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085 - Navigation technologies for Shield nanosatellite
One of the ESA’s accelerators for the usage of space is:
PROTECTION OF SPACE ASSETS, to ensure resilient availability and functioning of space infrastructure on which Europe’s economy and society relies for day-to-day life.
According to the DoD Space Surveillance Network, there are ~34,000 pieces of orbital debris with diameter greater than 10cm. This is the portion of objects…
084 - Digital Beamforming for GNSS-R Radio occultation payload
GNSS Radio Occultation is a well-established technique while the younger GNSS Reflectometry has seen a rapid evolution around the world, in particular, after the launch UK-DMC satellite in 2003
Some examples of GNSS-R missions flying today are: the NASA’s CyGNSS 8-satellite constellation, the Spire Global cubesat constellation, the FSSCat cubesat, the Chinese Bufeng 1 Twin Satellites and…
083 - Deployable satellite navigation antenna
The flourishing of utilisation of small and nano satellites in LEO orbit, and the need for ever better navigation accuracy, suggests the study of (relatively) high gain deployable navigation receiver antennas, in new frequency bands, that can be stowed at launch.
In a small satellite, this antenna should allow to achieve better performance when deployed than equivalent non-deployable patch,…
082 - Low noise frequency tunable microwave generation using photonic integrated microcombs
Ground based optical free space communication experiments have enabled >1 Tb/second communication links based on the multitude of carriers that are individually modulated to carry information. Optical frequency combs with line spacings that match the ITU grid have potential to implement free space communications in space.
These advances utilize the unique features of microcombs: in contrast…
081 - Lithium Niobate Photonic integrated circuit based high speed, low voltage modulators for microwave photonics
Recent advances in both the development and heterogeneous integration of Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3) on Silicon Nitride for high-speed modulators have brough with it the possibility to combine several functionalities on a compliant heterogeneous platform. In the progress towards higher efficiencies, a reduction in system complexity and enhanced reliability for system critical applications such as…
080 - Miniaturised GNSS/LowRF receiver
GNSSs are typically operating from MEO, using spread spectrum techniques and having a large coverage by each satellite, therefore the user receiver signal power received on ground is extremely low, ‘buried’ under the thermal noise level.
Because of that, the GNSSs susceptibility to RFI interference, both generated locally with inexpensive means like Personal Privacy Devices or more…
079 - Reduced size Antenna for Earth Pulsar navigation
Pulsar are rapidly rotating neutron stars emitting beams of radiation periodically, some with very high stability.
Since every pulsar has a different frequency, they can be used in a navigation system like beacons, and in timing (see EL1-006).
Emission occurs in all spectrum (infrared, visible, RF, X-ray). For space navigation, detectors in X-ray are preferred for their size, but detectors…
078 - Autonomous Alternative Absolute Navigation (AAAN) technologies for maritime
These days, GNSS is fundamental for navigating but it is still fragile: it can be spoofed or jammed.
Using a sextant to determine a star position relative to the horizon, sailors have marked ship locations for centuries using Celestial Navigation (CN). Nowadays technology would allow automatic adoption of this technique, extending its utilization to daylight and exploiting not only stars, but…
077 - Technological Enablers of Cellular Networks for PVT Assurance
Cellular networks have various built-in security features including access control, mutual authentication, and key management, which could be evolved to provide technological enablers for PVT assurance.
An efficient solution to protect from PVT spoofing is the use of symmetric cryptographic mechanisms to render the ranging signal unpredictable to the potential attacker.
The concept…
076 - Low SWAP optical clock control unit
The need for high-accuracy, resilient holdover techniques to be available in the event of GNSS signal denial has been widely emphasised. Whilst current microwave GNSS satellite clocks, and best-in-class commercial microwave clocks, provide holdover for relatively short periods in situations where GNSS system disciplining is lost, it is clear that future resilient PNT systems will need to maintain…