Objective: The objective of this activity is to develop, deploy and operate a flexible software-defined radio communication testbedwith a frequency flexible RF front end on the International Space Station, supporting a wide range of frequencies up to Q/V band addressing 5G, signal processing and advanced techniques. Targeted Improvements: Enabling innovative and fast developments of future satcom applications from UHF to Q/V band that are diff…

Objective:The objective of this activity is to add a slow modulation scheme on a high-data rate optical link, so allow efficient daylight sun-background subtraction on the tracking sensor and allow more robust operation at small sun-spacecraft-angles.TargetedImprovements:50% higher link availability at small sun-spacecraft-angles (10 degrees).Description:With incoherent and coherent optical communication schemes the counter terminal needs to b…

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…

Objective:The objective of this activity is to design and develop a computer control system hardware prototype and its interfaces with every subsystem to provide a self-sufficient optical quantum communication ground stations interfacing with all subsystems without the need of technical supervision and without public internet connection.Targeted Improvements:- 50% cost reduction of OPEX cost of operational optical ground stations - Enabling no…

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…

This Call for Proposals covers the industry initiated activities for the four Programmes lines identified below:ARTES Core Competitiveness Generic ProgrammeLine- Component B: Competitiveness GrowthARTES Strategic Programme Line Space for 5G/6G and Sustainable Connectivity ARTES Strategic Programme Line Space Systems for Safety and Security (4S)ARTES Strategic Programme Line Optical and Quantum Communication - ScyLight. The participating state…

The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test a prototype of a 10x10-cm tile integrating all elements of a Ka-band transmit or receive active phased array antenna. Targeted Improvements: Enabling a Ka-band phased array antennas for nanosatellites, demonstrating up to four single-polarisation beams. Description: While at the beginning of the millennium CubeSats were mostly considered educational projects allowing students to…

The objective of the activity is to develop an in-orbit experiment where technologies and techniques that will be key for the role of satellites in 6G networks can be tested, validated and their performance measured. This includes very novel techniques such as AI-assisted dynamic spectrum allocation, AI-assisted dynamic service-based resource management, self-optimised air interface, characterisation of sub-THz transmission performance and nov…

The objective of the activity is to develop and test efficient broadband digital pre-distortion algorithms and architectures for payloads utilising digital processors. The developed concept shall be implemented in a combined RF and digital processor test-bed. Tests in a laboratory environment will be carried out to fully evaluate the performance improvements. Targeted Improvements:- 10-15% improvement of payload capacity/throughput- 30% higher…

Objective: The objective of the activity is to design, develop and test a reduced scaled engineering model for an onboard trusted platform module (TPM) in order to support security features in small satellite telecom systems. Targeted Improvements: Enabling a built-in route of trust providing security and privacy features for small satellite telecom systems. Description: In an increasingly digital world, security and privacy concerns are becom…

Objective: The objective of the activity is to demonstrate novel III-V avalanche photodiodes (APD) for use at 1550 nm wavelength with significant performance improvements over available InGaAs APD devices. Targeted Improvements:Up to 5 times improvement in detector sensitivity, lower dark current and higher gain-bandwidth product compared to currently available InGaAs APDs. Description: While very good InGaAs APDs are commercially available, t…

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…

The objective of this activity is to design, develop and test an Engineering Model of a Direct Quadrature Demodulator Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) operating in Q/V band for feeder link active antenna applications where digital beam forming is used.Targeted Improvements:Compared to standard heterodyne down conversion approach: - Reduction in power consumption by 10%- Reductionof mass and volume by 50%.Description: Future Q/V- band…

The objective of the activity is to design and test a tank compatible with krypton propellant (i.e. minimum 310 bar) that must fully demise during re-entry to reduce the casualty risk and to allow the adoption of an uncontrolled re-entry strategy for low Earth orbit communication satellites. Targeted Improvements: Increase the pressure (minimum 310 bar) of composite overwrapped pressure vessels while ensuring fully demisability at the end of t…

The objective of the activity is to develop a solution to provide direct satellite to vehicle multicasting services for video and data distribution in frequencies below 6 GHz and based on open standards. The solution will be verified by a test bed that will implement key ground segment components including a prototype receiver. The test bed will be developed as part of the activityTargeted Improvements: Increasing the number of concurrent deli…

The objective of the activity is to design and test a Xenon-fed, high power, high pressure resistojet capable of producing high specific impulse and high thrust (e.g. up to or above 2 N and 100 s at 186 bar). High specific impulse will decrease the propellant consumption and high thrust will allow low perigee and rate damping manoeuvres for large full-electric GEO satellites.Targeted Improvements:- Increase thrust by >10 times (versus Xenon…

The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a compact VHF/UHF high power filter for small satellites using advanced manufacturing processes.Targeted Improvements:- 40% reduction in footprint compared to the state of the art- at least 40% loss reduction compared to planar technologies and- up to 30 W RF power handlingDescription: Small satellites (mass less than 250kg) operating in lower Earth orbit are increasingly used fo…

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

The objective of the activity is to develop and test a software prototype of an autonomous collision avoidance system for ground control centres that guarantees data privacy to satisfy satellite operators data privacy requirements. Targeted Improvements: Reduction of an order of magnitude the manual intervention and risk associated to collision avoidance operations of about 20-30%of a Flight Dynamic Engineer full-time equivalent. Description:…

The objective of the activity is to develop, manufacture and test a low noise slipring breadboard assembly for solar array drive mechanisms. Targeted Improvements: Reduction of the slipring noise by at least 3 orders of magnitude with respect to the worst measured noise on current slipring technology. Description: A slipring of a solar array drive mechanism is an electrically conductive rotating track transferring low level signals and high cu…

The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test low phase noise millimetre-wave VCOs based on a photonic integrated circuit for Q/V/W-band local oscillators. Targeted Improvements:- Improvement of 10 to 20 dB on phase noise performance as compared to state-of-the-art MMIC implementation- Compliance to phase noise requirements for Q/V and future W-band frequency convertersDescription: Very high throughput satellites call for th…

The objective of the activity is to design, develop, and test an on-board Autonomous Collision Avoidance Detection (OCAD) system for satellites.Targeted Improvements:Enabling a ground-independent, on-board collision avoidance detection system.Description: The large number of commercial and institutional satellites is posing a serious risk of accidental collisions, which at present is mitigated by time-consuming collision avoidance procedures b…

The objective of the activity is to develop and test uplink and downlink air interfaces for the feeder link of regenerative multi-gigabit throughput satellite systems. Geostationary and non-geostationary systems will be considered. Goal is to reduce the number ofrequired gateways by maximising the feeder link s spectral efficiency while minimising the impact on payload resources and implementation complexity. The air interfaces will be impleme…

Objective: The objective of this activity is to develop, manufacture and test a scaled engineering model of dual-redundant broadband low noise amplifier module for V-band inter-satellite links, operating over the full 59 -71 GHz band and targeting a state-of-the-art noise figure of less than 3 dB. Targeted Improvements:- Increased bandwidth by 20%.- Low noise figure below 3 dB over 20% bandwidth.Description: V-band inter-satellite links (ISL)…

The objective of this activity is to design a TV, radio and data distribution network via satellite using DVB Native IP. An end-to-end (source to consumer) test-bed will be developed to adopt the standard for satellite and produce implementation guidelines for DVB Native IP over satellite. Verification activities will include content delivery and content security, as the specification becomes available from DVB. Targeted Improvements:Enable th…