For imaging in the thermal infrared spectrum, microbolometer detectors offer an opportunity for cheaper space missions, because of their low size and power consumption and because they don’t require special cooling. They offer the possibility of a constellation of cubesats, for earth observation. The major conclusion of the project is that the microbolometer technology can be suitable for space flight. Based on tests performed in other projects, no show stoppers were identified. A breadboard was built to test and quantify performance.

The emergence of the classical world from quantum theory, and especially of a consensus among different observers, is a long-standing problem for the foundations of quantum theory. Using recent advances in multipartite quantum information theory, we shed light on these problems. Besides their interest for fundamental physics, they are related to quantum sensing and metrology using a quantum-network of stations, a situation of interest for the potential use of quantum-based measurement probes for exploring space and the Universe.

The activity aims to develop techniques (e.g. high sensitivity algorithms, data wipe off for Galileo, optimal data plus pilot combinations etc.) in order to enhance the capability of mass market receivers taking into account their typical resources constraints (limited power, memory, open loop platform etc...). The activity shall investigate the application of these techniques for phase and code tracking down to the detailed design of the techniques for different type of usage and in different type of environment.

An activity with GSTP Element 1 and Greece has developed a generic alarm management system. Currently, spacecraft operation teams are usually notified of non-nominal conditions when specific system parameters exceed preset threshold values, alerts that do not offer operators a deeper insight into a system’s condition. The Advanced Alarm Management System will: Enhance alarm generation and notification system through advanced processing of the data using industrial grade Complex Event Processing (CEP) technologies.

Open GNSS signal authentication is one of the main future challenges that the GNSS community will have to face in order to support safety critical applications. One of the major evolutions proposed for the Satellite Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS) systems is to provide authentication services to their users. This evolution is still under debate in international fora, therefore this activity proposes to investigate the issue starting from the consolidation of the spoofing scenarios and the potential anti-spoofing techniques that can be integrated in an airborne navigation system.

Increasingly demanding space-based applications require a large primary mirror diameter, on which the optical instrument resolution depends. However, the mass and volume of a monolithic primary mirror would dramatically increase along with its size, which, in addition to cost and technical issues, is also limited by the available volumen in the launch vehicle fairing.