As recognised by the Future Technology Advisory Panel report "FTAP | First Cycle, Final Report 2012", " system studies and technology developments are recommended to be undertaken to mature the concepts" for large ultra-stable deployable structures. A Working Group was established to identify needs and state of the art for "Ultra Stable Deployable Structures" for Science and Earth Observation missions, producing a white paper (TEC-SB/0063/DB, issue1) identifying a possible roadmap for a development up to TRL5.

The need of integrated PoL conversion solution is linked with the appearance of advanced digital technologies, to be used in all ESA and non-ESA space programs.

The 22cm gridded ion engines have already demonstrated that beam currents equivalent to a thrust level of up to 230mN can be extracted. This in turn requires a high plasma density within the discharge chamber to be produced.

The proposed project is based on the Advanced Electric Propulsion Diagnostic (AEPD) system recently developed within ESA/ESTEC contract N# 20461/06/NL/CP.The AEPD system consists of a high precision five-axis positioning system and currently 5 diagnostic tools (telemicroscope, triangular laser head, pyrometer, Faraday probe, energy-selective mass spectrometer). The capabilities of the AEPD system were demonstrated in two vacuum facilities of different sizes and with two different types of thrusters (GIE - RIT 22 - and HET - PPS1350 or SPT100 -.

Small valves are needed in instruments and subsystems handling gas flows.This is of particular importance for low resource and long duration missions (small satellites, long duration interplanetary missions) where leak budgets have an immediate effect on instrument/system mass. Small commercial valves with are already available but reach at this time leakage rates of about 10^-5cc/s He or less.

The first steps have been taken to establish a non-explosive, harmless Indium-based 100W electric propulsion system for small and medium satellites. The activity successfully developed a breadboard that included all necessary functions for controlling a micro thruster, including temperature sensing and control, generation of the high voltage supplies for the ion emitter and extractor as well as heating and bias voltage supply for the charge balancing.

The pyrotechnics initiators powder ,MIRA is under REACH concern. As of the 21/09/2017, the Ammonium Dichromate which is contained inside MIRA powder, will not be authorised anymore. Thus, Roxel, the manufacturer of MIRA, will not supply anymore the powder. The MIRA is used on-board Ariane5 (igniters, detonators, squibs) and on-board satellite pyro valves. In addition to the REACH issue, it shall be noticed that the lifetime of the MIRA is 12 years maximum. It is therefore mandatory to identify an alternative to replace the MIRA to solve both the REACH and the life time issue.

The performance of the future GNSS systems will be driven by more and more demanding applications asking for the ultimate accuracy in the most challenging scenarios and under every condition.

The incorporation of inter-satellite-links to the Galileo architecture is under detailed assessment by the GNSS Evolution Program, given its visible potential to:- Enhance the overall constellation command-ability- Enhance the overall constellation monitoring-ability- Simplify the Ground Segment, reducing the number of remote ground stations- Enhance the navigation message accuracy- Enhance constellation autonomyThe incorporation of inter-satellite-links to Galileo imply an important evolution of its functional and physical architecture.