Nebula Public Library

The knowledge bank of ESA’s R&D programmes

Format: 2023
Format: 2023
2395 results found
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An insect bioreactor for increased circularization of ECLSS economy (ECLSS Insect Bioreactor)
In response to the critical challenges posed by waste management and biomass production in long-duration space missions, such as those on the International Space Station (ISS) and future lunar bases or Gateway missions, this project proposed the development and demonstration of an innovative closed-loop bioreactor system utilizing insects. Traditional waste disposal methods in space, which often involve storage or return to Earth, contribute to orbital debris and increased logistical demands.

Poland

Discovery

EISI_I-2022-00905

Astronika

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An Inventive High-Thrust Micro-Propulsion System Compatible with Small-Satellites' Safety and Budget Requirements
The need for high-thrust propulsion systems compatible with small satellites for constellation deployment, orbit maintenance and stationkeeping is particularly emerging. A high-thrust propulsion system provides large velocity increments in a short time, which enables orbit transfer, orbital plane change, re-entry, and planetary orbit insertion for deep space exploration.

Switzerland

Discovery

ETD 2022-10-a

Sirin Orbital Systems AG

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Evaluation and consolidation of Additive Manufacturing processes and materials for the manufacturing of RF hardware
Additive Manufacturing (AM) is starting to be used for space applications. For future missions, many components could be manufactured using AM, also including primary structures or other mission-critical parts such as RF hardware. Final products such as feed components, beam forming networks, low and high power filters and RF harness can benefit from the advantages provided by AM. The overall maturity of this manufacturing technique has been increased in the last years offering a great variety of materials, processes and post-processes required to achieve the final part.

Italy

GSTP

G61A-035ET

THALES ALENIA SPACE ITALIA SPA

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COALA: Conformal Antenna for Launchers
Background and justification: •Conformal antennas which can be integrated in the avionics of a launcher are a key point for telemetry, safety and GNSS data in launcher applications. Moreover, they minimize aerodynamic drag by being mounted on or embedded in the curved surface of high-performanceaircraft. COALA project combines antennas with low aerodynamic drag with superior RF performance to provide optimal platform performance. Moreover, the project reduces the European dependency to foreign solutions.

Spain

GSTP

GT27-070EF

ANTERAL

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Preliminary space evaluation of a 0.15-0.1um GaN MMIC foundry process
GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMT) are an enabling technology for a wide range of space applications in Telecommunication, Earth observation, navigation and science requiring high power and/or low noise amplification. At the present, these processes in Europe are limited to Ku-band (0.25um process) and the required components from the US and Japan fall under export restrictions. There is an urgent need for making a competitive (in terms of performance and price) European version covering applications at higher frequencies between Ka- and V-band.

France

TDE

T723-602ED

UNITED MONOLITHIC SEMICOND

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Crustacea in space - co-operative RUST and C embedded applications in space - theory and practice
This activity investigates the feasibility of using Rust as a programming language for onboard software development in space missions. A port of the Rust standard library to RTEMS was successfully implemented, demonstrating Rust's potential for efficient and reliable onboard software development. The research also focuses on quality assurance aspects relevant to ESA ECSS standards, including documentation, testing, and product metrics.

Germany

Discovery

22-D-T-TEC-02-l

DLR - German Aerospace Center

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Miniaturised conformal antenna for nano-landers
After Beagle 2 failure, one of the recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry concluded that future planetary entry missions should include a minimum telemetry of critical performance measurements and spacecraft health status during mission critical phases such as entry and descent. In case a relay satellite would be available, the data would be transferred to it, which will act as an Orbiter.

Spain

TDE

T207-058EF

SENER TAFS, S.A.U.

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Task-driven super-resolution of Sentinel-2 images
Super-resolution (SR) is aimed at reconstructing high-resolution (HR) images from low-resolution (LR) observations. Developing effective SR techniques is particularly important for enhancing the capabilities of remotely-sensed data, including Sentinel-2 images, as their 10m resolution remains a serious limitation in many cases. Importantly, most of the state-of-the-art SR techniques based on deep networks are evaluated in an artificial setup: LR images are simulated from an HR image (later treated as a reference), and the goal of SR is to reverse this degradation process.

Poland

Discovery

S 2022-11-b

KP Labs Sp. z o.o.

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Hybrid Visible Image Sensor
CMOS image sensors offer new possibilities for imaging and spectral applications with fast, flexible readout. They are typically available in two formats - monolithic and hybrid. While monolithic is more common and easier to fabricate, the performance is to some extent dictated by the available manufacturing process. Hybrid image sensor technology, however, offers the ability to independently customise the performance of both the readout circuit (ROIC) and the detection layer from UV to NIR.

Belgium

TDE

T117-601MM

CAELESTE CBVA

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COTS Plastic Parts as applicable to extreme temperature
Industry pushes towards higher operation temperatures of diodes while reducing cost. SiC technology with plastic packaging offers promising results able to match these requirements. Some applications (i.e. spaceship solar arrays) requirements are as high as 250°C. This application was considered as potential target application for the project test units designed. Three different device types were designed, manufactured, and tested in the frame of the project using well known SiC Schottky dies, three mould compounds and two die configurations:

Spain

Discovery

20-D-S-TEC-05-l

ALTER TECHNOLOGY TUV NORD S.A.U.

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