Future high frequency interferometric antennas (e.g. at Ka band) using large baselines require verification and testing with a very high accuracy, in particular in phase. While such interferometric testing and ground calibration techniques have been successfully performed in the past (i.e.

The growth of the human population, industrialization of developing countries and rising living standards for the population are continuously increasing global energy demand, that in the next 30 years is forecast to double.

Aluminium-based alloys obtained by a rapid solidification process have been successfully used for manufacturing optical mirrors. The maximum size of this type of aluminium mirrors is limited by the size of the billet, i.e. currently considered to be approximately 500 mm with and homogeneous microstructure. Consequently, the current manufacturing processes allow to produce mirrors with an effective area limited to a maximum dimension of 400 mm . The need for larger Aluminium-based mirrors is coming from scientific missions that require a large collecting area.

The Doherty concept has proven to be a very effective technique for designing amplifiers, which maintain a high efficiency over a wide range of operating conditions. This technique is extensively used in terrestrial applications like base stations where power efficiency is getting more and more attention. Power efficiency is also of concern for space and the Doherty concept could certainly help in designing more efficient PAs. Ka-band is now being considered for mobile services that could offer very high capacity as compared to the existing ones at L-band.

Accurate localisation of assets on planetary bodies will be crucial in future exploration missions when it comes to autonomous vehicles navigation and accurate positioning. On Earth, dedicated systems in L-band are typically used for navigation and localisation.