For planet earth and beyond
Flight passengers will soon be able to connect to their families and colleagues on Earth via low-orbit telecommunications satellites. They will develop in-flight connectivity terminals that will work over OneWeb’s constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites, as well as on geostationary satellite networks. OneWeb currently has 110 satellites in orbit but foresees a constellation of about 650.
A new High Power Solar Array (HPSA) product family with enhanced performances and competitiveness has been developed by Thales Alenia Space, France, under the ARTES Competitiveness & Growth programme. The different solar array configurations fit perfectly with the power range of the new generation of fully electric geostationary satellites.
Josef Aschbacher became the ESA Director General on 1 March 2021.
Born in Austria, Josef Aschbacher studied at the University of Innsbruck, graduating with a Master’s and a Doctoral degree in natural sciences. He became a research scientist at the university’s Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics from 1985 to 1989.
Disruptive services and innovative features of the next generation of secure satellite communications will be analysed following the signing of a new memorandum of understanding. The agreement extends the cooperation between ESA and the European Defence Agency (EDA), an EU body that promotes and facilitates integration between member states within the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy.
Reflector antennas are by far the most used technology for telecom satellite and ground station antennas. TICRA, a leading provider of cutting-edge reflector antenna modelling software based in Copenhagen, has now under the ARTES programme made great strides in antenna design – with a product that dramatically simplifies the whole process.
For the first time ever, a telecommunications satellite has used an iodine propellant to change its orbit around Earth.
The small but potentially disruptive innovation could help to clear the skies of space junk, by enabling tiny satellites to self-destruct cheaply and easily at the end of their missions, by steering themselves into the atmosphere where they would burn up.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are planning a spacewalk to install a high-speed satellite link that will improve their connections with Europe.
The system will enable astronauts to connect at home broadband internet speeds – delivering a whole family’s worth of video streaming for communications and a data pipeline connecting the scientific experiments aboard the Station to researchers in Europe.
In the upcoming Announcement of Opportunity economic operators are invited to propose a Demonstration Project addressing the theme of:
Space for Smart and Uncrewed Shipping: downstream services enabled by 5G and advanced positioning, navigation and timing (PNT)
A centre for innovation that will showcase how space can enable future generations of telecommunications and connected applications is being developed.
The ESA Council appointed Dr Josef Aschbacher as the next Director General of ESA, for a period of four years. He will succeed Prof. Jan Wörner, whose term of office ends on 30 June 2021.