly techniques to reduce the end-to-end manufacturing complexity of solar arrays for constellations. Targeted Improvements:Reduction of manufacturing complexity and manufacturing time of solar arrays by a factor of two in comparison to the current state-of-the-art solar arrays based on multi-junct…
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…
RELIABLE LEO OPTICAL FEEDER LINK DEMONSTRATION (ARTES 4.0 SPL OPTICAL COMMUNICATION - SCYLIGHT 6C.007)
Objective: To develop technologies and to demonstrate a reliable optical communication uplink from an optical ground station to a satellite in low Earth orbit.Targeted Improvements: First ever demonstration that reliable optical feeder uplinks to telecommunication satellites in LEO are feasible. Description: Optical communication promises the possibility to transmit virtually unlimited amounts of data from optical ground stations (OGS) to futu…
MULTI-BEAM RECEIVE ANTENNA FOR SATELLITE-BASED AIR TRAFFIC SURVEILLANCE (ARTES 4.0 AT 5B.225)
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 (…
MULTI-ORBIT USER TRAFFIC HANDOVER CAPABILITY (GSHE-6)
This activity will define, develop and verify the end-to-end components needed to allow a prototype user terminal to seamlessly switch between geostationary (GEO), medium Earth (MEO) and low Earth (LEO) orbits. 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 GOV…
BROADBAND Q-V BAND BEAMFORMING NETWORK FOR FLEXIBLE ON-BOARD FEEDER LINK ACTIVE ANTENNA PAYLOADS (ARTES 4.0 AT 5C.488)
The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test a breadboard of a highly integrated Q-V band beam forming network forflexible on-board feeder link active antennas. Targeted Improvements: Enabling a European source for Q-V band beamforming for feeder links. Description: Feeder links in next generation Very High Throughput Satellites (VHTS) rely on a full RF chain in Q-V band. Today, mechanically steerable multi-feed antenna archit…
BEAM FORMING CHIP FOR DIRECT RADIATING ARRAY ANTENNAS FOR W-BAND FEEDER LINKS (ARTES AT 5C.457) (ON DELEGATION REQUEST)
The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test an engineering model of a beam forming network chip to support direct radiating array antennas in W-band for future receive chain feeder links in ultra-high throughput satellite telecommunication payloads.Targeted Improvements: Enabling technology for reconfigurable antennas in W-band for ultra-high-throughput satellite feederlinks (at least 1 Tbit/s throughput) not existing tod…
FIXED CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR ELEMENT 1 OF THE ESA PROGRAMME RELATED TO EU SECURE CONNECTIVITY
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,…
ENERGY EFFICIENT DE-ICING SYSTEM FOR ANTENNA GATEWAYS (ARTES 4.0 AT 6B.121)
Objective: The objective of the activity is to trade-off alternative, energy efficient and low carbon footprint heating technologies for use in gateway Earth stations, and to design and develop a de-icing system prototype. The focus and the main benefits are expected for higher frequency antennas (e.g Ka, Q/V, W band). Targeted Improvements: 50% reduction of energy consumptionDescription: Incold environments, snow, frost, or ice can cause link…
AUTOMOTIVE S-BAND ANTENNA FOR SATELLITE IOT AND 5G TERRESTRIAL COMMUNICATIONS (ARTES SPL 5G 7C.062) (UPON DELEGATION REQUEST)
Upon Delegation Request (*) The objective of the activity is to develop, manufacture and test an integrated automotive S-band antenna that combines satellite IoT and 5G terrestrial communications. Targeted Improvements: Reduction of antenna form factor from a protruding antenna (e.g. shark fin shape) to planar antenna fully integrated in the car roof. Bandwidth increase from 30 to 90 MHz for satellite and 5G communications. Description: The In…