Projects

The project renews modem portfolio and enhances SatLink VSAT Network capabilities related to mobility, security, and bandwidth efficiency including upgrade of forward link to S2X with increased throughput.

The Carnot-Sat project aims to develop and validate a toolset which can be used in the planning and deployment of heterogeneous terrestrial/satellite networks, including optimisation, interoperability and network orchestration. It allows the quantitative design and evaluation of such networks and open up the market for satellites in 5G by focussing on the benefits to the terrestrial network operators.

The overall goal is for GateHouse to provide a fully commercial quality 3GPP 5G compliant NB-IoT NTN SW solution including the payload - and UE parts (available for chipset manufactures and for dedicated HW).

Smaller and smarter – this is the trend for mini- and nanosatellites. Upcoming missions - such as IOT, SATCOM, spectrum monitoring, AIS, ADS-B and EO - show an increasing demand of power-efficient on-board processing capabilities. This activity leverages on latest-generation COTS processing technology integrated in a robust, cost-efficient and flexible space product to boost your system performance.

Availability of broadband internet access has become a significant challenge in the development of the society and industry. Cloud services, big-data applications and global logistic businesses require secure, reliable, and fast internet coverage around the globe. Satellite communications can offer global coverage. Optical technologies are expected to play a major role for enabling the next generation of communication satellites.

For the ICEYE precursor mission, FOTEC is developing an electric propulsion system. It is based on FEEP (field emission electric propulsion) ion thruster technology. A cluster of seven identical IFM nano thruster modules is manufactured - each capable of delivering up to 350 µN thrust. This redundant design ensures high reliability and versatility of the propulsion system. The thrusters are commissioned and tested in-orbit, supported under this ARTES Competitiveness & Growth – Demonstration Phase – Atlas project.

Design, develop and test in an operational environment a shipborne VDES transceiver prototype that integrates the Automatic Identification System (AIS), VHF Data Exchange (VDE) and Application Specific Messaging (ASM) functionalities into one single unit.

This project is a pathfinder mission in order for Oxford Space Systems to develop and fly the technological building blocks required for future unfurlable antennas. It is supported under ARTES Competitiveness & Growth – Demonstration Phase (Atlas).
The objective of the project is to design, manufacture and test in orbit a 3.5m diameter C-band high gain reflector antenna flight unit for an Earth observation Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mission.

To design, develop, validate and deliver a production-ready, multi-beam, low-profile, Ka band satellite ground terminal suitable for Land or Maritime mobility applications on GEO, MEO and/or LEO networks

FDISmallGEO activities are to support further development and industrialization of the generic platform of the OHB SmallGEO Product Line in order to sustain the competitiveness of this platform.

The limitations of mechanical pressure and flow regulation as used in heritage spacecraft propulsion systems, have had to be accepted together with their inherent limited capabilities simply due to the fact that fully proportional control has, until this point, not been technically possible. The Nammo Electronic Pressure Regulator system developed under this keystone ARTES 5.1 programme has enabled a step change to provide infinitely variable flow and pressure regulation at competitive cost to all spacecraft propulsion systems.

The EuroSMG project consists of the design, manufacture, testing and qualification of an ITAR-free European Stepper Motor Gearbox (SMG). The EuroSMG contains no off-the-shelf sub-assemblies and is a full concept to qualification programme. The EuroSMG is designed to meet the requirements of a Solar Array Drive Mechanism (SADM) for the GEO Telecom Satellite market.

Project LightBar develops a communications-enabled lightbar that provides seamless hybrid communications for extended coverage, data reach and performance capability for emergency services and civil markets such as construction and utilities. The enhanced lightbar design is lightweight, low cost, low profile, small form factor and modular with a flexible design that provides: hybrid connectivity, satellite and cellular bonding, and resilient positioning.

SDR Makerspace is an initiative of the European Space Agency and Libre Space Foundation bringing together makers, open-source hackers, radio amateurs, researchers, from all over Greece and provide funding, resources, and a passionate community tackling together challenges in using Software Defined Radio for space communications, opening up space communications development to a wide variety of people, organizations and companies.

The EPJT project develops modular technologies for cost efficient space propulsion mechanism. Key-elements are a light and robust geared actuator, high-load carrying ball joints, a modular harness routing system across the mechanism.

The development and testing of a prototype of an analog IF over digital IF acquisition/generation demonstrator for instantaneous signal bandwidth up to 5GHz, together with a set of data compression techniques to minimize the digital data rate required to transmit a given analog IF bandwidth over a terrestrial network, optimized for a selected couple of scenarios.

In this program, two replacement subunits of the LCT were developed and qualified. The units are the Fame Unit Structure (FUS) and the Telescope Unit (TLU). These units replace previous units and have to comply with the existing LCT design. This development took into account experience gained from the previous designs and handling to achieve a robust design and decrease overall cost of LCT while maintaining the known performance requirements.
TLU and FUS have significant influence on the LCT mechanical design. Therefore, a LCT mechanical demonstrator (LMD) was built to qualify the required mechanical loads.

The project MLSAT investigates the applicability of machine learning or in general, artificial intelligence techniques in the context of satellite communications. Potential machine learning (ML) use cases in the field of satellite communications are identified and proof-of-concepts (PoC) are demonstrated for selected scenarios.

Development of a 3 axis arm supporting GIE thruster.

Since satellite operators aim for more bandwidth to increase data throughput and capacity new system and payload concepts are required, leading also to the demand for new equipment. One promising option to increase capacity for HTS systems is moving the feeder link from Ka-band to Q/V-band. The focus of this activity targets the development of Q-band linearisers.

