Advanced III-V technologies, especially wide-bandgap GaN, are the engines powering the rapid deployment of various SATCOM multi-beam active antenna arrays in space today. Although power levels per element in the recent Direct Radiating Arrays (DRAs) are typically in the order of few watts (e.g. for GEO with HPA MMICs 2-15W), already now it is apparent that larger deployable active antennas with hundred or even thousand elements will yield much lower power per radiating element with DRA.

The development of efficient catalysts which utilise solar energy to convert CO2 to produce value-added chemicals or fuels is extremely appealing since it can simultaneously reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and provide energy storage solutions, with direct applications in both terrestrial and non-terrestrial environments. In recent years, novel solid catalysts such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have demonstrated great potential in energy conversion systems.

The idea concerns a new photo-bioreactor that contains bacteria immobilized on solid substrate. Some red bacteria, like Rhodopseudomonas palustris, are able to produce gaseous hydrogen from water using only light as energy source through the so-called anaerobic photosynthesis. Moreover, these bacteria degrade organic contaminants contained in the water to carbonic acid and hydrogen photo-evolution. CO2 can be recovered from the water and eventually sent with Hydrogen to biomethane production by Sabatier reactor.

Silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics show excellent mechanical and thermal properties, combined

TASTE is ESA’s established toolchain targeting heterogeneous systems implementing a model-based system/software engineering approach. At its core, it utilizes AADL and ASN.1 models for architecture and data description respectively. System behaviour can be described via various methods, including, but not limited to, SDL, Simulink models, C or Ada. TASTE can be used both for system design, analysis, simulation and actual implementation targeting embedded devices.

The purpose of the project COLA (Coincident Lasersheet Particle Monitor) was to perform a feasibility study for an in-situ lasersheet particles/debris detection system enabling the detection and identification of small sized space debris/meteoroids currently not detectable from ground and that can nonetheless present important hazards for space missions. The detection system must be able to determine and reconstruct particle shapes and trajectories for sizes and velocities ranging from 1 mm to 10 mm and 2 km/s to 20 km/s, respectively.

The project explores how to adapt Lithography Metal Manufacturing (LMM) to process scrap metal with lunar regolith contamination in a lunar environment, in view of the permanent and sustainable presence of a human outpost on the Moon with a reduced logistic demand, consequently released from onerous and not always timely terrestrial supplies.

Bio-Regenerative Life Support Systems (BRLSS) based on microbial conversion of organic matter followed by photosynthesis are foreseen as important technologies to produce food, oxygen and pure water during long-term human space missions. Previous scientific investigations towards plants in BRLSS have ranged from fundamental plant physiology under fractional gravity conditions to applied edible crop cultivation in Earth analogue constructions, including various techno-biological aspects such as illumination alternatives, nutrient delivery strategies and cultivation strategies.

Microprocessors (uPs) are the backbone of digital electronic systems commonly present in spacecraft. 

A number of European Space Agency's (ESA) initiatives planned for the current decade require metrology level accuracy antenna measurements at frequencies extending from L-band to as low as 400 MHz. The BIOMASS radar, the Galileo navigation and search and rescue services could be mentioned among others.