In this report, we discuss the notion of value creation in space and the way it has been measured in recent years. We expose the limitations of the current framework for measuring the contribution of the public sector by academic literature and the European Space Agency (ESA), and examine the implications in terms of ESA's remits.

Multi-revolution Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) transfer from the low altitude launcher injection orbit to the final operational orbit is seriously considered or already base-lined for telecom (NeoSat, Electra, Alphabus-extension), Navigation (Galileo next generation) and Earth Observation satellites. With SMART-1 significant experience has been gained to carry out these operations by a fully ground-based approach using conventional radiometric measurements. Meanwhile the boundary conditions for such operations have changed considerably. Engine technology and characteristics have evolved.

Earth Orientation Parameters (EOP) are of fundamental importance for all ESA missions. Currently, the EOPs are obtained from an external entity the Earth Orientation and Reference Service (IERS). The goal of this activity is the development of ESA capability for the estimation and prediction of Earth Orientation Parameter in order to become independent of external services. Several aspects related to this subject topic need to be investigated and further developed.

Background and justification:

In this report we document the development and deployment of an individual hopper intended as a precursor survery mission for planetary exploration.

GNSS and other positioning systems are expected to have a very important role in Smart Cities. In this context, the design of the high-level architecture of a testbed to support future applications of GNSS and other positioning systems in Smart Cities is of high interest. The design of this testbed shall consider as baseline the availability of a network of distributed smart sensors, which are remotely accessible and configurable from the cloud, and existing network infrastructures shall be considered.

Spacecraft electrostatic charging in hot plasma environments leads to the risk of damaging electrostatic discharges and is linked to many serious incidents of anomalies and damage to spacecraft electronics. In principle, the charge can be removed by active emitters (guns) but this adds to the system complexity and cost. A GSP study used theory and simulation to explore the possibility of a passive system in which naturally occurring potential differences on the spacecraft can be used to drive an electron emitter, which safely lowers the spacecraft potential.

Project D-COLTS de-risked and progressed the development of laser systems required for strontium-based optical frequency standards to be used in the next generation of global positioning systems (GPS) and for precision metrology such as atom interferometry for gravitational field measurements. The laser systems require an increase in TRL in order to support future missions.