The contract was part of the broader framework of two ESA-led mission study teams performing parallel and independent activities to establish the mission concept, considering the ISRU payload (Segment 1), the delivery service (lander, Segment 2) and the communication service (Segment 3).

In this context the scope of the OHB Italia contract activities was related to defining the ISRU Payload.

Mostly in the last decade, a number of initiatives have unfolded, also in Europe, for the development of a dedicated orbital launcher to serve the micro- and nano-satellite market demand with an addressable market varying by up to 100% across launch and demand studies. These initiatives as a result aim at specifically addressing light satellite customers’ claimed pain points including time and date availability, orbit selection, responsiveness, pricing, volume restrictions or complexity.

The use of a traditional flat image sensor requires optical elements to project the image onto a flat plane.  Introducing an appropriately curved sensor removes the need for these optical elements. Thus, by eliminating one constraint on the design of the lens it becomes possible to design systems with reduced size and weight and improved performance.

The Arctic Mission System Study involved two parallel studies conducted by consortia led by OHB Sweden and Thales Alenia Space. The scope of the studies were to identify needs in the Arctic region that could be met with mission architecture containing space elements, to propose such mission architectures, to define the elements of one of the architectures in some detail and to propose a plan to implement it.

Human exploratory missions to the Moon or Mars are widely considered as the next logical steps in human space exploration and, lately, settlement. Such space exploration or settlement activities involve humans spending long periods of time in space and, with increasing distance from Earth, no abort possibilities. Crews on such missions have to be self- sufficient, not only concerning food, drink and waste, but also with respect to medical treatment. Health issues are raised by the environmental conditions in space, such as the influence of altered gravity, radiation and isolation.

The ESA TASTE project is used to create and modify (among other things) Message Sequence Diagrams. But the editor tool for this is not at the technological level where it is useful in production, and where suppliers are able to do training and support programs. This study created a new implementation using state of the art software development design to create the foundation of the new TASTE applications.

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Solar System bodies – including the Moon and Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) – contain a rich diversity of materials such as metals and volatiles that could be used as energy sources and as means to sustain human life, as humankind ventures deeper into space. Space agencies worldwide are considering such resources as potential raw materials for space infrastructure development, based on recent technological advances related to space in-situ manufacturing.