The issue of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) generated by artificial sources is an increasing problem. Areas affected by the radio spectrum pollution include: Earth Observation using passive and active microwave remote sensing, ground based remote sensing of the atmosphere, space based radio experiments and radiostronomical observations.The current level of RFI contamination on ground based and spaceborne passive sensors is already an issue.

More and more applications rely on the Position and Time solution provided by a GNSS equipment to enable services of critical nature.

For the last few decades geometrical ray tracing method has been the backbone of optical simulations for various optical industries including space applications. The industries have implemented innovative methods such as importance sampling for improving straylight analysis and coherent beam propagation for modelling beam diffraction effects. Also the optical ray tracers have implemented file interchanges between optical CAD and mechanical CAD platforms.

SWIR and IR optical lens materials are difficult to machine, since often they are based on micro-crystalline or crystalline substrates which makes them also brittle and difficult to polish. SWIR spectrometer optics for CarbonSat, Sentinel 5 or NISP (Euclid) for instance are highly critical with respect to straylight performance. For mass and volume reasons the optical design of the camera of the spectrometer is based on lenses (Si, ZnSe, ZnS).

Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASVs) are rapidly approaching market-readiness, with numerous partly-autonomous and teleoperated systems either under development or already performing operational demonstrations for applications such as bathymetric surveying (SEA-KIT Maxlimer, Deep BV), maintenance of offshore installations (Thales Halcyon), and commercial shipping (Yara Birkeland, Maersk VISTULA-Class).

Currently, GNSS is the backbone of most Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) solutions, in providing 24/7 continuous, all-weather, global coverage to an unlimited number of receiver-equipped users. There is an increasing dependency on the availability and reliability of GNSS. However, GNSS is widely known to be vulnerable to an evolving range of threats (natural and man-made, unintentional and deliberate).

Successfully mitigating the damage caused by marine litter requires large-scale, accurate mapping of oceanborne plastics across the globe. Quantifying where and how much plastic debris enters the marine environment in a global spatio-temporal sense is critical in formulating solutions to the plastic pollution problem. Satellite-based measurements can help to survey remote, isolated locations in which direct observations are sparse, costly, and difficult.