Projects

The satellite video broadcasting sector, the focus of this study, is part of an audiovisual market characterised by an increasing rate of change. New competitors are emerging including players from the telecoms, IT, Internet and consumer electronics sectors, and consumers’ consumption patterns are changing fast.

The SATMODO project is aimed at the round-wood timber harvesting market, by facilitating "live" monitoring of harvest processes. To date, the availability of real-time or near real-time harvest process data has been limited, as the facility to send the data from remote harvest vehicles has been hampered by the lack of reliable data transmission technologies

The objective of this activity is to develop a Web-based propagation analysis tool to be used by industry designing satellite telecommunication systems for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint and using fixed or mobile user terminals, as well as by propagation experts.

This study will investigate and define telecommunication missions exploiting recently developed and proven telecommunication payload and platform technologies that in combination with a compact launch vehicle, such as VEGA, can bring commercial advantages to the operators.

The purpose of the activity is to identify the nature and the characteristics of missions of telecommunication satellites that could be launched by current and future evolution of Vega launcher offering a commercial competitive advantage

This activity is concerned with the development, manufacturing and testing of an optical interconnect breadboard for high throughput on-board processors.

Ku-Band is the most widely used frequency band in the increasing field of satellite communications. In every satellite transponder, the input multiplexer (IMUX) is a crucial component. Therefore there is a justified demand for the development of IMUXes beyond the present state of the art. The technology of choice is dielectric technology due to its small size, low losses and temperature compensation.

The objective of the MultiMeDIA study was:
To define a typical mission requiring high density locally for TV conjointly with a mission's large coverage

The project has developed three stabilised maritime VSAT antenna
platforms with dish diameters of 60cm (Jotron B60 for Ka-Band) and
85cm (Jotron B85Ku for Ku-band and Jotron B85Ka for Ka-band)

The objective of this projects is to develop innovative building blocks for QinetiQ T5 thruster power supplies (PPU) to target cost reduction by the use of new technologies. The final outcome is an EM model (IBB EM) representative from electrical point of view for the main interfaces.

OHB has performed in the framework of Artes5.1 the so-called “Dual Mode with Electric Propulsion System Study”. The term Dual Mode refers to a propulsion system concept, which is based on Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen as oxidizer and Hydrazine as fuel

Countries located in tropical climates are particularly interested in satellite communication systems because they can compensate the lack of terrestrial infrastructures and they can reduce costs and time for deployment of a broadband network

The study scope includes the security risk analysis of the payload control and configuration (PCC) links for telecommunications satellite payloads and the conceptualization, design and demonstration of a generic cryptographic processor comprising the space segment of a security system for the protection of the data on such links.

The objective of the project is the qualification of the ASTRO APS such as to obtain a new, highly reliable, up-to-date star tracker based on the Active Pixel Sensor (APS) technology.

In response to the high number of Dual FSA requested to us in the last years, AIRBUS DS have developed a new standard product to improve the performances of the current product, but also to save cost and planning time.

A 16x16 dual polarized 10.7-14.5 GHz connected antenna array together with supporting test equipment is designed, built and tested, which can be applied for satellite communication systems.

The contract covers the development of a Ka-Band Modular Reflector in order to answer to the increase of telecommunication satellites offering high-speed communication.

SBGM is the acronym for Sealed Brush Gear Motor and the mechanism is mainly dedicated as in orbit motion control and actuation for solar array panels, but can also be used for other applications where a robust, simple and space qualified actuator is required.

This study has been initiated to develop a new concept for grounding of Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) foils and to discover if there are good and reliable alternatives to the current state of the art technologies.

he study identified and looked at the trade-off techniques at the ground segment for different scenarios offering broadband GEO satellite services to fixed stations targeting near terabit per second capacity by the 2020 timeframe.

The objective is to design, manufacture and test a Ka/IF EM Down-Converter based on a Non hermetic packaging and reduce the weight and the size of RF/IF section, LO section, TM/TC section, DC/DC section by using new devices and technologies or by considering new architectures.

This project covers the specification, design, implementation and pre-operational demonstration of a ‘Platform for Advanced SAT-AIS Maritime Applications’ (PLASMA) at the UK’s Satellite Applications Catapult facility in Harwell.

This activity is concerned with the evaluation of optical modulator technologies and products and the development, manufacturing and testing of an optical modulator with improved performances for applications in photonic sub-systems of future satellite payloads.

Design and demonstrate a protocol for VSAT communication with significantly higher performance for the return link than achievable with DVB-RCS (ETSI EN 301 790).

The objective of the project has been to finalize the development and perform the validation of a pulse command output driver, EOCD. The ASIC will primarily be used in on board computers and data handling systems.

Satellite communication data traffic rates are growing. In the scope of obtaining higher data rates, the increase of the spectral efficiency and the use of higher bandwidth is mandatory. Future systems will also implement multi-carrier operation.

The main aim of the activity is to investigate new commercial terminal architectures in order to significantly lower the cost of ownership in terms of cost of the terminal and cost of installation of the current devices.

The study is related to Delay-/Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) applications. It investigates potential DTN/M2M and other DTN use-cases and their applicability for satellite communication scenarios.

The project developed a Sat-IF to IP system for DBS.

The ability to perform radio functions in the software domain enables cheaper, more reliable and highly flexible systems to be developed. This is important in the space segment, where the expected life of the equipment is long and the ability to configure and upgrade the radio to implement additional features and requirements after deployment is highly desirable. The more of the design that can be made “soft”, the greater the ability to re-use technology and capitalise on previous investment.

To design and test a High-power S-Band Front End demonstrator for reconfigurable communication payloads

The objectives are: To design, manufacture and test a thermal control device able to evacuate a high power generated by a compact active antenna Breadboard (4 kW) made of 97 Direct Radiating Arrays (DRA) dummies. To demonstrate that the Mechanically Pumped Loop (MPL) complies with the specification of high power rejection and a very low gradient between all radiative elements. To show that a very dissipative Active Antenna can be thermally controlled with high accuracy.

This projects aims to review and develop channel models, data and tools tailored for the design of High-Capacity Flexible Broadband Satellite Systems operating (Q/V and Ka Band) with a major focus on future system at Q/V Band.

SoftWear Antennas is a product development project, which will result in a wearable antenna product family. Patria has already completed two ESA funded ARTES 5.1 projects, successfully demonstrating that fully textile, wearable antennas are extremely versatile and therefore feasible for different user applications.

The objective of the project is to design, manufacture and test an Engineering Model of a dual polarised high power Ka-Band feed.

The project aims to develop a laboratory test-bed including a modem prototype (terminal and hub sides) implementing some innovative physical and MAC layer algorithms/techniques suitable to enhance the performance of broadband interactive satellite terminals implementing the DVB-RCS standard.

The project objective is to develop a temperature compensation technique for both high power OMUXs and manifolds at Ka-band.

The HYDRA TELECOM product is a variant of the already developed and qualified HYDRA baseline product, optimized to address the GEO telecommunication platforms market.

The main objective of this project is to design, manufacture and test a prototype of an ATN/IPS air-ground router as the interface between EATMN and the ground earth station.ecific design and architecture is required for the AGR when compared to commercial off-the-shelf products.

The work of the Satellite Communication Network of Excellence (SatNEx) initially supported by the European Union (EU) is continuing with support from ESA´s TIA Directorate through the Advanced Research in Telecommuncations Programme (ARTES) and the Technical Directorate Network of Centers programmes. Due to this shift in support, the name of the group has changed slightly to the Satellite Communication Network of Experts.