L - UP SAS

MINOTOR’s strategic objective is to demonstrate the feasibility of the ECRA technology as a disruptive game-changer in electric propulsion, and to prepare roadmaps paving the way for the 2nd EPIC call, in close alignment with the overall SRC-EPIC strategy. Based on electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) as the sole ionization and acceleration process, ECRA is a cathodeless thruster with magnetic nozzle, allowing thrust vectoring. It has a considerable advantage in terms of global system cost, where a reduction of at least a factor of 2 is expected, and reliability compared to mature technologies. It is also scalable and can potentially be considered for all electric propulsion applications, from microsatellites to space tugs. Although the first results obtained with ECRA have been encouraging, the complexity of the physics at play has been an obstacle for the understanding and development of the technology. Thus an in-depth numerical and experimental investigation plan has been devised for the project, in order to bring the technology from TRL3 to TRL5. The strong consortium is composed of academic experts to perform the research activities on ECRA, including alternative propellants, along with experienced industrial partners to quantify its disruptive advantages on the propulsion subsystem and its market positioning. ECRA’s advantages as an electric thruster technology can be a disruptive force in a mostly cost-driven satellite market. It would increase European competitiveness, help develop low-cost satellite missions such as constellations, provide end-of-life propulsion, and pave the way for future emerging electric propulsion technologies. The 36 months MINOTOR project requests a total EC grant of 1 485 809 M€ for an experienced consortium of 7 partners from 4 countries: ONERA (FR, Coordinator), industries Thales Alenia Space (BE), Thales Microelectronics (FR), SNECMA (FR), Universities Carlos III (ES) and Giessen (GE), and SME L-up (FR).

LEMON will provide a new versatile Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) sensor concept for greenhouse gases and water vapour measurements from space. During the last climate conference in Paris in December 2015, climate-warning limits have been discussed and agreed upon. In such frame, the need for a European satellite-borne observation capacity to monitor CO2 emissions at global, European and country scales has been identified, as stated by the Copernicus report “Towards European operational observing system monitor fossil CO2 emissions”. New space missions are now being used (GOSAT, AIRS, IASI, …) or planned (OCO, IASI-NG, MicroCarb, MERLIN, …) for CO2 and/or CH4. Given the technical challenges, they are up to now mainly based on passive (high resolution spectrometers) instruments, Lidar instrument-based mission (MERLIN) is currently in development in Europe to probe methane only. Therefore, the main goal of LEMON is to develop a versatile instrument, able to target CO2, CH4 and water vapour stable isotopes (H216O and HDO only, from now on referred to as water vapour or H2O and HDO explicitly) with a single laser emitter. The consortium consists of ONERA (FR), FAUNHOFFER (DE), CNRS (FR), KTH (SE), SPACETECH (DE), UiB (NO), INNOLAS (DE) and L-UP (FR). It has full expertise at Earth Observation technologies (from receiver, data acquisition, instrument control and versatile emitter) and is therefore able to fully explore, understand and validate the aforementioned advantages. The consortium is highly motivated to set-up and perform demonstrations at all instrument levels in order to showcase the project results. This will include the instrument set-up, TRL6 instrument validation, airborne demonstrations and CO2, CH4, H2O isotopes measurements, as well as roadmaps and preliminary experiments towards space operation. The LEMON total grant request to the EC is 3 374 725€ for the whole consortium and the project will be conducted within 54 months.

