RAMS and risk assessments performed in the course of the system design, verification and operation of space systems rely on the availability of realistic input data. This input data is coming mainly from three different sources:
- MIL-HDBK-217F, Notice 2 for EEE components
- manufacturer supplied information (e.g. pyrovalves, reaction wheels)
- expert judgement based on experience and on the adaptation of data from space and non-space applications.

In recent years the need for accessing historical Earth Observation data information has greatly increased, driven by long term scientific and environmental monitoring. The need to preserve such data indefinitely has led to the establishment of the Long-Term Data Preservation (LTDP) guidelines for Earth Observation. However to make full use of this data, it is necessary to have sufficient quality information available to be assured about the data quality.

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.

GNSSBICS is a feasibility study carried out in the frame of the ESA’s General Studies Programme (GSP)
by DEIMOS-Space, Deimos-Engenharia and ESA.
This activity investigated what G/S infrastructure would be necessary to develop a System, named as GNSS-BICS (GNSS Bias Calibration System), in charge of providing, under demand, the GNSS MEO S/C SISBAF (Signal-In-Space Biases Amongst Frequencies), from GNSS observations gathered by GNSS multi-frequency receivers on-board LEO satellites (potentially from different missions).

The activity shall review current estimation techniques employed in space industry and make a analysis in the face of improvement, new demands and functionalities related to space applications in the view of high accuracy control demands ranging from science missions, exploration and vision based control to space transportation guidance navigation and control applications. The study shall execute the robust and high performance estimation and filtering techniques for accurate state reconstruction for hybrid integrated navigation purposes including vision based hybridisation.

While most Earth Observation missions based on passive optical methods are intended to measure the light “reflected” by the surface, FLEX uses a completely innovative approach based on the measurement of the light “emitted” as fluorescence by terrestrial vegetation. Such fluorescence emission by vegetation has never been measured from space, which makes FLEX a true Explorer mission providing a type of information never available before.

The SpaceWire physical layer as defined in ECSS-E-50-12A is a point to point cable connection. This is most suitable for the data link between equipment's. With the success of SpaceWire it is also used more and more to connect different boards within the same box. For this type of use typically a connection via the backplane would be used. So far there is no standardised solution for SpaceWire connections over the backplane defined. In this activity the different possible architectures of active and passive backplanes shall be traded-off.

The APPS study work focusses on the critical technologies required to provide both servicing and support functions to a seismometer payload located on the lunar surface. Although the baseline payload (and by extension the reference mission) has specific requirements, the technology focus of the study allows the outputs to be of broader application to exploration missions to the moon and beyond.

ESPSS is concerned with setting up a common European platform for propulsion system simulation. Such a common platform is identified as crucial in order to strengthen the European company’s competence in propulsion system modelling. ESPSS is proposed as a framework for continuous cooperation on space propulsion systems between European industries working on such kind of systems.