In recent years, advances in Internet-of-Things (IoT) makes it easy to apply sensors at distributed applications like smart farming. However, scaling to large areas is possible but cumbersome. Another possibility is to acquire earth observation (EO) data from satellites which scales easily for large areas and even global wide monitoring. However, satellite data is not available continuously for a certain place and specific data is not available in case of clouds.

Liquid metal ion thrusters (LMITs) are a type of electric propulsion system used for spacecraft. They work by ionizing and accelerating metal ions to generate thrust. The metal is typically either gallium or indium, which is heated into a liquid state and fed to the emitter. When a strong electric field is applied between the emitter and an extractor electrode, it pulls positively charged ions from the liquid metal surface at the tip of the needles. These ions are then accelerated by the electric field to extremely high velocities.

Aerobraking phase of ENVISION is critical in terms of duration and required operations. One limitation during aerobraking is the temperature reached on Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) due to the aerothermal heat flux.MLIs can withstand during short durations (intermittent exposure) higher temperatures than their steady state qualification temperature.

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).

The development of space suits has been a critical aspect of human space exploration since the early days of the space race. These suits provide a breathable environment for astronauts and protect them from the harsh conditions of space. However, a major challenge associated with space suits is the growth and spread of bacteria in the suits, which can cause infections and pose a threat to the health of the astronauts. To address this challenge, the Bacterma project was initiated with the aim of developing a textile that is resistant to bacterial growth and spread.

Spacecraft potentials in the outer Earth magnetosphere may reach a few tens of volts positive and therefore severely perturb plasma particle and electric field measurements. Therefore, magnetospheric missions from ESA such as Cluster, but also from international partners such as Double Stars and MMS have relied on an ion emitting instrument, ASPOC (Active Spacecraft Potential Control), developed by IWF in Austria for lowering the positive potential down to a few Volts positive.