FIRST! is an initiative of the ESA STS Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP). Its goals are to identify innovative and promising technology disruptors benefiting future European Space Transportation (ST) and to accelerate their derisking through rapid prototyping and testing. ESA market and system studies indicate that the most cost-effective and performant space transportation system on the 2025-2050 horizon relies on a routine access to space with reusable launchers injecting payloads on high parking orbits, combined with a “hub and spoke” in-space logistics network to reach the final destination (e.g. constellations phasing, exploration missions...) and then provide transportation support for in-orbit servicing.
FIRST! contributes to responding to this overarching vision by identifying and maturing disruptive technologies in various domains, to foster performance, competitiveness and sustainability of the future space transportation ecosystem.
FIRST! innovative technologies shall have the potential to transform their field of application for the benefit of space transportation in Europe. These technologies need to be coherent with the market needs, in particular taking into account their time to market. In line with the Agenda 2025, the disruptive technologies tested in FIRST! shall contribute to a growing, competitive and autonomous space transportation ecosystem in Europe.
FIRST! initiative is based on the following key elements:
- Technology disruption consistent with ESA STS technology roadmaps (see description of technology fields below)
- Open competition and accessibility
- Fostering of private investment and co-funding schemes
- Dedication to commercial space transportation
- High risk / high gain prototyping with rapid testing, including Go/No Go criteria and milestones
The goal of this call for ideas is to:
- Identify Technology Providers in certain technology fields which are key for future European Space Transportation (see below)
- Identify space transportation service providers and industrial primes interested in technology disruptions in these fields, their needs and preferences
- Identify potential investors interested in key Technology Providers for ESA future STS.
This present OSIP call for ideas shall serve as a first identification of technology disruptors, interests and motivations. In a next step, following this call for ideas, FIRST! Requests for Quotation for Technology Disruptors maturation will be issued following ESA procedures where full proposals for activities will be able to be submitted by the Technology Providers.
Purpose of this Campaign
The primary aim of this Campaign is to gather ideas from Technology Providers as well as expressions of interest from Primes and Investors, in some identified technology fields. In this call, five specific technology fields are to be considered. Additionally, there is one category dedicated to other promising technology disruptors in the domain of Avionics and GNC for Space Transportation:
- Advanced architectures for data handling system and on-board computer, including modular avionics concept, Time Sensitive Networking or wireless communication
- Next generation power sources, including energy harvesting
- Low cost and reliable solutions for Autonomous Flight Termination Systems
- Optoelectronics systems, including robust optical cable or optical switch
- On-board real-time optimisation of guidance and control
- Other Avionics and GNC for Space Transportation Technology Disruptors
The first 5 specific technology fields are detailed below, including identification of promising concepts. Any idea proposing to address one of these concepts (through technology maturation, breadboarding, or ground/in-flight testing) is eligible, but the call is also open to alternative concepts using the category “Other Avionics and GNC for Space Transportation Technology Disruptors”.
Advanced architectures for data handling systems and on-board computers:
This technology field includes (but is not limited to) three promising concepts.
First, the concept of low-cost and modular avionics relies on a standard to guarantee the compatibility of the various building blocks (chassis, backplane, printed circuit boards, connectors). Open standards such as VPX and cPCI or COTS reprogrammable multi-processor system-on-chip devices (e.g. Xilinx Zynq family) are technology candidates to fulfil this goal.
Second, the Time Sensitive Network (TSN) -or the upgrade of Time-Triggered Ethernet (TTE) interfaces to enlarge the spectrum of its usage for launchers- combines the advantages of larger bandwidth and better quality of service with deterministic protocol.
Third, Wireless technology, in Narrow Band (NB) or in Ultra Wide Band (UWB), can allow developing an optimised, decentralised and heterogeneous architecture for the sensors conditioning and acquisition system by removing most of the wires used to route operational and technological measurements.
Next generation power sources:
This technology field includes high energy density batteries based on advanced lithium battery technologies or technologies based on fuel cells and super capacitors, that are deemed promising to improve the efficiency of batteries for launchers.
For functions requiring low power, e.g. for wireless sensors network, it is also planned to mature energy harvesting technologies, either relying on thermal concept or vibration concept.
Low-cost and reliable solutions for Autonomous Flight Termination System:
The development of an autonomous safeguard unit that would ensure the launcher GNSS-based localisation and neutralisation decision without the support of the ground stations requires to demonstrate robustness of this approach with respect to GNSS interference, jamming, spoofing attacks, scintillation, antenna shadowing or shock during stage separation. It also relies on an IMU-based navigation solution that shall combine good accuracy, reliability and cost-effectiveness.
The objective is to assess low-cost architectures and advanced techniques to enhance robustness of the launcher GNSS-based localisation systems and the autonomous decision process.
Optoelectronics system:
After the introduction on Ariane 6 of the first generation of optopyro system, enhancement of the optoelectronics functionalities is investigated. The objective is to develop a low power and reliable optical system architecture for the complete optopyro system.
This technology field includes optical switches to replace the optical safety barrier and to ease test and verification of the optopyro chain during AIT. The maturation of a robust optical fiber technology with guaranteed performance for a very large temperature range is also envisaged.
