Projects

Inmarsat has completed a Technical Assistance Contract under Phase A of the Iris programme, where ESA has embarked on the development of a new satellite to aircraft communication standard in support of both safety of life and aircraft operational communication. The purpose of Inmarsat´s involvement was to assist the Agency in determining suitable options to be further developed towards eventual validation and deployment.

The scope of the EAM activities is to define and to develop a competitive high thrust, high specific impulse European Apogee Motor (EAM).

The TV Snapshot project aims to develop
an end-user application enabling the user to access
descriptive data about his/her favourite TV content
received in a PC via a DVB card, and later act on this
data to purchase content online.

The objective of the project was to develop and verify a new competitive member to the present set of Ku-band antennas, a dual frequency (Rx/Tx) dual port Ku-band bicone antenna.

The contract originally specified design and development of an LNB/OMT/transmitter for operation at 13GHz receive and 12.75-13.25GHz transmit. A subsequent contract change note 001 re-specified the development of a revised version of the existing Invacom transmitter operating in the 14.0-14.5GHz band.

This project aims to design an LNB that can receive from both linear and circularly polarised satellites which could significantly stimulate the use of space capacity for new services from existing locations.

The aim of this project is to design a new system based on the now maturing technology of Photonic Components. The current system is far more complex than necessary, and one where any further developments to carry an ever growing bandwidth to more locations is increasingly costly, complex and specialized.

Satellite operator requirements for providing Broad Band Satellite INTERNET services throughout Europe, North Africa, Western Asia and Eastern USA.

The aim of the project is to design, develop, and manufacture a Dual Linear and Circular Polarised LNB. This new variant will be used to double the bandwidth currently available for transmitting domestic television signals.

The project objective is to develop a new LNB that integrates all of the functions from three LNBs into a single LNB unit. The result of this would be a triple horn feed Quad Polar LNB with fully frequency selectable and switched outputs.

The objective of this project is to investigate potential material and processes available for sunshield application.

The objective of this activity is to design
and demonstrate an integrated system for
communications and localisation services in emergency
situations e.g. in forest fire fighting, earthquakes. Direct
communication, providing voice and localisation services between on-site staff and a centralised operations
control centre is provided by the use of hand held
personal terminals, communicating via larger, more
powerful "intermediate" satellite mobile terminals.

RemFireSat provides communications and
positioning information for all emergency crew members
and to vehicles operating in the emergency scenario.
Communication is achieved via short messages that can
also be used to communicate standard information,
panic buttons, etc. Extensive utilisation of remote
sensing data, which is provided in the field via a
dedicated processing centre, is another key feature of
the system.

The project objective is to develop a software tool for optimising the RF performance of multi-mode horns with body-of-revolution symmetry for communication and tracking applications.

This project aims to develop a maritime BGAN terminal integrated with a mobile phone
3G Pico cell so crews can use their personal mobile phones for social communication.

The Mayflower Project employs satellite
multicasting IP over DVB and Internet return channel to
enable the delivery of university courses in Medicine
using on-line and off-line applications built on Open
Software. Two groups of participants employed the
system. One group was based in Italy and was led by
the University of Perugia, which focused on nursing. The
other group was based in Norway and led by the
University of Tromsoe, which focused on nursing and
medicine. Students attended Perugia University courses
either from home or the University classrooms.

The project objective is to develop a new geostationary Li-ion battery concept for Eurostar 3000 platform.

MASSAO will allow an operator of an air fleet to track, monitor and communicate via satellite with aircraft within their full operating range, even at large distances from the operating centre.

There is a significant lack of experimental data for the satellite to indoor environment that does not allow for precise prediction methods. This project aims to provide simple statistical models, giving guidance to system designers.

The ESA Large Platform Mission Project will develop a new satellite platform in the power range 14-25kW. This large Platform will be engineered and built by the ALCATEL SPACE and EADS ASTRIUM joined Project Team. Its main objective is to develop a high-performing satellite platform family in this enhanced power range which will integrate most advanced equipments from world class suppliers.

IDeAS will, in the frame of the Iris programme, facilitate the understanding of aviation safety and certification requirements in standard space domain terminology, and provide an initial road-map to future Iris service certification.

The pilot project has established an
application supporting direct connection between the
Dutch AEX exchange in Amsterdam and any worldwide
(Internet) Broker or Trading Professional. The electronic
communication is IP over satellite to guarantee
simultaneous availability of the trading information at all
client sites and to enforce ad hoc security protection in
the link.

