The objective of the activity is to develop and test a multifunctional hinge technology to accommodate a large multi panel active antenna array on a spacecraft platform, with integrated sensing to avoid adverse local deflections due to spacecraft dynamics.Targeted Improvements:Enabling technology for very large active antennas with disperse panels to be accommodated on a spacecraft platformfor future 5G/6G (direct to handheld) satellitesDescri…

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…

Objective: The objective of the activity is to develop and test a system simulator testbed capable of modelling and assessing the performance of communication satellite constellations operating in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO). This includes the assessment of the emerging waveforms (5G NTN, European Protected Waveform).Targeted Improvements: Enable the design and assess the constellation system performance of communication satellites operating i…

The objective of the activity is to study and define a technical and deployment roadmap for edge-computing-enabled Beyond 5G (B5G) and 6G space infrastructure. Use cases of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) edge computing will be selected and a corresponding demonstrator will be breadboarded and tested.Targeted Improvements: Enabling edge-computing-capable space infrastructure.Description:The Beyond 5G (B5G)/towards 6G roadmap is rapidly evolving…

The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test a W-band/E-band phased array antenna including the passive RF front-end taking advantage of additive and hybrid manufacturing techniques in order to reduce its complexity and mass compared to conventional subtractive techniquesTargeted Improvements: 30% mass reduction, removing screws and assembly interfaces.Description: With the multiplication of broadband communication satelli…

The objective is to develop and test a Ku or Ka band transparent phased array antenna to provide broadband connectivity on board cars. Targeted Improvements: Develop a new class of phased array antennas for cars able to guarantee a seamless broadband connectivitywith LEO satellites. Description: There is today a significant interest to provide broadband connectivity to cars. This request is associated to the need to guarantee emergency service…

The objective of the activity is to develop a breadboard of a flexible pivot a with large range of rotation angle (goal90 degrees),which features a hollow inner shaft to route an optical beam for optical communications or cables/waveguide in other applications.Targeted Improvements:One order of magnitude improvement in operating lifetime of coarse pointing mechanisms in optical communication terminals compared to ball bearing mechanisms, and a…

Objective: The objective is to develop a high-power and high-efficient optical booster amplifier, compatible with WDM operation at 1064nm wavelength range. Two versions, with different output optical power and wall-plug efficiency requirements, are to be developed to address operation under space and ground environmental conditions. Targeted Improvements:Strategic component not available inESA's Member States nor in Cooperating/Associated…

The objective of the activity is to de-risk software mitigation techniques for radiation effects on a family of high-performance processors embedded in System on Chip (SoC) components. The activity will identify, on one or more processors of interest for the industry, radiation-induced failure modes and will implement appropriate software mitigation techniques with reuse or development of small FPGA IPs if needed. Targeted Improvements: Enable…

The objective of the activity is to develop and test a reprogrammable testbed in space to permit the experimentation of Beyond 5G (B5G) satellite features and capabilities and enable technology verification and demonstration; rapid validation of end-to-end solutions and services, following the principles of continuous development/continuous integration. B5G satellitefeatures will be implemented in the testbed as part of the activity to demonst…

The objective of the activity is to select an off the shelf European slipring technology for terrestrial applications and demonstrate its suitability for Satcom applicationTargeted Improvements: Improving by 20% of power density, lifetime, mass, volume, and lead time.Description: Solar Array Drive Mechanism (SADM) require complex slip-ring technology often leading to long delivery times. However, slipring technologies for terrestrial applicati…

The objective of the activity is to design, manufacture and test a thruster switching unit facilitating the connection of multiple electric propulsion thrusters to one or more power processing units for redundancy or configuration purposes optimising the system architecture.Targeted Improvements: - Improved efficiency (10% increase with respect to solid state solution).- Increased reliability with respect to a relay-based solution.- Reduced le…

The objectives of this activity are to design, develop and test techniques enabling integration of existing and new VPN solutions suitable for space networks (LEO constellation, MEO constellation or GEO) for the purpose of comparison, performance evaluation and optimisation, while maintaining compatibility with terrestrial networks.

