Nebula Public Library

The knowledge bank of ESA’s R&D programmes

Format: 2023
Format: 2023
Format: 2023

157 results found
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THz waves are demonstrated as an efficient tool for non-destructive testing (NDT) but remain time-consuming and complex to use, particularly for curved parts. One solution is the multi-beam topology, using Luneburg lenses. However, this solution is generally unpractical above 40 GHz due to significant insertion losses caused by the materials used to produce the required graded-index profile.

France

Discovery

ETD 2020-08-b

Université de Bordeaux

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Several SAR future Earth Observation missions requires large reflector antennas generating highly directive overlapped beams. This has been done so far with high power waveguide Beam Forming Networks including ferrite switches as implemented for Core H2O pre-developments. In this activity, it is proposed to investigate reflector antennas fed by overlapped subarrays. This represents an extremely promising concept for on-board SAR instruments.

Spain

TDE

T107-503EE

AIRBUS DEFENCE AND SPACE S.A.U.

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Image

Optical phase beam steering enables motionless pointing of light. The lack of mechanical moving parts not only reduces overall Mass, Volume, and Power (MVP) to a fraction of conventional solutions, but also reduces the associated risk due to friction fatigue. The applications of this technology both on Earth and in Space are only beginning to be fully understood and realised.

United Kingdom

Discovery

ETD 2020-10

MDA systems

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The use of low microwave frequencies for radars is key.: It enables radar signals from sub-surface sounders to penetrate deep under the Earth surface, it allows minimised temporal decorrelation in Synthetic Aperture Radars observations (e.g L-band SAR) and to generate high quality interferometric products, it opens up the bistatic use of signals of opportunity due to the presence of L-band navigation signals. However these VHF to L-band signals are highly sensitive to the state of the ionosphere which can create strong perturbations, or even block the signal.
 

France

TDE

T107-605EF

ONERA

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In recent years, advances in Internet-of-Things (IoT) makes it easy to apply sensors at distributed applications like smart farming. However, scaling to large areas is possible but cumbersome. Another possibility is to acquire earth observation (EO) data from satellites which scales easily for large areas and even global wide monitoring. However, satellite data is not available continuously for a certain place and specific data is not available in case of clouds.

Austria

Discovery

EISI_I-2021-05296

Linz center for Mechatronics

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Image
Focal plane assemblies for earth observation missions require cooling around 77K to 120K. The cooling is provided by radiators or redounded active coolers (e.g. Stirling or Pulse Tube Coolers). In most cases the component temperature should be stabilized in order to achieve the best performance. In addition, the detectors have to be mechanically decoupled from the rest of the structure and the cooling source to avoid thermo-elastic distortions and disturbances caused by micro vibrations e.g. from active coolers or reaction wheels.

Sweden

GSTP

GT11-017MT

APR TECHNOLOGIES AB

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Image
Gan technology for power applications is becoming mature these days. Gan switches can operate at higher frequencies and with the same level of efficiency as Si ones, with overall mass and volume PCDU benefits.
 

Belgium

TDE

T103-601EP

THALES ALENIA SPACE BELGIUM

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Image
The scenario of satellite-based products is wide and heterogeneous: it includes a large variety of Earth sciences data collected by heritage missions, Earth Explorer and operational missions, as well as future missions. At the same time the scenario of potential users is evolving: multi-disciplinary systems (e.g.

Austria

GSTP

GT11-404EO

SISTEMA GMBH

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Image

The activity followed the development of an innovative hyperspectral imaging system for remote sensing applications in the thermal infrared. The camera is compact, lightweight and robust. The activity covered the development of the three modules of the imager, namely the spectrometer, the telescope and the detector. The consortium designed and manufactured an innovative spectrometer based on Fourier transform spectroscopy, consisting on calomel birefringent crystals, with working range in the thermal infrared.

Italy

Discovery

S 2021-11

CNR

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The proposed activity will focus on the implementation of the company?s compression technology for high-resolution Earth Observation systems. The tight coupling between the physical models of image acquisition and information theory has allowed the company?s technology to achieve outstanding performance in terms of compression ratio, throughput, power consumption and FPGA resource utilization.

Switzerland

GSTP

GT21?103EF

Dotphoton SA

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