The consortium proposes an innovative activity to develop, build and test to TRL5 the first European Plug and Play Gridded Ion Engine Standardised Electric Propulsion Platform (GIESEPP) to operate Airbus Safran Launchers and QinetiQ Space ion engines. These are the only European ion engines in the 200-700W (LEO) and 5kW (GEO) domains that are space-proven, and the consortium’s intention will be to improve European competitiveness and to maintain and secure the European non-dependence in this field. The project will design and develop a standardised electric propulsion platform for 200-700W and 5kW applications, which has the capability to run either Airbus Safran Launchers or QinetiQ thrusters. In addition, the 5kW electric propulsion system will be designed to allow clustering for 20kW EPS for space transportation, exploration and interplanetary missions. In order to cope with challenging mission scenarios, Dual Mode functionality of the thrusters will be realised. This ensures that the beneficial high Isp characteristics of Gridded Ion Engines are maintained, whilst also offering a competitive higher thrust mode. The GIESEPP systems will not be limited to xenon as an operating medium; assessments will be performed to ensure functionality with alternative propellants. The approach to system standardisation and the resulting solutions will provide highly cost competitive and innovative EPS for current and future satellite markets, whilst meeting the cost efficiency requirements. The proposal will describe the roadmap to higher TRL by 2023-2024, providing a cost competitive EPS. Finally, the proposal will address efficient exploitation of the results, demonstrating how the activity will positively increase the impact and prospects for European Ion Engines and the European Electric Propulsion System community.

SALSA is an exploratory research project relating to multi-source ADS-B system. A multi-source ADS-B system that combines the benefit of all possible type of relays (space, maritime, air or ground based) of ADS-B messages could provide a global surveillance system to overcome the prevailing continuous surveillance constraints in the non-radar airspace (NRA). By bringing Space based ADS-B with other sources of surveillance based on ground, air and oceanic relays, a system of system architecture is conceived; upon its benefits, new separation standards are validated through analysis using theoretical modelling for separation standard and airspace capacity, in the context of NRA. Reduction in separation minimum and in the number of standards will bring significant benefits to ATC/ATM operations with improved aircraft surveillance and airspace management. These two aspects, namely, a system-of-system concept for multi-source ADS-B architecture and analytical modelling for enhanced separation minima and airspace capacity in the context of NRA define the scope of SALSA. The analysis will also consider different scenarios of separation minima Vs. ADS-B message update rate. The study will assess the impact of performance of such a system of systems approach in the context of separation standards; it will provide an assessment of the procedural impact and impact to flight safety due to the revised minima and the system configuration. A set of recommendations to SESAR JU and other stake-holders and industry partners will be provided in order to purse the outcome of the study towards higher technology readiness level (TRL) and eventual implementation.

Today, the amount of telemetry data from the sensors in the upper stages of a launch vehicle is very restricted, due to limited on-board-computing capacities combined with limited data bandwidth to ground. As a result, no detailed information about the various phases of the flight is available. Massively extended Modular Monitoring for Upper Stages (MaMMoTH-Up) will improve the amount of monitored data by a factor of more than 2500 by integrating four key objectives, which are 1. a self-configuring monitoring framework that will selectively observe, pre-process, and compress sensor data, 2. Components off the Shelf (COTS) that provide improved computing performance on a launcher, 3. design solutions guaranteeing the required levels of dependability, even when using relatively unreliable COTS components, and 4. a tight coupling with advanced dependability analysis. Achieving these 4 goals is scientifically and practically highly relevant. A demonstrator at TRL 6 will show the advantages of the new monitoring infrastructure and a virtual prototype proves the advanced dependability enhancements. Thus, MaMMoTH-Up will provide a framework and a proof-of-concept for next-generation avionics solutions for a launcher based on COTS. Moreover, the work plan provides the path to realization, potentially including a demo-flight at the end of the project. The proposed technology is complementary with on-going launcher developments. The usage of COTS will represent a direct advantage over competitors; this will decrease time-to-market and decrease the European dependence on external suppliers. MaMMoTH-Up directly addresses the call COMPET-2-2014 by providing an innovative avionics solution for safer and more reliable launch operations for conventional launching systems. The solution developed within MaMMoTH-Up strengthens competitiveness and cost-efficiency having an immediate commercial potential.

HEMPT-NG addresses the topic COMPET-3-2016-a on Incremental Technologies part of the SRC electrical propulsion in line with the EPIC roadmap “to increase the competitiveness of EP systems developed in Europe” by developing an integrated solution based on HEMPT (Highly Efficient Multistage Plasma Thruster) , the fluidic management system, and the power processing unit. The proposed development will raise the performance of all components beyond current state-of-the-art. The results will offer an ideal EPS system for LEO application up to 700 W and for Telecom/Navigation application up 5 kW. The HEMPT technology offers unique innovative features compared to other EP technologies and makes HEMP a key candidate to overcome all the currently identified deficiencies: 1. No discharge channel erosion leading to higher lifetimes of the thruster, 2. Acceleration voltages enabling a high specific Impulse (ISP) leading to a drastic reduction of propellant consumption, 3. Unique large range of thrust offer enormous flexibility, 4. Minimal complexity of concept providing an excellent basis for economic competitiveness. The HEMPT-NG consortium is led by TES (Thales Electronic System GmbH), subsidiary of the Thales Group, worldwide leader in the development and production of space products, responsible for thruster equipment and integrated EPS. European industrial partners are: Thales, OHB, Airbus and Aerospazio, who bring their expertise in spacecraft mission studies, equipment development and testing capacities. The University of Greifswald will provide plasma simulation to support the thrusters developed. These eight partners in five European member-states (Germany, France, UK, Belgium, Italy) will develop an economical and well-performing HEMPT LEO and GEO EPS to guarantee European leadership and competitiveness, as well as the non-dependence of European capabilities in electric propulsion. This proposal falls under the CONFIDENTIALITY rules described in Section 5.

VEGAS proposes to address the key challenge of European non-dependence and competitivness regarding rad-hard FPGA for space applications. VEGAS will evaluate (following ESCC rules) and validate the first rad-hard FPGA in 65nm to directly compete with the US offering and reach TRL 7. The VEGAS project sets clear and measurable main objectives to reach a TRL 7 from TRL 5 (end of BRAVE project) as follows: 1. Validation by end users of rad-hard FPGA developped under the BRAVE project – TRL 6 achieved 2. Space evaluation of the first rad-hard FPGA developped under the BRAVE project – TRL 7 achieved 3. Software CAD tools improvement by including timing and SEE mitigation tools VEGAS will complement the ongoing ESA funded BRAVE project. BRAVE covers all hardware and software development to reach a first prototype of NG-FPGA-MEDIUM (30k LUTs) and NG-FPGA-LARGE (130k LUTs) . VEGAS will cover all required steps to ESCC evaluate / validate the BRAVE NG-FPGA-MEDIUM and NG-FPGA-LARGE prototype and add additional software tools to reach a competitive software offering.