CENSSS Partners

CENSSS draws together a consortium of leading industrial organisations across Aerospace industry. In CENSSS, these companies work with researchers from the University of Oslo, FFI and UCLA.

Jotne EPM Technology is a member of the Jotne group, specializing in system/product (PLM) information and Open Simulation Data Manage- ment, technologies required to successfully build your Digital Twin. Since 1990 the company has developed database solutions to handle prod- uct standards such as ISO 10303 STEP, PLCS, AIA/ASD S-Series, ECSS etc. These are open specifications with public availability used by aeronautics, space and defence related industries to manage information about complex systems. Jotne products are used by clients all over the world, including Airbus Defence and Space, Leonardo, BAE Systems, Lockheed martin, the European Space Agency and many other leading aeronautics, space and defence contractors. In addition, many high-end software vendors trust in Jotne solutions.

Recently Jotne sponsored a PhD student on the subject of Digital Twin, which a subject Jotne want to inject and continue to work with in the CENSSS activities. Space programmes are managed by large companies facing considerable integration challenges, both in-house and externally. Product components are often made in different countries, and when new factories are built, other companies may be responsible for maintaining the product in question. Using Standard Based Digital Twins based on open and publicly available specifications makes it easier to trace products and sensor infor- mation, and to integrate these in a well-arranged manner. This improves data exchange, sharing and archiving processes, cutting both time and cost, yet improving quality.

KONGSBERG Satellite Services, (KSAT) is a world-leading provider of ground station- and earth observation services based on optimized ground station locations and solutions for sat- ellites in Low Earth Orbit. We have more than 50 years history in ground station services and a 20-year track record of advanced near real-time monitoring services using multiple satellites. The KSAT Global Ground Station Network consists of more than 20 stations around the world, providing unique uplink/downlink capabilities, enabling a cost-efficient, flexible, and optimized ground segment solution tailored to the specific needs of our clients. KSAT participation in CENSSS fits well with our ambition to extend our service portfolio in new and innovative technology areas, with focus on support for the emerging SmallSat/NewSpace industry. This includes efficient mission control and command services, optical space-to-ground communication, deep space communication and “Lunar” network, and generally to support a national R&D based effort to build, launch, and operate an innovative NewSpace EO satellite.

Norsk Elektro Optikk A/S (NEO) was established in 1985 as a privately-owned research-oriented company within the field of electro-optics. The founders had their scientific and technical back- ground from the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, at that time the leading research organization in electro optics in Norway.

The company has since its start grown to be the largest independent research and development organisation in electro optics in Norway and has in addition established itself as a manufacturer of advanced electro optical products for an inter- national market.

The hyperspectral imaging activities at NEO started in 1995 with the HISS (Hyperspectral Imager for Small Satellites) project for ESA. The R&D activities in hyperspectral imaging have been internally funded through commercialization of the technology together with participation in several EU projects, as well as projects funded by the Ministry of Defense, the Norwegian Research Council, etc. Today, HySpex is established as an industry-leading brand for both airborne and ground-based hyperspectral imaging. HySpex sensors are renowned for their stability, flexibility and superior data quality.

The company has invested in laboratory and test equipment relevant for the activities for developing high-end hyperspectral cameras. The laboratories are equipped with instrumentation necessary for manufacturing, calibrating, testing, repairing, diagnosing and servicing hyperspectral cameras. Additionally, NEO has a climate cham- ber, electronics development laboratories and a mechanical workshop.

NEO is certified to the ISO 9001:2015 International quality standards.

NEO’s motivations for participating in the CENSSS:

Product development, in order to remain at the forefront in the field of hyperspectral imaging.
Market expansion following the “New-Space” development approach.

Eidsvoll Electronics AS (EIDEL) is an engi- neering company founded in 1966 and have delivered R&D and system design of advanced hardware and software-based solutions for space, defence and civil industries. EIDEL also has a long history of participating in scientific and environmental research in close collaboration with academia.

The company’s core technologies are within telemetry, data acquisition, encryption and remote control. Today EIDEL has 25 employees and an annual revenue of about 40 M NOK. EIDEL has developed several solutions for the space industry including sensors for Space Situational Awareness (SSA), telemetry decoders, payload integration systems and secure communication. EIDEL pro- vides services within Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT) of space grade instruments and nano satellites within our labs and clean room facilities.

Through our heritage, competence and oppor- tunities taken in the space segment, EIDEL has established a platform for further growth in the space market. Through our participation in CENSSS we will contribute with our knowledge in development of new capabilities and capacities to help strengthening the Norwegian Space industry.

Examples of our added value to CENSSS are contribution with our knowledge in sensors, communication, instrumentation and integration. Building new sensor capabilities and new satellite platform communication interfaces. EIDEL also has an ambition to be an AIT provider in the con- sortium. In addition, EIDEL will be supporting students' tasks and new proposals for thesis for both Master and PhD students, using the thesis to evaluate future employees. Finally, by partic- ipation we will have an arean for developing new partnerships within the consortium to strengthen our competitiveness on international proposals.

