Preparing demonstration missions for collaborative Earth Observation and Satellite telecommunication for Space solutions (Space Partnership)

Expected Outcome:

The topic encompasses actions within the scope of the co-programmed European Partnership on Globally Competitive Space Systems (‘Space Partnership’) in the areas of satellite communication (SatCom), Earth Observation (EO) and New Commercial Space Transportation Solutions and is part of cohesive activities in the domain of digital developments under the grand heading of “digitalisation for commercial space solutions”.

Digitalisation is a major enabler for enhancing the value of an End-to-End EO and SatCom system. Under the area of Using Space on Earth related to SatCom and EO, below this topic focusses on the Mid to High TRL level developments of key technologies[1] required to strengthen competitiveness in these domains, contributing to the preparation of EO and SatCom demonstration missions.

Projects are expected to contribute to one or several of the following outcomes:

• Favouring a competitive and sustainable European Space Sector;

• Enable the European Space Industry to maintain a significant share of the global connectivity market;

• Advanced Earth observation and SatCom payloads, technologies and processing means (on ground and in space);

• Advanced EO and SatCom fostering AI across space system;

• Enhanced security of SatCom and EO services, supporting advanced technologies for both ground and space commercial applications;

• End-to-end demonstrator for collaborative Earth Observation and Satellite telecommunication for Space solutions.

This will contribute to developing, deploying global, more flexible and reactive space-based services applications, to contribute to fostering the EU's space sector competitiveness, as stated in the expected impact of this destination.

Scope:

The areas of R&I, which needs to be addressed to tackle the above-mentioned expected outcomes are:

• R&I on End-to-End SatCom Mission capabilities, secure satcom services and satellites as network nodes, and digital on-ground infrastructure to test and enhance operational efficiency;

• R&I on Earth Observation equipment, subsystems, applications and services, improving data processing for performance or timeliness, smart multi-sources EO data fusion, fostering interoperability among EO missions, miniaturisation of instrument designs and EO ground segment interfaces, digitalised technology steps such as high-performance cloud-based architectures and active and adaptative optics and/or higher-power electronics;

• R&I on building blocks and processes common to EO and SatCom systems, such as on-board processing capabilities, maturing high performance processing payload H/W to support space network capabilities and reducing environmental impact of future missions, maturation of technologies and products improving system security and threats identification, characterization and possible mitigation and RF and optical hybrid ground stations for anchoring services.

Proposals may contribute to one or more of the above R&I areas, however the main area addressed are expected to be clearly and unambiguously identified in the proposal text. To ensure a balanced portfolio covering the three areas described above, grants will be awarded to applications not only in order of ranking but at least also to one proposal that is the highest ranked within each area, provided that the applications attain all thresholds. For the purposes of the ranking the main area declared by the proposal will be considered.

Proposals are expected to promote cooperation between different actors (industry, SMEs, research institutions and infrastructures and academia) and consider opportunities to quickly turn technological innovation into commercial use in space via e.g., on-ground relevant environment or in orbit demonstration.

It is expected that projects make use of existing EU technologies and/or building blocks, including at component level, contributing to EU non-dependence and strengthen competitiveness, and this should be clearly presented in the proposal. Furthermore, proposed activities should be complementary to H2020 and Horizon Europe funded projects, national activities and activities funded by the European Space Agency (ESA).

This topic contributes to the implementation of the European Partnership on ‘Globally Competitive Space Systems’ (GCSS). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on results to the European Partnership ‘Globally Competitive Space Systems’ (GCSS) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs.

In this topic, the integration of the gender dimension (sex and gender analysis) in research and innovation content should be addressed only if relevant in relation to the objectives of the research effort.

Technology Readiness Level - Technology readiness level expected from completed projects

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 7-8 by the end of the project. The reference TRL definition is the ISO 16290:2013 applicable to the space sector.

[1] Identified in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) of the co-Programmed European Partnership on Globally Competitive Space Systems (https://www.space-aisbl.org/sria/)