Sat@Once uses the Casablance technology to extend the Wen in another dimension. The purpose of Casablanca is to select, from all the content that is available free on the internet, those items if interest to the maximum number of users and to broadcast these pages via satellite.

The Distributed Satellite Broadband
project seeks to develop secure and authenticated
methods by which satellite delivered broadband access
can be provided and shared amongst a number of
disparate users. The goal is to reduce the cost of
satellite broadband for each individual user and enable
people in rural areas without ADSL access to obtain a
broadband internet connection, which otherwise they
would not be able to afford.

Project Cielo has as its primary objective to design and develop a fully functioning Ka Band transceiver at a competitive price point.

Using the results of the DELTASS project,
I-DISCARE aims to offer a service to operational users
community first on a free basis and after on a
commercial basis. The target is to create an I-DISCARE
Service Provider structure and initiate its activities. The
I-DISCARE project has the ambition to reach this target
by achieving the following 3 main tasks: implement a
satellite-based support to logistic and healthcare for
medical operations in isolated, mobile and disaster
context, demonstrate and validate the viability of this IDISCARE
service by defining a Pilot Utilisation Plan and
by using some real field utilisation involving end users,
prepare and consolidate a Strategic Plan (SP) for the IDISCARE
service implementation.

The NESA (Next generation Emergency
Satellite Assistance) project is dedicated to on-field
radiology, carried out employing an X-ray apparatus onboard
an ambulance. The X-ray images are transferred
via satellite for remote analysis, together with accessory
clinical information. Thanks to the capabilities provided
by the NESA platform, the emergency vehicle can bring
patients directly to the most appropriate destination
(including the emergency department), optimizing
timing and saving resources. In many cases
transportation can be avoided.

E-Screen has provided the first pan-
European Satellite based Digital Cinema operation, including a business deployment phase, where
projections open to paying public of a diversified range
of digital contents delivered via satellite are performed.
E-Screen sees the joint involvement of service
providers, technology suppliers and, above all, of the
Cinema industry, experimenting with the future business
models and practices that will lead the transition toward
Digital Cinema and addressing the technology areas that
are involved in the implementation of a satellite based
service chain.

The objective of this project is the development of packaged 1-Watt and 2-Watt high power amplifiers for Ku-band VSAT applications.

ESA's concept for an Integrated Space Technologies Operational System (ISTOS) Wide Area Network is designed to improve the utilisation of space technologies by end users working in the field of emergency management, by allowing to efficiently interconnect emergency application users to data and services providers, using integrated space technologies in telecommunications, earth observation and navigation.

The project is developing a Ku-band micro-terminal for the recption of satellite multicast services.

ADRAMO Rider 1 is a 'holding project' for a series of SCOS 2000 telemetry performance improvement activities. It includes performance studies, generic packetiser and packet display extensions and the cache replacement by a new Client Packet Distributor (CPD).

MediaSpace provides multimedia satellite services at an optimised cost and on an international deployment level, proposing solutions to anyone anywhere in the world.

A comprehensive analysis of the market for telemedicine services in general with identification of opportunities for satellite and specific review on the regulatory aspects.

The objective of the project was to upgrade to space level requirements an existing commercial pressure transducer design providing a desired accuracy below 0.05%FS and to qualify it for space usage.

The Waveguide Lens Antenna works like an optical lens, but for microwaves. The project has proven that it is a new component that will improve wireless communication.

The objective of the project was to design, manufacture and qualify a high accuracy flow meter for a liquid propulsion system. The flow meter should be non-intrusive in essence and should be able to measure the flowrate of propellants feeding the thrusters with a target accuracy better than 0.1%FS during the Liquid Apogee Engine Firing (LAEF).

DiviTel wants to deliver the promise of home town video by satellite and over the internet. Satellite will be used both as a distribution medium, to get the broadcasters material to the service providers, and as a delivery platform for internet and DVB-based video.

The main goal of this project by Indra is to provide an overall network performance characterization for different configurations of a DiffServ/DVB-RCS integration architecture.

The Sunrise project concerns the
development and operation of a platform which can
deliver varied content to users in Europe and,
eventually, to nearly all major cities around the world.
Content providers will be able to broadcast material as
and when needed and the cost of broadcasting will be
reduced still further as the audience is widened. The
dramatic increase in potential audience size and the
reduction in the cost of broadcasting mean that more
businesses can take advantage of this new technology
to deliver their material.