One of the most critical points in the exploration of space beyond Earth orbit is the provision of systems which ensure the survival of both crew and technological assets, such as rovers an landers. The utilisation of the Moon, being the next logical step in implementing the global strategy for colonising the Solar System, is a focus of national and international space agencies.

Due to the harsh nature of outer space, stringent requirements and performances are required from space systems. Thanks to evolving environmental awareness and the building up of a knowledge base at ESA, we are becoming more wary of the environmental impact of space activities on Earth. Through the GreenSat project, ESA wants to evolve from the assessment to reduction of environmental impact through redesigning an existing satellite mission. The project allows ESA to check the feasibility of implementing ecodesign in the development of space missions.

The main aim of OPTIMAL was to perform a feasibility study on a potential mission or system to detect marine plastic litter through satellite remote sensing. To do so, the project activities involved the following aspects:

Increasing numbers of regulations in Europe (e.g. RoHS, REACH) are implemented targeting sustainable development, environmental impact and protection of human health leading directly to obsolescence of qualified materials, processes and technologies, as manufacturers are forced to change materials compositions, alter manufacturing processes or take the decision to remove materials from the European market. The REACH roadmap for identification of future substances of very high concern (SVHC) indicates to target a wider range of isocyanates.

This study focused on the synergistic retrieval of cloud information from active and passive observations. While this synergistic approach is well established for precipitation, it is used less for clouds.

This study aimed to achieve the following objectives:

• To anticipate the security needs and requirements of future space missions (Earth observation, communication, navigation, science, exploration, etc.) with respect to architectures considered for future missions.

• To build an advanced security architecture portfolio embedding state-of-the-art security concepts, technics, technologies, components and solutions.

With the launch of the first Sentinel satellites, a new era in Earth observation has started that allows for the development of new approaches that use these novel observations at high temporal frequencies and fine spatial resolution with complementary information from the optical and microwave spectral domains. One very important application for is the monitoring of crops.

This project was intended to contribute to the implementation of the e-navigation concept (as defined by IMO, Ref. 2.2.6), with primary focus on the navigation in restricted waters, such as harbours, lagoons or regions where the traffic congestion can create conditions for accidents or inefficient operations.