On-board handling of higher-layer protocols via an ad-hoc router device makes it possible to provide satellite connectivity completely by-passing the (possibly) clogged/compromised terrestrial infrastructure, to facilitate IP mobility, to reduce traffic load on satellite uplinks by deploying IP multicasting on board the satellite, and to provide true packet-by-packet end-to-end connectivity between satellite terminals in meshed configuration or ISL environment.

Low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites are flying in an altitude between 200km and 2000km above Earth and hence are limited in the amount of time they are visible to a ground station (typically around 20 minutes). This is limiting the amount of data that can be exchanged. However if the data is relayed to a geosynchronous-Earth-orbit (GEO) satellite, the available LEO satellite data transmission time (and amount of data) can be drastically increased.

This project covers the design and the development of the link and network layer mechanisms required to support end-to-end unicast data connectivity over inter-satellite links in small satellite constellation networks. SPIDER stands for Small Platform Inter-satellite Data Exchange Routes, being an obvious reference to the spider’s ability to create webs, which is precisely the purpose of this project.

Qualification of 150W C-Band RC and CC Traveling Wave Tubes

Mx-SAT is a C&G Technology project that covers research tracks on efficiency and scalability improvements for the Newtec Dialog® system containing the platform and terminals. The Newtec Dialog® platform is a multiservice satellite communications platform that allows satellite service providers to build and adapt their network easily as their business grows.

SatNEx IV activities aim to study medium/long term directions of satellite telecommunication systems for any of the commercial or institutional applications that can be considered appealing by key players but still not mature enough for attracting industry or initiating dedicated ESA R&D activities.

This technology phase study aims to develop the Thales Alenia Space generic and highly competitive avionics product for future satellite platforms. It includes OBC-core unit with the rad-hard technologies NG-ULTRA that embeds a R52 quad-core ARM-based MPSoC and the largest space FPGA.
The OBC-core constitutes, together with the modular Avionics Centralized Electronics and High Power Unit, the backbone of Thales Alenia Space future avionics.

VIBeS project addressed the design, prototyping and validation of Virtual PEP agents to efficiently support the satellite-terrestrial convergence in upcoming 5G scenarios. The proposed approach leverages both NFV technology and cutting-edge web protocols. To assess the proposed solutions, a highly configurable Proof-of-Concept testbed was developed and tailored for the experimentation of broadband services aligned with 5G use-cases and verticals.

The Airbus Next Generation Solar Array (NGSA) is based on a hybrid solar array concept which combines rigid backbone panels with lightweight semi-rigid lateral panels. This ARTES 5.2 project covers the low TRL development activities for the main components of the new Solar Array layout, such as mechanical components to accommodate and release the semi-rigid substrates, semi-rigid PVA design, system level design and analyses as well as the design and engineering testing of the panel stack.

Development, manufacturing and testing of an Engineering Model of a compact AFSIW four channels Ku-band input multiplexer for broadband applications.

In HENCSAT we have developed a novel concept based on bit-torrent and network coding technologies that provides more resilient networking that can be loaded closer to its full capacity.

HENCSAT empowered the study and testing of robust and powerful networking over heterogeneous satellite and radio links in potentially difficult mobile scenarios where packet loss and interruptions may occur. By applying Network Coding in combination with novel resource management significant improvements can be obtained over traditional approaches. Application areas include aerial, vehicular and maritime users with sources like photos, video and other critical data. The focus was specifically on video over multiple networks.

The mission of RHEA Cyber Security Centre of Excellence is to develop supporting technologies enabling agile and effective cyber-security services, including education and training, operations, research, experimentation, test & evaluation, supporting the needs of the European space community as well as the wider aerospace, humanitarian, critical infrastructure, and defence & security communities.

Thales Alenia Space is a major player in the LEO, MEO, HEO GEO, L2 or interplanetary satellite industry and has therefore a large background in systems and subsystems definition.

In particular, Thales Alenia Space is developing a new product line of geostationary telecommunication satellites, Spacebus NEO, more and more powerful where harness accommodation is already challenging.

The study of a new harness architecture based on a large flexible printed circuit board, associated connectors, intelligent connectors integrating multiplexing and demultiplexing functions will ease the harness accommodation for telecommunications payloads.

The project consists in advanced activities paving the way to NewSpace equipment, intended to cover the platform needs in terms of electronics. The key success factors are a drastic reduction of recurrent price and mass of the equipment based on three pillars : integration & standardization, low cost components and innovative technologies.

The objective is to identify on-board transmitter and receiver technologies that enable two-way VHF data exchange via Low Earth Orbit Satellite, according to the emerging VDES specifications.

Design, development and demonstration of innovative gateway and user terminal prototypes enabling a vast variety of Internet of Things (IoT) use cases and able to efficiently provide bi-directional Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services in GEO and non-GEO scenarios for both fixed and mobile applications.

This activity aims to develop Engineering Models of fast locking connectors for cable assemblies compatible with standard SMA Jack connectors.

The project’s outcomes deals with the design, implementation and validation of a satellite gateway able to receive and manage the traffic transmitted by a large population of terminals asynchronously transmitting short messages with low duty cycle via a satellite communication channel.

QUIC is a new encrypted-by-default Internet transport protocol that accelerates HTTP traffic and which has the intention to eventually replace TCP. The project objectives are to identify the root causes of any shortfalls in QUIC performance over satellite, influence and propose changes to the specification, and evaluate them using a real-time emulation test bed. The results of this work are contributed to the IETF.

The M2M market is increasing fast and more bandwidth is required. Ku-band M2M services can offer this bandwidth but require low-cost front-end components to be accepted by the market. The SiGeM2M project is demonstrating the implementation of the complete front-end transmitter functionality in a low-cost and low-power SiGe RF IC.