Projects

The Ka band high performance reflectors activity was aimed to provide evolution from the standard C / Ku reflectors to Ka band ones in order to implement them on the first commercial Ka Mission awarded to CASA, Eutelsat: Ka Sat Satellite.

This project addresses medium port count (50x50) OXC for satellite based telecom applications. The task was to develop a fully reconfigurable low drift switch without feedback loop at the demonstrator level.

The project covers the transfer of a new 30%-class triple junction solar cell from development status to production technology. AZUR SPACE evaluates and optimizes all solar cell materials, processes and equipment with regard to cost savings, simultaneously improving performance, quality and reproducibility.

This project encompasses the design, development and qualification of the third generation of the Thales Alenia Space ETCA´s Electronic Power Conditioner dedicated to supply and control the Traveling Wave Tube that constitutes the Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier for Repeaters involved in large quantity in the Telecommunication Payloads.

SIECAMS Wide Bandwidth Digital Signal Processing is planned to be a high-bandwidth, low cost signal analyzer front-end for the monitoring system SIECAMS which is used for analyzing and monitoring traffic transmitted via communication satellites.

This project studied the technological solutions available in the market for the potential implementation of a contact-less angular sensor for European telecommunication satellites applications. It identified the past problems with rotary sensors, the desired industry specifications and the expected market for the close to medium future.

Thales Alenia Space and its partners have designed, manufactured and tested a 1.3 m reflectarray antenna that produces a dual polarised contoured beam in Ku band.

The EPCOMSIM study was carried out to quantitatively assess the impact of plasma plumes generated by common ion thrusters (SPT-100, PPS-1350, HEMP-T) on the RF comlink of a geostationary telecommunications satellite.

This project aims at the development of a on-board tunable channel filter in Ku-Band, which is the first step for the development of such reconfigurable IMUX devices.

The subject of this contract was the improvement of the Mechanical Platform product for the Astrium telecommunication satellite product, Eurostar 3000.

The project aims at improving the overall pointing performance and robustness with respect to uncertainties of large telecom platforms with highly flexible appendages and demanding pointing payloads.

Altobridge´s 3G lite-site (DATE) solution offers bandwidth hungry 3G services to remote communities. The current 2.5G altoPod provides 2TRX capacity which is capable of voice and GPRS/EDGE. The 3G lite-site is a natural evolution of the solution into 3G technology.

The Payload Control System in the Ground Segment is the necessary other half of the Satellite system to be able to fully control the Next Generation Integrated Processors as fitted to Alphasat and for future spacecraft.

The objective of the study has been to brainstorm potential communication satellite standardized modules and to derive a solution which allows to save manpower and costs for non-recurring and recurring satellite design. It also aimed to shorten the AIT process, giving an estimation of the relative high non-recurring costs for the design and prototyping of the standardised modules.

The objective of the ESA MENOS project was to develop a coherent end-to-end IP network for multimedia exchange over satellite.

The VGSE is a generic flexible wide-band waveform and traffic generator/analyser for end-to-end system validation and optimisation. The VGSE supports CW, modulated only and DVBS2/RCS(2) carriers for a bandwidths of up to 500MHz.

The objective of this contract was to study the possible improvements in
terms of materials, mass, cost and voltage required for the future
development of the next generation of the high voltage modules of the EPC.

The Activity aimed at demonstrating the feasibility and assessing the performance of on-board calibration sub-systems for advanced Ku-band and Ka-band communication payload architectures using active/semi-active antennas and/or Multi Port Amplifiers.

This project aims to develop a new technology that allows non-technical personnel create, deploy, browse and download applications for interactive TVs or regular TVs connected to set-top boxes.

The AOCS Mk1.5 Evolution is the first step of Eurostar 3000 design to a full-STR AOCS.

The project is to develop two large variants of the mechanical platform of the EADS Astrium Eurostar 3000 telecommunications spacecraft, designated as E3000LX and E3000L.

The project will investigate the feasibility of designing and manufacturing a combined Ku/Ka-Band maritime VSAT antenna.

Typically Commercial Communication Satellites (COMSATCOM) are not protected against unintentional and intentional (jamming) interferences. Also with the development of new services and applications (in the commercial but also institutional and governmental domain) it is of essence to continue to guarantee a high level Quality-of-Service (QoS) to the customers.

The project aims to develop a stand-alone Down-Converter dedicated to new RF spectrum allocation for Broadcasting Space Systems in 25 and 17 GHz in order to present competitive products in this emerging market.

The objective of the study was to develop and qualify a dual LDLA

The objective of the study was to develop and qualify a CMUX stacked solution with a significant saving on footprint.

The objective of the study was to develop several Land Mobile Satellite channel propagation models which can cover land-mobile satellite, aeronautical and maritime environments, and which are intended to be used for system design and/or air-interface performance optimisation for frequencies below 10 GHz.

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The Feasibility Study addresses an innovative approach to providing an end to end service management capability at low cost (as compared to existing systems of today) for a hybrid terrestrial-space communications scenario.

The purpose of this project was to develop a new generation of a compact GPS receiver family
(dual or single frequency) able to deal with new civil L2CS GPS signal.

The continuing push to higher TWTA power levels and EPC voltages, respectively in combination with higher efficiency and lower mass and volume is currently limited by known insulation technology.

The objective of this ARTES3-4 project is to design, manufacture and qualify an Engineering Qualification Model of a full carbon reflector of 2.05m diameter and an Engineering Model of a high efficiency feed.

Iris is the programme to develop a new Air-Ground communication system for Air Traffic Management as the satellite-based communication solution for the SESAR programme. Phase 1 is completed. Phase 2 (2.1 during 2009-17 and 2.2 during 2014-2017), includes the present study and concerns the design and development of the new satellite communication standard. Approval of Iris Phase 2.2 is conditional to the Agency having negotiated an agreement with a satellite operator and/or a satellite service provider for provision of the safety communication service to aviation. This study is an enabler for such negotiations to be initiated.

The RF Converters market has recently significantly evolved: new programs show a great step in terms of linearity performances which induce higher heat dissipation. Requests for proposal (RFP) and programs have convinced THALES ALENIA SPACE to analyze the feasibility of "Thermal Enhancement".

The aim of this activity is to develop inkjet-printed circuit board (iPCB) technology.

The study is carrying out a survey of the Satellite Communication Ground Segment Industry including its market characteristics and value chains and looking in particular at the European and Canadian industry players, their competitive position and the issues affecting this.

The Beacon programme covers the design, development and qualification of two beacon products, one operating at C band frequencies and the other at Ku band frequencies.

The dual beacon programme covers the design, development and qualification of a switchable dual frequency beacon product, following up on the previous development of single frequency beacons.

The NXY project was supported by ESA and undertaken by Avanti Communications to implement a content distribution solution over the satellite to end users using multicasting in order to lower the total bandwidth consumption from the operator´s perspective as well as give users the chance to consume VOD / IPTV kind of services without increasing the user´s bandwidth consumption.

NetCaster will provide a solution for customers looking for multi-party conferencing over the Alphasat and Inmarat-4 satellites with low capital investment and control over operational costs.