Distributed optical fibre sensors (DOFS) are highly suitable for monitoring temperature, vibration and strain using physical principles such as Raman, Rayleigh and Brillouin backscatter. They convert a standard telecom infrastructure to a sensor network providing thousands of virtual sensors per km using the intrinsic light/glass interaction during propagation.

The objectives of the DONE3D activities are the implementation of a novel additive manufacturing supply chain that is based on the through Lithography Metal Manufacturing (LMM) technology, and to assess its applicability to the development of RF components for SatCom and EO applications, such as multi-beam antennas.

The goal of the Powersail project is to demonstrate the potential of amorphous silicon (a-Si) deposited on ultralight space-grade polyimide for solar power satellites (SPS). State of the art solutions are III-V compound semiconductor triple junction-based PV modules, which are 100 times too expensive and one order of magnitude too heavy to build a competitive SPS with terrestrial microwave energy collection infrastructure.

OOne important constraint in the sizing process of an ablative TPS for atmospheric entry vehicles is the temperature limit of the supporting heatshield structure and of the bonding material used to attach the TPS. This temperature limit is typically in the range of 150-180degC. For the CFRP the limiting factor is typically the resin. New resin materials (like cyanate ester or bismaleimide) have commercially become available in recent years and relevant CFRP materials been qualified towards higher temperature limits for other space applications (like solar arrays or antenna reflectors).

The various players in the space sector activities (equipment manufacturers, operators, and space agencies) believe that the future belongs to industrial components. Industrial components (such as Automotive-quality and commercial-quality components) have already been selected and used for launcher-type or short duration satellite missions. Metallographic cross sections made on plastic packages industrial components, in the frame of these programs, revealed delamination between the chip and the encapsulation resin.

Metallic Glasses (MG) are a class of alloys which retain an amorphous structure in the solid state, when cooled from the liquid state. Formation of a fully amorphous structure for large cross sections (up to > 1 cm) is now possible for several alloying systems referred to as Bulk Metallic Glasses (e.g. Fe-base, Ti-base, Al-base, Mg-base, Ca-base, Zr-base).

Metallic Glasses (MG) are a class of alloys which retain an amorphous structure in the solid state, when cooled from the liquid state. Formation of a fully amorphous structure for large cross sections (up to > 1 cm) is now possible for several alloying systems referred to as Bulk Metallic Glasses (e.g. Fe-base, Ti-base, Al-base, Mg-base, Ca-base, Zr-base).