Over the last decades the number of satellites in orbit has been constantly growing and the spacecraft payload complexity and demand continuously increased. Today, satellites provide close to full Earth coverage and produce a significant amount of data that needs to be downlinked to Earth for processing. The downlink constraints combined with the constantly growing productivity of missions require faster data handling, processing and transfer. Present processing solutions show constraints regarding computational performance. Size and transfer speeds of on-board storage/mass memory limited downlink/transmission capabilities. Furthermore, existing toolchains are not able to support recent evolving technologies. S4Pro will design and implement enabling technology for high-end data products produced on-board spacecraft through the implementation of a power efficient high performance space processing chain designed for low-Earth orbit (LEO) missions with a focus on Earth observation and satellite communication systems. This implementation will be achieved through consequent optimisation of the payload data management system accompanied by use of COTS components, as well as by the miniaturisation of high-performance hardware. S4Pro will combine state-of-the-art industrial computing technologies (COTS), equipped with advanced and scalable processing capabilities, and space qualified BSOTA computing platforms in order to optimise the data processing chain and support the next generation of data intensive missions, such as high data rate SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) and optical applications as well as powerful regenerative communication processors in SATCOM applications.

The implementation of the S3NET concept as proposed by this consortium, will significantly advance the knowledge and decision-making capabilities for the space community in general and mission planners in particular. Through the enhancement and efficient use of on-board resources (computing power, communications and fuel) the improvements in performance of Earth observations (EO) using fractionated or single sensors aboard « swarms » of satellites will be shown. The project will develop two benchmarking systems which will result in the TRL3 demonstration of these performance improvements using the most relevant fragmented and distributed EO optic (high-resolution optical and hyperspectral) and radar mission scenarios. Expected impacts of these results include: improved quality of service, mission scalability, increased incremental deployment, cost savings for satellite missions through extended satellite operations/life-time, restructuring of the space imaging value chain and lastly, further independence from ITAR restricted products. The S3NET consortium is comprised of end users and mission planning representatives, satellite formation flying experts and specialists in radar and optical sensor technology, on-board computing, high-performance processor and hardware design, acceleration of software applications, and satellite telecommunications. The project will last 30 months.