Space qualified Electrical, Electronic and Electromechanical (EEE) components are often considered as very expensive compared to automotive products that exhibit similar and sometimes better performances with a demonstrated quality and reliability. Therefore, the use of automotive EEE parts might be considered as a potential solution to decrease the cost of component of a spacecraft. However, the suitability for space application of the automotive products shall be demonstrated.

One of the issues facing the development of manned, long duration space missions is how to manage liquids/gases for life support. Gases such as O2, CO2, CH4 etc are inputs and by-products of life support systems, for non-regenerative (open-loop) systems. Stores should be enough to sustain any short duration crew visit and until regenerating (closed loop) systems can be installed.

Current on-board orbit determination concepts are in the most cases an integral part of the satellite avionics. However, it is believed that a capability of on-board precise orbit determination would allow to develop new areas of applications. E.g. autonomous station keeping (LEO, MEO and GEO), on-board SAR processing (LEO), missions with high resolution image processing (LEO) or missions related to atmospheric sounding.For this reason, this study shall investigate the conceptual approach for an on-board precise orbit determination system which is not a part of the on-board avionics.

In terrestrial electronics, a number of technological solutions have been developed and verified to allow direct (power) SMD EEE components mounting on PCBs with very good thermal conduction properties to the applicable thermal sink/baseplate.There are different principles (from rather basic - Insulated Thermal Substrates to Filled Thermal Vias, combination of Microvias and Buried Vias - to advanced approaches - including micro heat pipes embedded in PCBs).See for example the information provided at the following web links:a.

Over the last few years schemes based on minimal kinetic models for the Boltzmann equation are becoming increasingly popular as a reliable alternative over conventional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques. Due to the flexibility afforded by its close connection to the kinetic theory recent research has led to major improvements, including consistent models for aerothermodynamics and highly compressible flow in low gravity operating conditions.

Large apertures (antennas and telescopes) and long baselines and focal lengths in space have applications for telecommunications, Earth observation and scientific missions. Astrophysics missions need deployable structures mostly for the creation of long base lines of interferometers and large focal lengths, e.g. for X-ray telescopes. Missions currently in early phases may require for instance deployable booms of up to 100 m deployed length and positioning accuracy within a sphere of 1 mm radius or better and rotations lower than 0.005 degree.

All telecommunications satellite radiators are typically covered with a low solar absorptance and a high infrared emittance coating. Because of the high emittance value, the satellite requires more power/battery for heating during eclipse. A tuneable infrared emittance coating can decrease it during an eclipse and can contribute indirectly to a reduction of the battery mass. A low absorptance coating minimises the solar heat load on the radiator and consequently its size and mass.

New L2 missions like Euclid and Plato will require high data rate reception in K-Band downlink (26 GHz). A new X/K-Band coaxial feed system was developed in a previous TRP activity and it will be deployed in the next years in DSA2 (Cebreros, Spain) and DSA3 (Malargue, Argentina). This feed system architecture will be considered the starting point for the re-design of a new feed system that will allow simultaneous uplink (22 GHz) and downlink (26 GHz).It is intended to trade-off at least two alternative feed system architectures and to perform the detailed design of the selected one.

This activity proposes to implement a reference model for computer simulation of storage of H2 which takes into account the role of molecular excited states. Different materials will be studied as possible candidates (intermetallic compounds, hydrides, organic liquids, nanotubes) in accordance with the existing practice in industrial applications or proposing alternative materials.