The Objective of this activity is to study the performance and identify potential benefits of installing optical communication infrastructure in Nordic countries.Targeted Improvements: Significant reduction in the required number of optical ground stations in anetwork by adding Nordic locations.Description: Most radio frequency ground stations for data retrieval from satellites in sun-synchronous Earth orbits are located close to the North pol…

The objective of this activity is to develop an integrated structural antenna concept for high aspect ratio satellites. The antenna concept shall be frequency and size scalable. Critical breadboarding shall be carried out to evaluate the concept for mobile satellite communication systems in Low Earth Orbit. Targeted Improvements: Enabling stackable satellites with efficient launch volume occupation with an improvement of 30% in comparison to e…

Objective: The objective of the activity is to study concepts and design technologies for extending/supporting the terrestrial quantum internet developments with space-based connectivity.Targeted Improvements: Enabler for long (100km) quantum internet connections. Fibre losses limit the range of connections to less than 100 km and longer links can only be realised using satellites. Description:1) Reviewing/surveying of applications based on th…

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-secure quantum 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 se…

The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a highly integrated transmit and receive single chip front-end (including LNA, HPA and switch functions) for V-band inter-satellite links employing electronically steerable antennas. Targeted Improvements: Enabling V-band RF inter-satellite links based on active antennas, not existing today in ESA member states. Description:Inter-satellite links (ISL) are being more and more cons…

The objective of the activity is to study, design and develop a cyber testing tool to support a comprehensive analysis of security and privacy risks of satellite communication systems. A testbed comprising computers, custom software in order to probe terminals for vulnerabilities, communication channel emulators, will be developed. Targeted improvements: Enabling data link and physical layer vulnerability testing and training in simulated satc…

The objective of the activity is to develop a propagation model for the Very High Frequency band (VHF) that includes high latitudesand equatorial zones. The model will be able to predict signal impairment caused by various propagation effects. This model will beimplemented in a system and user modelling tool and is intended to be proposed to ITU-R for adoption. Targeted Improvements: Enabling the development of VHF telecommunication missions w…

The objectives of the activity are to perform antenna system trade-offs relevant to the realization and in-orbit assembly of large arrays in Frequency Range 1 (FR1), to identify critical functions and technologies, to provide some demonstration of critical functions and to define a roadmap to make such antenna systems available. Targeted Improvements: Enabling satellite communications for unmodified terrestrial 5G user equipment operating in F…

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-junc…

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 local cars. Cars form ad-hoc local networks connecting an…

The objective of this activity is to form a European consortium and to develop a solar array test approach as needed for the preparation of the ECSS E-20-08 handbook, in the case of a design or process change. The new test approach will be validated by Development Validation Testing (DVT) coupons. Targeted Improvements: Substantial reduction (50%) in the delta-qualification time of solar panels, which deviate slightly from existing qualified d…

The objective of the activity is to study, design, develop and test a scalable and future proof Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) concept for a telecommunications system based on a large constellation including concept of interconnection with other space and terrestrial systems. The PKI shall allow the authentication of users (on ground and in space) by means of asymmetric cryptography (classical and post-quantum) as well as the definition of gr…

Generative Design is an iterative design process that uses optimisation theory and artificial intelligence to explore a range of design solutions based on user-defined criteria. It allows designers to explore a wide range of design options and quickly identify the most promising solutions. This system-level study seeks to identify potential areas of application for generative AI in space subsystems (e.g., antenna design, RF subsystems design,…

The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test a phased array antenna, in Ku- or Ka-band, based on ultra-lightweight, flexible and conformable dielectric substrate materials and printed passive and active RF components. Targeted Improvements:The phased array antenna is expected to be 5-10 times lighter, could be installed on curved surfaces, and guarantee an extended field of view. Description:Traditional arrays are rigid, b…

The objective of the activity is to investigate, develop and test conformal Printed Circuit Board (PCB) technology using a novel approach, such as additive manufacturing to "print" the antenna for the automotive market. Targeted Improvements: Enabling conformal board of patches with distribution feed and integration of amplifiers on the reverse side, able to follow the shape of a car roof. Description: Conventional PCB technology is…

Objective: The objective of the activity is to design and develop compact dielectric filters for C-, Ku or Ka-band applications. This shall include the development of a multiphysics digital twin modelling the manufacturing process of the dielectric resonators in order to maximise the manufacturing yield and reduce the design time. At least three dielectric filter breadboards shall be manufactured, experimentally tested and compared against the…

The objectives of the activity are the design, development and demonstration of secure multicasting, routing and secure group management protocols in satellite constellation networks involving thousands of NonGEO and GEO satellites. Targeted improvements: Increased user traffic plane efficiency (30%) and allow for a more secure user traffic plane. Description: Synchronisation of Content Delivery Network (CDN) edges, data centres, blockchain le…

Objective: The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test the critical Electronic Power Conditioner (EPC) technologies (high voltage and thermal management techniques) to drive 100 W class W-band Travelling Wave Tubes (TWT). An Engineering Model of the high voltage EPC module will be designed and tested in a representative vacuum environment. Targeted Improvements:Enabling W-band EPCs (20 kV voltage class) while maintaining c…

The objective of the activity is to develop and prototype a laser system for Sodium guide stars (an alternative to complex and expensive Raman shifted technologies) using semiconductors (e.g., VECSEL). The prototype laser shall be validated on sky demonstrating alaser guide star of sufficient brightness.Targeted Improvements:50% reduction in cost and complexity of guide star laser systemsDescription:With the growing number of constellations of…

The objective of the activity is to develop software methods to demonstrate the reduction in environmental impact of applying smart manufacturing techniques, in comparison to conventional manufacturing approaches. This will be demonstrated on a primary structural part (e.g. main load bearing panel or central tube) for a typical telecommunication satellite platform.Targeted Improvements:- 30% material usage reduction in comparison to convention…

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…