A new approach to technology research and development
The objective of the Star Tiger activity is to explore a new way of performing technology research and development in general.
The key features and guiding principles of StarTiger are:
- to co-locate a multidisciplinary group of dedicated highly motivated researchers and experts in a centre that has all the necessary facilities to allow a quantum step forward in technology development
- to grant to the team priority access to state of the art equipment, facilities (e.g. testing, production, etc.), computing power and technical support,
- to allow them to work for an intense period, no longer than 6 months, devoid from administrative red tape and normal everyday day distractions, on a particular project.
The ‘end goal’ is to provide significant advancement with respect to the present state-of-the-art of the technology selected for development in a promising technological area. Furthermore, it is aimed at providing a dramatic reduction in the turnaround time for state-of-the-art technological developments.
Whilst the Star Tiger concept is generally applicable to all innovative technology research, a pilot project has been selected in the field of antennas. ESA’s objective is to develop a colour terahertz-wave imager, which would represent a true breakthrough for sub-millimetre-wave remote sensing from space, as well as to open up new opportunities within several non-space application areas.
