Nebula Public Library

In this project, the University of Luxembourg studied and evaluated a new concept of connecting space missions via space internet providers. The system requirements, necessary adaptations, and possible limitations are provided and discussed. Three types of space internet provider were studied and evaluated: Starlink, OneWeb and O3b mPOWER.

Due to the ongoing miniaturisation and increased performance of electronics devices, alternative cooling methods are required, specifically mechanical pumping loops (MPL). Passive two-phase loops are not capable of cooling ESA's expected power densities up to 300 W/m², so pumped two-phase loops are forecasted to replace their passive counterparts. According to Lapensée et al., “the most important component of a MPL is the pump and a pump failure directly results in MPL system failure, a reliable pump is therefore of vital importance". Wits et al.

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.

Commonly used classical cryptographic protocols, such as the RSA-protocol, rely on the hardness of computational problems. With the advent of quantum computing (QC), the hardness assumptions of these problems is nullified, since they can be solved efficiently on a QC. On the other hand, the security of Quantum key distribution (QKD) rests upon the very laws of physics and guarantees information-theoretic security, which not only enables tap-proof communication at present, but also prevents any future technology to crack encrypted messages.