Over the last decades the number of satellites in orbit has been constantly growing and the spacecraft payload complexity and demand continuously increased. Today, satellites provide close to full Earth coverage and produce a significant amount of data that needs to be downlinked to Earth for processing. The downlink constraints combined with the constantly growing productivity of missions require faster data handling, processing and transfer. Present processing solutions show constraints regarding computational performance. Size and transfer speeds of on-board storage/mass memory limited downlink/transmission capabilities. Furthermore, existing toolchains are not able to support recent evolving technologies. S4Pro will design and implement enabling technology for high-end data products produced on-board spacecraft through the implementation of a power efficient high performance space processing chain designed for low-Earth orbit (LEO) missions with a focus on Earth observation and satellite communication systems. This implementation will be achieved through consequent optimisation of the payload data management system accompanied by use of COTS components, as well as by the miniaturisation of high-performance hardware. S4Pro will combine state-of-the-art industrial computing technologies (COTS), equipped with advanced and scalable processing capabilities, and space qualified BSOTA computing platforms in order to optimise the data processing chain and support the next generation of data intensive missions, such as high data rate SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) and optical applications as well as powerful regenerative communication processors in SATCOM applications.

The implementation of the S3NET concept as proposed by this consortium, will significantly advance the knowledge and decision-making capabilities for the space community in general and mission planners in particular. Through the enhancement and efficient use of on-board resources (computing power, communications and fuel) the improvements in performance of Earth observations (EO) using fractionated or single sensors aboard « swarms » of satellites will be shown. The project will develop two benchmarking systems which will result in the TRL3 demonstration of these performance improvements using the most relevant fragmented and distributed EO optic (high-resolution optical and hyperspectral) and radar mission scenarios. Expected impacts of these results include: improved quality of service, mission scalability, increased incremental deployment, cost savings for satellite missions through extended satellite operations/life-time, restructuring of the space imaging value chain and lastly, further independence from ITAR restricted products. The S3NET consortium is comprised of end users and mission planning representatives, satellite formation flying experts and specialists in radar and optical sensor technology, on-board computing, high-performance processor and hardware design, acceleration of software applications, and satellite telecommunications. The project will last 30 months.

Earth observation missions nowadays produce enormous amounts of data about the Earth, its resources and human operations. EO data products are fundamental to society, as shown by EC Copernicus, and are one of the cornerstones of what ESA terms Space 4.0, which is expected to transform the lives of citizens, policymakers and businesses in the near future. Current and emerging trends in the EO market, driven by the sharp growth in applications based on EO products, show greater demands in the amount, type and quality of the EO products available to End Users. Data latency is also a key metric, with End Users requiring products in a very short time period, with low latency (NRT) or very low latency. EO-ALERT addresses the need for increased data chain throughput within the COMPET-3 call. It proposes a fundamentally new approach for the provision of low latency EO data products, which exploits the flight segment processing capabilities and breaks with the traditional sequential EO data chain focused on the raw data transfer to ground. The goal is to develop the next-generation satellite EO data and processing chain, based on a novel system architecture that moves key EO data processing elements from the ground segment to the satellite, with the objective of providing EO products to End User with very low latency (enhanced-NRT). This innovative processing and data chain proposed by EO-ALERT is based on the development of key technologies, in particular onboard reconfigurable data handling, onboard optical and SAR image processing, data compression and storage, reconfigurable high rate communications link to ground, and high-speed avionics. Thus, EO-ALERT is perfectly aligned with the goals of the work programme, which calls in particular for technologies for Earth observation in the area of high-speed data chain, to provide high data rates transmission, and significant improvements in EO data throughput by exploring advanced on-board data handling and transfer.