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Since 2003 ESA has promoted studies in order to establish scientific requirements, identify the most appropriate measurement techniques, start the associated technology developments, and define the system scenarios for a Next-Generation Gravity Mission (NGGM). Such a mission will make use of the Low-Low Satellite-to-Satellite Tracking (LL-SST) technique to monitor the temporal variations of the Earth gravity field over a long time span but with much higher spatial resolution and with improved temporal resolution.

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This project set out to develop a range of advanced particle filters suitable for satellite propulsion applications.

The objective of this activity shall be to investigate very high power amplifiers based on solid state European GaN technology. Unlike the amplifiers available today, GaN technology shall offer the possibility to build such HPA with only one power module at the output.

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The availability of mature fibre laser technology in the 1.55 micron spectral region suggests exploring the possibility of adapting this technology to the 1.6 micron spectral region which offers good potential for greenhouse gases measurements from space. This activity aims at exploring the benefits which can be extracted from the fibre laser technology by designing and breadboarding a fibre laser system which fulfils the transmitter requirements of a Differential Absorption LIDAR for CO2 and CH4.

The Sensor on a chip activity has shown the feasibility of a 75g, 0.2 watt, 30 arcsecond accuracy fully autonomous star tracker with all functionality implemented on a single chip. Several key unknowns however still exist and can only be verified by test.These include: Optical quality achievable, on chip NVM behavious, radiation behaviour of key functions, noise cross talk and power management. Phase 0 of this predevelopment shall concentrate on demonstrating the optical elements including bonding to the silicon substrate and environmental testing.