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While AI technologies have shown promise in various applications in the space industry, their adoption within spacecraft flight software has yet to happen in a significant manner. This is due to a number of factors, including the relatively low computing power available onboard traditional spacecraft, the long development process required in the industry and the lack of opportunities for in-orbit demonstrations. In ESA's OPS-SAT satellite, Airbus teams identified a unique opportunity to quickly test promising algorithms in orbit as the industry seeks to resolve the issues listed above.

The space industry and allied agencies have long acknowledged the interest and added value of Model-Based System Engineering in expediting the design, development, deployment, and verification of space systems. The definition of models and equipment that can serve the diverse objectives of system engineering process has been the focus of numerous initiatives over the past few decades. The next stage is to employ MBSE broadly throughout the system life cycle across disciplines and the supply chain.

Today’s satellites are inherently inflexible and purpose-built for a single mission. In contrast, the community is exploring disruptive approaches towards in-orbit reconfiguration and on-board data processing. One of the most promising approaches is to use COTS components and open source frameworks, which decrease time-to-market and could even increase the pool of developers/users on the satellite.

In order to enable lunar exploration in a sustainable manner, it is necessary to develop technologies that allow the use of lunar resources in-situ. Additive manufacturing techniques are being studied for in-situ resources utilization on the Moon (e.g.: solar or laser sintering). The results of these studies, presented samples with low mechanical properties due to the formation of defects and cracks within the final product.