The 240th meeting of the ESA’s Joint Board on Communication Satellite Programme was held last 3-4 February in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
The working plan of the Future Preparations (FT) programme was presented and approved. It envisages the following activities, of interest for academia as well as for the space industry: GEO orbital debris threat assessment (with the advent of mega-constellations, the eventual implications of potential low-orbit space debris for geostationary satellites must be assessed), multi-service mission opportunities (evaluating the opportunity arising from development of space platforms that offer myriad applications) and spectrum monitoring mission feasibility assessment, (evaluating the possibility of developing monitoring stations and instruments for low-orbit satellite systems in radio spectrum zones in the ku (14/12 GHz) and ka (30/20 GHz) bands.
The strategy plan for the Space for 5G programme was approved, along with the work-plan for the Business Application Space Solutions (BASS) programme.
Other matters were also discussed, namely the rolling work-plan for kick-start activities (BASS), and the NOVACOM I (OneSat of Airbus/Inmarsat) and NOVACOM II (Space Inspire of Thales Alenia Space) draft proposals. The latter projects refer to the development of full-electric three-ton geostationary satellite systems able to offer broadcasting and internet.
Regarding the activity kick-start initiative, set up to encourage small companies to enter space activity, its tremendous success in various member-states was reported. This observation is consistent with the experience in Portugal, which since 2017 has witnessed growing involvement of national start-ups in space activities developed in Coimbra as well as Lisbon. This programme’s mechanism is based on the identification of four major themes per half-year (e.g. artificial intelligence, enhanced reality, cyber-security, people mobility); each project can focus on specific aspects within each major theme.
The next meeting is scheduled for this coming 12-13 May at the ESA campus in the United Kingdom.