Objective:The objective of the activity is to develop and qualify a faint pulse laser source for space-based quantum key distribution systems.Targeted Improvements:Increase the technical readiness level of faint pulse laser sources suitable for quantum key distribution applications from 5 to 7. Description:Quantum key distribution systems using protocols based on faint laser pulses require a photon source emitting less than one photon per puls…

The objective of the activity is to develop an elegant breadboard of a high-power optical amplifier operating in L-band.TargetedImprovements:Enable access to spectrum in the optical transmission window(s) beyond the conventional C-band.Description:To date amplifiers in the optical L-band generate relatively low output power, which reduces their usefulness for high bandwidth data transmission. The activity will develop technologies to enhance t…

The objective of the activity is to characterise narrow attenuation lines (due to absorption or scattering) in the optical C-band (and ideally L-band) and to evaluate their effect on the communication performance of terabit-per-second feeder links. The activity will develop a testbed to perform measurements and to compare them against existing models. Targeted Improvements: 100% reliability improvement of terabit per second optical communicati…

Objective:The objective of the activity is to develop a space-based point to multipoint optical terminal.Targeted Improvements:The MOHU would reduce the number of required Optical Head Units by a factor greater than 2. The MOHU should target a mass and sizeless than x1.5 the mass and size of the combined individual Optical Head Units.Description:Today the implementation of simultaneous optical space to ground links (Optical Feeder Links) requi…

The objective of this activity is to identify+ develop and test Software Defined Networking (SDN) based solutions for 5G Core Network (CN)+ capable of addressing efficiently and effectively Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) attacks against 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks. This activity will develop a testbed of SDN implementation for 5G CN to test protection mechanisms against various attack scenarios for relevant 5G NTN use cases+ and study t…

The objective of this activity is to develop an optical ground station network testbed to which parties can connect their ground station and prototype network-related aspects for optical and quantum communications in an operational network environment. Targeted Improvements:Reduction of manual link planning and analysis effort. Testing and simulation capabilities for optical end-to-end data delivery. Description:The objective of this activity…

The objective of this activity is to design, develop and perform an in-orbit experiment of high-performance data transport, switching and processing technologies consisting of several key building blocks like processors, mass memory, switches and optical interconnects, allowing a data throughput of up to 10 Terabit per second to enable future high performance telecommunication applications. Targeted Improvements: Improvement by a factor of two…

The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test an engineering model of a beam forming network chip to support direct radiating array antennas in W-band for future receive chain feeder links in ultra-high throughput satellite telecommunication payloads.Targeted Improvements: Enabling technology for reconfigurable antennas in W-band for ultra-high-throughput satellite feederlinks (at least 1 Tbit/s throughput) not existing tod…

The objective of this activity is to design and develop a simulation testbed for secure delivery of assistance data with5G satellite networks to enhance positioning.Targeted Improvements:Foster the use of 5G satellite networks to enhance positioning with ubiquitous, reliable, and secure delivery of assistance data. Enable secure time and frequency synchronisation in existing or future telecommunication infrastructure.Description:Various positi…

The objective of this activity is to design+ implement+ and validate a zero-trust architecture for a Low Earth Orbit regenerative 5G gNodeB+ that mitigates the security risks specific to 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks.

The objective of the activity is to develop and test a configurable execution environment for an intelligent platform data handlingsystemTargeted Improvements:- 30% improvement of the performance of autonomous applications.- 50% reduction of the applicationsoftware integration and validation efforts.Description: The increase of processing power onboard spacecrafts will allow the implementation of intelligent functionalities such as early fail…

The objective of the activity is to develop and test coupons to pave the way for high-power, high-voltage solar arrays (e.g., 300 Vplus) feeding directly electric propulsion systems. Targeted Improvements:- Increased solar array output voltage from 100V to at least 300V for high power solar arrays.- Enabling direct feed of solar array power to electrical propulsion systems. Description: Inorder to feed power generated by solar arrays directly…