On-board real-time optimisation of guidance and control:
Advanced guidance algorithms based on on-board and real-time trajectory generation is a key technology for re-entry and landing phase of reusable boosters. It is planned to pursue the effort engaged through precursor FLPP activities with advanced real-time optimisation methods for control and guidance algorithms.
What we expect from you:
If you are a Technology Provider (industry, university or other), you fulfil the Conditions of Participation (see Annex 3), and if you have promising ideas for Space Transportation in the fields above, here is the opportunity to bring them forward!
In particular, we expect you to:
- Briefly present your company, organisation, University, etc and if you have experience in the technology of interest
- State the technology field of your interest
- Present your ideas in this technology field including expected gains wrt. the state of the art
- Potential applications if already identified and time to market
- For space transportation Service Providers or Industrial Primes
The second objective of this Campaign is, for space transportation service providers or industrial primes, to express their visions and needs for disruptive technologies in the five (plus one) fields described above, over the coming years. This will help to adjust the plans identified within ESA STS technology roadmaps for these particular technologies in the best interest of European Space Transportation, and to define representative test conditions for future use cases. The space transportation service providers or industrial primes will be invited to present their viewpoints in terms of current challenges, technical limitations, fields of opportunities, in front of potential Disruptive Technology Providers. The aim is to ensure that the technologies developed in the frame of FIRST! are consistent with market needs.
You are also invited to use the 6th category “Other Avionics and GNC for Space Transportation Technology Disruptors” in case you see need of Technology Disruptors in other Avionics and GNC fields.
It is a high-level objective for ESA to foster commercialisation and private investment. The third objective of this Campaign is to identify potential investors convinced by promising Technology Providers developing the technology disruptors of future European Space Transportation systems. Investors wishing to participate to future exchanges are welcome to express their interest, opening the way to a possible involvement in the next steps of the tendering process.
Note for all: the elements you will send to OSIP will not be disclosed to others, and only accessible to a small number of relevant ESA persons. In particular they will not be known to other participants or to the public.
Tendering Process
The FIRST! tendering process comprises the intended following steps:
- Call for ideas through OSIP (this call).
- Pitch event on which the main FIRST! actors (technology providers, space transportation providers and investors) will present their ideas, interests and needs.
- Afterwards, an ESA ITT will be published (with the targeted publication date set for April 2024).
You are invited to use the submission form of OSIP to submit your ideas, visions, expressions of needs, financing and business strategies, as technology providers, space transportation system integrators or potential investors.
Welcome to FIRST!
Purpose of this Campaign
The purpose of this Campaign is to facilitate the implementation of the first step of the tendering described above.
Its purpose is further to guide interested companies to submit an Outline Service Proposal to ESA, initiating the first step of the tendering process that will lead to the decision on the eligibility for ESA funding.
An overview of the complete tendering process is presented for information below.
The Call for Ideas Process for Technology Providers
The process intends to follow a two-stage approach:
First Stage: Idea Proposal
The first stage consists in the submission of an Idea Proposal, which can be done via OSIP from January 24th until March 11th 2024.
- Enter your Idea Proposal (simply called "idea" here in OSIP) via the idea submission form;
- Each eligible ideas will be assessed by ESA experts against the evaluation criteria listed at the bottom of this page;
- You could then be invited to a pitch day event where you'll have the possibility to present your proposal to ESA, potential space transportation service providers, and potential investors;
Please take note the Special Conditions applying to the submission as listed below.
Note: It is not mandatory to send a proposal to the ITT after participating to this stage (Idea Proposal).
Second Stage: Full Proposal
The second stage consists in the submission of a Full Proposal via esa-star tendering. When the Invitation To Tender (ITT) will be launched:
- You will be invited to write and submit a Full Proposal through esa-star;
- ESA will evaluate your proposal against evaluation criteria stated in the data pack from the ITT published esa-star publication;
- Successful proposals will be invited to a negotiation meeting, and they could lead to a contract award.
An indicative timeline for the process is provided below:
The Call for Ideas Process for Space Transportation Service Providers
The first stage for space transportation service providers consists in the submission of Needs Expression, which can be done via OSIP from January 24th until March 11th 2024.
In this submission form, you are kindly asked to express your needs in one or several of the five (plus one) technology fields described above. In particular, it is important for FIRST! to understand your technical needs and potential requirements for the different technologies. These needs may be used as potential use case for the technology providers.
Each Needs Expression will be assessed by ESA experts and you could then be invited to a public pitch day event where you'll have the possibility to present your needs to potential technology providers and potential investors.
The second stage consists of the submission by the Technology Providers of Full Proposals via esa-star tendering. Technology Providers may solicit your inputs during the preparation of their proposals to ensure that the technologies developed align more closely with your interests and are useful to you.
The Call for Ideas Process for Investors
The first stage consists in the submission of Interest Expression, which can be done via OSIP from January 24th until March 11th 2024.
In this submission form, you are kindly requested to present your interests in one or several of the five (plus one) technology fields described above. In particular, it is important for FIRST! to understand your intentions regarding investment in companies that are developing these key technologies.
Each Interest Expression will be assessed by ESA experts, and you could then be invited to a public pitch day event where you'll have the possibility to see proposals and interact with potential technology providers and potential service providers.
