The emerging space ecosystem is expected to grow significantly, with more than 40,000 satellites and 100 lunar missions envisioned to be launched over the next decade. This extensive infrastructure will subsequently drive the demand for capabilities to transport, assemble in-orbit and maintain this infrastructure for future use. In parallel, the advancement of space robots has cleared the door for new capabilities for in-space maintenance, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM). These capabilities present considerable business prospects while also promising to improve the efficiency and robustness of the orbital infrastructure. It will create an entirely new market and has the capacity to establish a new space ecology. The European Robotics for Space Ecosystem (EU-RISE) project aims to advance the robotic and autonomous technologies required for in-orbit manufacturing, assembly and servicing (e.g. refuelling, payload exchange) up to the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5. To achieve this, the project has two interrelated subgoals: the definition of the future space ecosystem and the development of an end-to-end, laboratory demonstrator integrating all the enabling technologies. This paper focuses on detailing the approach and results of the first sub-goal with a first description of the architecture of the envisaged demonstrator, including hardware and software aspects.