1A.100 – MEGA-CONSTELLATIONS AS ENABLERS FOR NEW SERVICE AND APPLICATIONS OPPORTUNITIES
26, April 2016

ESA Open Invitation To Tender AO8585
Open Date: 25/04/2016
Closing Date: 20/06/2016 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 16.1TF.01
Prog. Ref.: ARTES 1 VI
Budget Ref.: E/0501-01B – ARTES 1 VI
Special Prov.: AT+BE+CZ+DK+FI+FR+DE+IE+IT+LU+NL+NO+PL+PT+RO+ES+SE+CH+GB+CA
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 100-200 KEURO
Products: Ground Segment / User Operations / Instrument management, Data analysis, PI equipment, etc.
Technology Domains: Ground Station Systems and Networks / Ground Communications Networks / Advanced Ground Communication Networking Concepts
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate Telecom & Integrated Applica
Department: Telecom Technologies,Product&Systems Dep
Division: Future Projects Division
Contract Officer: Dean, Andrea
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 25/04/2016
Update Reason: Tender issue

The deployment of mega-constellations in the 2020 time-frame will introduce a disruption in terms of performance with respect to the current satcom. offering. This will allow developers and providers to propose new services for addressing existing markets and/or penetrate new markets. This activity aims at identifying the key market sectors where a disruptive change could emerge as well as detecting and characterizing concrete service opportunities and related stakeholders. The results will help define follow-on action to enable participating state industry to gain maximum benefit from such opportunities. A number of services, both telecommunications related and integrating the utilization of additional space assets, have been developed in recent years taking benefit of the current satcom. networks worldwide. It is conceivable that many of these services could take benefit of future mega-constellation systems. Moreover, the upcoming disruptive offer, especially in terms of price per unit bandwidth and geographical coverage, could lead to the identification of opportunities for new services; either not currently provided, or provided through non-space based technologies. The study will consider the initial wave of mega-constellations that are planned to be operational by 2020. The activity should identify the benefits of introducing mega-constellations in various market sectors. The Contractor shall consider both existing and new potential sectors. As a minimum, the following sectors/areas shall be analysed:1.Energy sector: specific opportunities have emerged that require real-time satellite connectivity and accurate time synchronization, e.g. Wide Area Measurement Systems for power grids. Smart metering, intelligent maintenance of distribution lines, and remote operation of infrastructure also represent new opportunities.2.Transport sector: a large number of current ARTES Application projects are related to the transport sector (maritime, rail, road, air, and intermodal). The impact of Space-based solutions could grow considerably in this sector if the satcom. element were accessible at significantly lower cost and covered critical regions where connectivity is currently limited, such as the Arctic. The market take-up of unmanned solutions, such as (but not limited to) Remotely Piloted Aircrafts (RPAs), would probably accelerate with the availability of the mega-constellations. Alongside the professional market, the consumer-market (such as private boats/yacht owners in the maritime sector) could be possibly easier to penetrate with a more compelling offer.3.Capacity building for Developing countries, e.g. Africa. Mega-constellations could significantly lower cost-barriers for high data rate connectivity, which would open up the possibility to establish on a large scale services for education, eHealth, financing and humanitarian services.4.Other sectors such as farming, monitoring of critical infrastructure (e.g. water distribution systems and communication networks), disaster response, and environmental monitoring, with services relying on data gathered from in-situ sensor networks.T he concepts identified shall be characterized in terms of added value with respect to state-of-the-art solutions (when available), key enablers, stakeholders context, regulatory barriers, value chain, competitive landscape.

If you wish to access the documents related to the Invitation to Tender, you have to log in to the ESA Portal.