Composites are important materials used in aircrafts due to their excellent mechanical properties combined with relatively low weight enabling the reduction of fuel consumption. Expensive carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) are used in fuselage and wing structures and increasingly replace classic metals. Glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRP) are mainly used for the interior panels. All these composite materials used in aviation have one thing in common: they are man-made. Renewable materials like bio-fibres and bio-resins are under investigation for a long time for composites but they did not made it into modern aircraft yet. The project ECO-COMPASS aims to bundle the knowledge of research in China and Europe to develop ecological improved composites for the use in aircraft secondary structures and interior. Therefore bio-based reinforcements, resins and sandwich cores will be developed and optimized for their application in aviation. Furthermore the use of recycled man-made fibres to increase the mechanical strength and multifunctional aspects of bio-composites will be evaluated. To withstand the special stress in aviation environment, protection technologies to mitigate the risks of fire, lightning and moisture uptake will be investigated. An adapted modelling and simulation will enable the optimization of the composite design. Electrical conductive composites for electromagnetic interference shielding and lightning strike protection will be investigated as well. A cradle to grave Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) will be carried out to compare the new eco-composites with the state-of-the-art materials. 8 European partners will be involved in ECO-COMPASS. The duration of the project is three years.

ELENA will develop the first European lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) PIC platform, accessible to all interested entities in the form of an open foundry service. Lithium niobate (LiN) is one of the most promising emerging materials for PICs that comprises a unique set of interesting optical properties: a high electo-optic (EO) coefficient, a high intrinsic second-order nonlinearity, and a large transparency window. The focus of ELENA will be on developing 5 advanced photonic building blocks (BBs) which exploit the unique properties of LiN to enable novel functionalities in PIC (e.g. wavelength conversion and parametric gain) and to improve the existing ones (e.g. faster, more energy-efficient EO modulators). These BBs will be a part of comprehensive PDK library that will be accessible to entities outside of the consortium. ELENA’s approach will enable reliable monolithic integration of the LiN BBs to implement complex functionalities with better sensitivity, higher energy efficiency, faster speed and increased chip density. ELENA’s technologies will be applicable to a broad range of applications from telecom to LIDAR, quantum technologies and space. Moreover, ELENA’s ambition is to establish the key steps of a fully European supply chain to support the LiN platform. This include activities such as • Establish a process to produce 150mm optical grade LNOI wafers on an industrial scale • Develop a reliable and flexible packaging solution to interface LiN chips with optical fibers and other PIC platforms • Demonstrate the technology and validate the results by developing 4 PIC prototypes designed by 3 “end-user” partners covering fields of telecom, quantum technologies and microwave photonics The ELENA project (42 months, €5M) with a consortium of 3 RTDs , 3 large industrials and 3 SMEs contains all the necessary competencies to reduce the R&D costs of advanced PICs and implement the key aspects of a value chain for a sustainable LiN based PIC industry in Europe

The overall objective of ACASIAS is to contribute to the reduction of energy consumption of future aircraft by improving aerodynamic performance and by facilitating the integration of novel efficient propulsion systems such as contra-rotating open rotor (CROR) engines. The aerodynamic performance is improved by the conformal and structural integration of antennas. The installation of CROR engines is facilitated by installation of an Active Structural Acoustic Control (ASAC) system in the fuselage. The integration of such a system in fuselage panels will annoying noise in the cabin caused by multi-harmonic sound pressure level which is radiated by CROR engines. CROR engines are able to realize up to 25% fuel and CO2 savings compared to equivalent-technology turbofan engines (http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19890003194.pdf). The ACASIAS project focuses on challenges posed by the development of aero- structures with multifunctional capabilities. The following concepts structural concepts are considered: • A composite stiffened ortho-grid fuselage panel for integrating Ku-band SATCOM antenna tiles. • A fuselage panel with integrated sensors and wiring for reduction of CROR cabin noise. • A smart winglet with integrated blade antenna (integrated substrates into special foam, partly covered by a 1 mm glass/quartz epoxy layer). • A Fibre Metal Laminate GLARE panel with integrated VHF communication slot antenna. The 36 months action with a project cost of 5.8 MEuros will bring together 11 partners from 6 countries covering the three main disciplines required: (composite) structures, advanced antennas and miniaturized sensors in a multi-disciplinary project. The project innovations facilitated by integration of these disciplines, as well as resulting in operational cost reduction and decreased emissions for airlines, will also lead to a more competitive supply chain in the aviation sector, which increasingly uses composite structures.