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.

European countries have vast coasts and economic zones that go far into the Atlantic and Arctic oceans and are challenging to monitor and manage. The need to protect and manage the vulnerable natural environment and marine resources in a sustainable manner is an important policy that is manifested in European legislation such as the European Strategy for Marine and Maritime Research. Moreover, the drive towards activities in more remote locations and harsher environment demands new approaches and technologies. A key technology is the increased use of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle systems (UAS) instead of manned aircraft, buoys, ships or satellite-based remote sensing. UAS offers potential advantages such as high endurance, reduced cost, increased flexibility and availability, rapid deployment, higher accuracy or resolution, and reduced risk for humans and negative impact on the environment. Development of UAS technology is complex, inter-disciplinary and requires extensive field testing and airworthiness qualifications to meet the demands by aviation authorities and end-users. No single nation has enough of the intellectual competences (in research, and researcher training) to adequately prepare Europe's researchers for these demanding tasks - which is why this consortium of partners has been brought together in this ETN. The ETN MarineUAS is designed to facilitate a comprehensive researcher training programme across a range of partners in several countries designed to have a high impact on the training of individual researchers, their knowledge and skills, and their future careers. The ETN will establish a unique cooperative environment benefiiting from the partners' extensive and complementary knowledge, field operational experience, and experimental facilities.

Upcoming space exploration missions envisage precise and safe landing on planetary bodies as well as navigating orbiters, landers, space drones, and robots. Such missions will be performed at various distances from Earth, reaching from the vicinity of Earth and Moon out to several astronomical units for targets like Mars, asteroids or the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn. A reliable execution of the operations mentioned above can only be achieved by implementing spacecraft autonomous operation and utilising the target body as a navigation reference. This brings a novel requirement for the incorporation of a higher-than-before grade of knowledge about the target, based on a-priori data and on measurements collected during the mission. Examples are globally geo-referenced features originating from mapping missions or the 3D structure of the landing area measured by the spacecraft in the final phase of a landing. This introduces the need for significantly improved on-board processing capabilities and smart algorithms for a wide range of space exploration missions with differentiated demands. Thus, SENAV aims to enable breakthroughs in technologies and scientific instrumentation for space science and exploration missions including those described in the Global Exploration Roadmap, with strong focus on optical navigation for orbiters, landers, drones, and robots with respect to fully autonomous navigation even for unknown environments. In order to enable these missions, SENAV will start (at TRL2-3) to develop and advance smart algorithms, optimized software solutions and miniaturized HW modules, all to be validated through analogous test in laboratory environment aiming to achieve TRL4+ for all HW and SW technologies. Consequent optimization of the payload data processing system accompanied by use of COTS components, as well as the miniaturization of high-performance hardware for integration into small space platforms, will contribute to the desired technological breakthroughs.