Projects

TV Beyond 2000 is one of the activities in which ESA has acted in a consultancy capacity to the Vatican Television Centre with the aim of improving their worldwide multimedia service initiatives.

This project by Alcatel Alenia Space aims at developing a wideband highly integrated phase shifter up to an EQM with an EBB of the driver unit. This equipment will be one of the building blocks of next generation of flexible payloads.

Two parallel ESA studies have examined a lower-cost method of providing in-car European-wide satellite radio.

The project objective is to develop a series of booster amplifiers in C- and Ku band and a 10W C band block upconverter designated for the market of VSAT applications such as communication networks, internet services at remote locations, and backbones for rural telephony etc.

Developments in the RF product area provide solutions for outdoor equipment in interactive satellite terminals and increase Alcatel's market share.

The activity consist of a prototype development, technical verification and validation of a satellite-based communication system for managing emergency situations involving the use of earth observation techniques.

The project objective is to support the SatLabs working group recently set up to address the harmonisation of management and control planes of DVB-RCS, including the incorporation of a Connection Control Protocol (C2P).

The scope of the activity is to define the flight Thin Film Solar Cell Demonstration Module and to breadboard critical elements.

The aim of this study is to make an in-depth market, business and technical analysis, identifying and characterizing the most effective and affordable DVB-RCS services in the Latin American region and African continent.

The objectives of @BUS High Performance Constant Conductance Heat Pipe project is to develop, design and test new high performance heat pipes (in the range 500 to 700 Wm) with a limited weight target and constant conductance performances.

The aim of this project is to design, develop, manufacture and test a High performance Loop Heat Pipe for a deployable radiator (in the frame of AlphaBus program) and large power range applications.

The interest in heat pipes as a capillary driven heat transfer device is based on its ability to transport thermal energy at high rates and with small temperature gradients. So the main objective of this project is to develop a European High Temperature Constant Conductance Heat Pipe (HTCCHP) for Alphabus, because the present trend is to increase the operational temperature of dissipating units and consequently, the working temperature range of heat pipe networks.

The present study by Atos Origin has focused on if and how the Software Radio (SR) paradigm
might be envisaged for satellite telecommunications payloads.

This project is aimed at the identification, analysis and optimisation of adaptive Fading Mitigation Techniques (FMT) together with the corresponding protocols, signalling information and formats in order to significantly increase the efficiency of future broadband DVB-RCS based satellite systems.

The objective of the Next Generation Antenna (NGA) programme is to generate a range of advanced antenna solutions which meet the evolving Ku and Ka Band market requirements for increased flexibility and performance whilst also increasing value for money.

A new generation of PCU shall be developed in order to improve its competitiveness in terms of mass, efficiency, power modularity and above all cost.

The scope of this project was to perform a survey of the main companies in competing countries outside Europe carrying out Satellite Communications Systems (SATCOM) technological development.

The study aims at identifying opportunities for European Union satellite operators and service providers in all countries acceding to the European Union in 2004 (Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia). In addition, a Desk Research study of telecomms capabilities of neighbouring countries (Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, FR of Yugoslavia, Romania, Albania, Bulgaria and Turkey) will be carried out.

The survey moves from the identification of the Companies that are active in the Telecommunication Market and, through the characterisation of each Company profile, aims at defining the major areas for a possible co-operation between the Industry of Greece and the Agency.

The project defined the major areas for a possible cooperation between the Portuguese telecommunications industry and the Agency and identified the most appropriate initiatives to be set up by ESA Telecom.

The objective of this project is to conduct a study into the feasibility and viability of including a Short Messaging Service (SMS) within Galileo.

The objective of this study is to identify potential applications and SkyLAN architectures and quantify the predicted technical and financial benefits as compared to the current GEO technology using larger and more complex satellites.

This project is aimed at providing to ESA a comprehensive understanding and perspective on the developing market for multimedia satellite services, within the context of the broader multimedia industry.

The ultimate technical goal is to qualify for 2006 / 2007 a life capable Hall effect thruster with specific impulse higher than 2500 s (50 % higher than the current state of the art) and a power as high as 5 kW (three times more than the current qualified European Hall effect thrusters).

The objective of this activity is to explore the future role of satellites in the context of personal communication beyond the timeframe for communications systems considered implemented in the short to medium term.

This study aims at gaining a good understanding of the likely evolution of satellite broadcasting during the period 2001-2007 in order to adequately plan the required developments for the future generation of broadcasting satellites.

The objective of this study is to improve the knowledge about propagation effects, climatological influence and propagation modelling for Satcom and Satnav systems providing services in tropical and sub-tropical regions.

The Mobile TV S-Band Repeater project aims to develop and qualify S-Band repeaters, ensuring Thales Alenia Space - España's leadership in future S-Band repeaters management opportunities.

The objective of this predevelopment activity for the new large European telecommunication platform is to develop, design, manufacture and test a new generation of deployable radiators with higher thermal performance and lower mass than existing aluminium/honeycomb panels.

SMM proposes the launch of one or more small-class geostationary satellites, featuring Ka-band spot beam payloads, in order to reduce satellite broadband service costs by an order of magnitude and bring them into line with terrestrial offerings.

The objective of this study is to assess the competitive situation between satellite and terrestrial communications networks in the Location Based Services market in the medium term (2005-2010).

The main objective of this study is to provide the European industry with pragmatic information and guidelines for the implementation of DVB-RCS services in two target regions, Latin America and Africa.

The objective of the activity is to develop an Active Pixel Sensor (APS) based star sensor compliant with the Alphabus/Large Platform Development. The pre-development activities are important to reduce the schedule and technical risk of the overall large platform development. The purpose of this activity is to analyse the economic interest, to develop and to test an elegant breadboard of an APS based star sensor.

The main objective of this study is to explore the grounds for the development and operation of a European stratospheric platform based on a sound analysis of possible service areas - mainly in the area of telecommunications, assessment of available and future technologies, to perform a conceptual design for the best suited platform concept answering the needs of future telecommunication markets.

The objective of this study is to assess the feasibility and commercial viability of a scalable approach using smaller satellites for providing satellite communication to new markets, services and applications.

The Project will demonstrate the concepts and schemes proposed for the end to end integrated communications scenarios, with focus on the provisioning of QoS aware communication services across heterogeneous domains.