Today, Ge is used as a growth template for III-V based solar cells and also serves as the lowest active junction. While the thickness of the Ge on solar cell level is around 140µm, actually only 10-20µm are really active. Therefore, in order to become thinner and lighter, solar cell manufacturers start to thin down the Ge wafers after cell processing by grinding, etching or lift-off processes (to reduce weight). However, this Ge waste is today not recovered since no economical process exists.

The 'SaaSy ML' project will provide experimenters with on board Machine Learning (ML) functionalities that any app can subscribe to via a Software as a Service (SaaS) app hosted on the Satellite Experimental Processing Platform (SEPP). The ML features provided by the SaaS app will cover both training and prediction operations. The JSAT open-source java library for ML will be re-used thus making accessible over 100 training algorithms onboard a flying mission. Re-using the JSAT library will ensure the development to focus on the idea's novel aspect: a spacecraft SaaS app for in-orbit ML.

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) impact heavily on a wide variety of space applications/services belonging to different areas, such as Telecommunications, Navigation and Earth Observation. Despite the huge number of interfering signal types, a preliminary classification of Interference may be performed according to the nature of interfering sources: - Intentional interferences. The transmitting events are deliberately performed for attacking other systems (e.g., jamming, spoofing, etc.); - Unintentional interferences.

Science missions such as SPICA (with the Safari instrument) and ATHENA (with the X-IFU instrument) require a complex cryogenic chain to ensure thermal bath temperatures in the order of 50 mK at the level of their respective detectors. The last cooling stage in these complex chains includes an Adiabatic Demagnetization Refrigerator (ADR) that takes advantage of the fact that the entropy of paramagnetic materials in a magnetic field is lower than when no field is present.

The D2OPS activity started with the goal of applying MBSE practices to enable digital continuity between design and operations. This study involves the following main activities:

In order to enable lunar exploration in a sustainable manner, it is necessary to develop technologies that allow the use of lunar resources in-situ. Additive manufacturing techniques are being studied for in-situ resources utilization on the Moon (e.g.: solar or laser sintering). The results of these studies, presented samples with low mechanical properties due to the formation of defects and cracks within the final product.

The overall goal of the TRACE project was to build a remote sensing based fully automated system for the detection and tracking of large marine litter and accumulation patches of smaller litter items in order to obtain precise and reliable data on floating macro-litter regarding their quantity, position, accumulation zones, material properties, floating depth, and sources. The tracking mechanism has been implemented by coupling the daily satellite-based detections with an oceanographic forecasting system and by a two-step object matching approach.

Solar panel suppliers are developing a partially automated solar generator assembly process. A GSTP G617-241TA de-risk Activity: "Identification and baseline validation of solar cell test and measurement techniques for highly automated space solar generator manufacturing" was in the process to be completed, where measurement techniques have been identified and initially verified to be suitable to control the quality of the solar generator during automatic manufacturing.

Monitoring areas closer to plastic marine litter sources that can be very well targeted, such as rivers and estuarine systems, has the potential to improve mitigation strategies, since they can be spatially focused and even clean-up activities can be more efficient. Recent studies showed that floating plastics emitted from the coast depict a much greater chance to rapidly return to land with most litter stranding within a short distance of the river mouth.