The Discovery Campaign on new ideas for the commercial use of ESA's inventions
Below is the list of Discovery programme projects resulting from ideas submitted through the Open Space Innovation Platform (OSIP) Campaign 'New Ideas for the Commercial Use of ESA's Inventions'.
MOSAIC - Modular Scanning Array based on Simple Antenna Manufacturing (CNIT, IETR, Swissto12)
MOSAIC aims at to improve the technical and commercial maturity of antenna architectures proposed in an ESA patent. The ESA invention describes a design and manufacturing method for large, sparse-phased arrays for satellites in geostationary orbits.
Sparse arrays offer reduced power consumption at the cost of increased complexity. The MOSAIC project will adopt a modular structure to simplify the antenna architecture and the manufacturing.
The targeted demonstration mission is the micro-Geostationary satellite that SWISSto12 is developing with the support of ESA. The consortium believes that the original invention, and hence this activity, have the potential to enable a competitive use of phased arrays in platforms whose DC capabilities are limited.
Dual-Polarization Four-Way Power Divider (DPPD) (Airbus)
The number of antennas installed on the satellite is increasing. As a result, there is a shift in satellite communications that requires more compact and efficiently integrated microwave components. Because of the limited space on spacecraft, for C- and X-band and active antenna feed clusters, size and weight are critical factors for accommodating antennas.
This Airbus project will use an ESA patent that enables a significant reduction in length and mass while maintaining electrical performance. Replacing commonly used global horns with the Dual-Polarization Four-Way Power Divider antenna concept will save length by more than a factor of two and mass by approximately a factor of four. This more compact and simpler solution is adaptable to larger arrays and the current Ku- and Ka-band active antenna developments with cluster spacing in the range of 3-4 wavelengths and passive arrays will benefit from this technology.
Compact Ka-Band OMT for Tx/Rx MFB antennas illuminating a single reflector (CoBRa) (Airbus)
Airbus has developed a combined Tx/Rx feed system to be implemented in an MFB-cluster in the frame of the Ka Band User Feed (KaUF) programme. Using the orthomode transducer ESA invention will enhance the feed and antenna portfolio and satisfy the needs for modern telecommunication satellites.
Novel manufacturing techniques, such as additive layer manufacturing, metal powder application or diffusion welding will be investigated to reduce the physical dimensions of the feed system as much as possible. The combination of the ESA invention with novel manufacturing techniques results in pitch to pitch distances of about 25mm and enables the use of a feed cluster for a combined Tx/Rx MFB solution with one single reflector.
FITAI – Artificial Intelligence for GNSS post-fit residual and position joint analysis. A plugin for Jason, Rokubun cloud GNSS processing service (Rokubun)
Machine learning algorithms in the field of GNSS are usually trained using physical models of the different aspects that make up the GNSS signal (the geometric range, ionospheric and tropospheric delay, orbits, clocks, etc.) and positioning filters such as Kalman filter that estimate a state (position, velocity and time) based on a set of observations. However, after the estimation has been obtained, little attention is paid to the ‘post-fit residuals’ – the values that indicate how well the input data ‘agrees’ with the estimated state.
The FITAI project will use these post-fit residuals and positioning errors to develop a processing stage based on an ESA patent for Rokubun's Jason cloud GNSS service. This will improve the accuracy of navigational satellite position estimates, particularly in challenging scenarios such as urban canyons. This technique could be deployed commercially in the form of licensing or pay-per-use to third parties.
Pragmatic design and monitoring of array fed reflector payloads (Heriot-Watt University/TAS)
Array Fed Reflector (AFR) antennas provide a favourable trade-off between performance and complexity for new broadband satellites in geostationary orbit. In light of this, satellite integrators and operators are in need of a) efficient optimisation processes to define the antenna configuration (Optics, Focal Array) that is the most flexible and best suited for their users, and b) practical techniques for the dynamic reconfiguration of the payload during operation on a reduced timescale.
Addressing industrial needs, this activity will adapt recent ESA developments on pragmatic techniques for implementing Massive MIMO (multiple-input, multiple output) in satellite systems that were originally conceived in the context of direct radiating arrays to practical AFR scenarios.
Wideband, high performance and cost effective Ka Band telecommunication TM01 tracking coupler mode for LEO Constellation gateway antennas (Safran Data Systems)
The aim of this study is to develop a mechanically simple monopulse tracking device suitable for ground antennas operating in circular polarisation with K-band reception and Ka-band transmission. Such a device using two ‘turnstile’ back-to-back junctions for on-board antennas with the tracking function in Ka-band is the subject of an ESA patent.
Nevertheless, when one tries to apply this monopulse tracking transmission in K-band for ground stations, technical problems appear, in particular resonances. The proposed solution consists of improvements to the turnstile junctions by exploiting the advantages of OMJ type junctions. An engineering methodology will be applied that focuses on reducing time-to-market and total production costs. Different alternative concept architectures will be analysed and compared during the study.
Development of a broadband waveguide Dual-Polarization Sixteen-Way Power Divider for Small Passive Arrays in a single block optimized for additive manufacturing (Thenextpangea SL)
The next step for extending the ESA patent for a compact dual-polarization four-way power divider is to scale it up to a sixteen-way power divider and produce a small array antenna. This activity will combine four four-way power dividers and a fifth power divider for feeding the four top power dividers. As a result, the design will have a single port for feeding power to a 16-element array antenna.
The project will also involve a second ESA patent for improving the compactness of the system without compromising radio frequency (RF) performance.
The project aims to demonstrate the potential that additive manufacturing has for RF components and space applications as well as the potential for the power divider described above as a key component for the ground segment in the satellite communications sector.
KAME: A novel KA-band TM01 Mode Extractor for ground applications feeds (EOS Ingeniería (EOSOL Group))
This project will investigate the feasibility of including an ESA patent enabling a compact TM01 mode extractor design in two product lines currently offered by EOSOL.
The first product line is the Ka-band feed for downlinking tracking, telemetry and command (TT&C) and Earth Observation data. This is of great interest for mid-range (3–5 m) antennas for low- to medium-Earth orbit, but could also be applicable for larger antennas.
The second is the feeds for SATCOM terminals, where the TM01 could be an innovative element in ground segment antennas (where there is a growing market) due to its simple mechanical design, reduction in mass, volume and manufacturing costs.
The project team will also explore the benefits of additive manufacturing applied to this component.