The project aimed to establish a structured approach to an optimised part or component by applying Concurrent Design methods. It intended to incorporate all necessary disciplines and competencies that are required for a potential spacecraft part. Within the activity, advanced manufacturing included various novel techniques, not only additive manufacturing. It means that the Concurrent Design approach was developed for the engineering of units to be built with a broad range of advanced manufacturing technologies.

The contract was part of the broader framework of two ESA-led mission study teams performing parallel and independent activities to establish the mission concept, considering the ISRU payload (Segment 1), the delivery service (lander, Segment 2) and the communication service (Segment 3).

In this context the scope of the OHB Italia contract activities was related to defining the ISRU Payload.

There is an increased attention to safeguarding Earth's orbital environment, as reflected by the number of relevant regulations that are being set forward. ESA has published an update of the Space Debris Mitigation (SDM) Policy for Agency Projects in March 2014. It is expected that in the near future more countries will adopt mandatory SDM requirements. ESA's Clean Space initiative has been promoting several engineering activities and technology developments at spacecraft platform level.

Human exploratory missions to the Moon or Mars are widely considered as the next logical steps in human space exploration and, lately, settlement. Such space exploration or settlement activities involve humans spending long periods of time in space and, with increasing distance from Earth, no abort possibilities. Crews on such missions have to be self- sufficient, not only concerning food, drink and waste, but also with respect to medical treatment. Health issues are raised by the environmental conditions in space, such as the influence of altered gravity, radiation and isolation.

Several studies have addressed the building of a lunar base either under ESA or other space agencies and entities. These studies have looked at conceptual designs, often of one specific element of the base, while most of the requirements are not adequately or not at all taken into consideration.

MEOSAR is a system designed to locate emergency beacons anywhere on the Earth in order to coordinate rescue efforts for people, vehicles and facilities in distress. It works by evaluating the time and the frequency of the beacon signal upon arrival at the receiver. From these the relative distance and velocity of the sender can be calculated if sufficient data points have been collected. It is beneficial to receive the beacon on several different spacecraft to optimise the accuracy of the trace.

Space debris mitigation requirements specific to propulsion systems are scrutinized and compliance of OHB reference propulsion architectures is assessed. The risk of generating debris due to a failure in a propulsion system is assessed with a focus on the specific risk of a hypervelocity impact on a propulsion tank containing residuals.

The engineering activities, delta-qualifications or hardware development which can support the recommended propulsion passivation strategies are presented and prioritized.

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a manufacturing technology that allows significant flexibility in the
complexity of a design. The implementation of this technology has a large variety of capabilities for
components/ subsystems including

The objective of the APPS study has been to investigate the feasibility, architectural and system design, and potential performance of a non-nuclear system whose single goal is to provide survival and servicing support to a planetary payload element, in order to ensure its operations despite the absence of sunlight for extended periods. The principle aim is to advance concepts and overall approaches to meet this goal, and to provide a framework for the future development of key technologies.