The University of Oslo (UiO) is Norway ́s oldest and highest internationally ranked research- intensive university. The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (MN) is a steward of a long-standing tradition of knowledge built on collegial values and free, independent research. The Faculty conducts research and education at a high international level and has extensive col- laboration with external partners, both nationally and internationally.

The Department of technology systems (ITS) at MN was established in 2017 when UiO took over the activities of the University Graduate Centre at Kjeller (UNIK). UNIK was a foundation for collaboration between the research institutes at Kjeller and UiO and NTNU on education at the Master ́s and PhD level.

FFI is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of defence and is the prime institution responsible for defence related research and development in Norway.

Its principal mission is to carry out applica- tions-oriented research to meet the requirements of the Armed Forces and the defence sector in general.

The Institute provides counsel on possibilities and challenges connected to the procurement and use of military equipment and develops new solutions when necessary.

FFI develops small satellite pathfinders spanning from the mission concepts through systems and payload developments to pilot demonstrations on orbit. The missions are mainly for national government purposes. Thus, we are interested in details of payload development from design through MAIT to tests in space, including oper- ations concepts and data exploitation. Work packages 1-3 are of larger interest to us than the others, although some synergies with satellite missions could be extracted from them too.

Our missions to date have depended on platform and integration in other countries (Canada, Denmark, Lithuania). We hope to see CENSSS contributing to enable Norwegian industry to assemble small satellite systems and prepare them for launch in Norway, essentially gaining more systems competence. Our experience and knowledge are available to contribute towards that end.

We also see CENSSS as an important tool for recruiting young scientists and engineers to the Norwegian space ecosystem of companies, research institutes and academia.

Integrated Detector Electronics AS (IDEAS) devel- ops application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and systems for radiation detection and imaging applications. The company was founded in 1992 with a strong background in applied physics, radiation detector instrumentation and electrical engineering. The company headquarter is located in Oslo. IDEAS’ products are used in industrial applications, nuclear and space science.

With more than 20 years of space heritage, our products help to miniaturize complex instruments, reduce power consumption and enable certain instrument types to be used on satellites. In addi- tion to ASICs, we develop instrument systems for terrestrial and space applications.

With CENSSS we want to create business related to space activities based on scientific knowledge and engineering methods. We intend to use the company's existing know-how on terrestrial applications and adapt it to the space environment or applications. We will also seek to exploit the technologies and know-how developed in CENSSS for applications on earth.

With IDEAS sensing technology we will contribute to develop methods for In Situ Resource Utilization as well as infrared imaging and spectroscopy for earth observation. We are proud of being a partner in CENSSS which brings together top academic researchers and businesses in the field of space sensors. This is a great opportunity for IDEAS to contribute to innovation and value creation in Norway in this field.

With the flick of a switch, any ship can opt-out of legacy tracking systems to perform illegal activities. To highlight this activity Vake deliver actionable maritime insights to authorities and decision-makers. Vakes ML models are trained on ship activity from millions of global satellite data points, providing holistic insight across data sources. The company's core technologies are image processing, data fusion, big data processing, cloud and Machine Learning. The commercial goal is to support our customers in making the ocean more transparent and safe.

In CENSSS:

Our research goal is to extract unprecedented insight from satellite data, made possible through combining automatic multi-source analysis and domain expertise. We want to share our knowledge on big data insights with the centre, and explore the boundaries of real-time delivery through on-board inference.

Through synergies and partnerships with centre participants, we will develop the next generation of smart satellite systems. We will continue to aid Master and PhD students, and strengthen the capabilities of the Norwegian space ecosystem.

Projects in the pipeline:

ESA IODs (with S&T and NEO)
User testing (with BarentsWatch)
ESA Environmental Crimes
Copernicus Incubation

Our business is Earth Observation within the fields of Scientific Data Processing and Intelligent Software Applications.

s[&]t vision: Improving quality of life with satellite data

s[&]t mission: s[&]t provides software and processors for new satellites to the European Space Agency and the Norwegian Ecosystem for SmallSATs.

s[&]t process and analyse satellite images for monitoring the environment, applying advanced machine learning.

What is our business?

s[&]t works solely within Earth Observation (EO) with a focus on SW solutions for applying satellite data to monitor environmental states and changes.

We work “full circle”;

on-ground satellite systems - instrument data simulation and processors for instrument devel- opment, operations and data handling

on-board satellite systems - satellite instrument processors filtering out useful data, pre-process data (image equalization, clouds, land cover ...), compress and downlink to Earth

use of satellite data - products and services - extracting useful information to provide digital maps with analysis tooling for monitoring state and changes in our natural environment

University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) – Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences One major collaborating research partner is the Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences at Uni- versity of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). UCLA's Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences is a preeminent academic center for studies of the Earth and Planets. It includes over thirty full-time faculty, sixty graduate students from around the world, and forty researchers engaged in a wide range of research extending from the center of the Earth to planetary sys- tems surrounding other stars. The department maintains strong involvement in domestic and international space missions, including providing instruments and scientific leadership for DAWN, Artemis, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Insight, and Europa Clipper.

The proposed involvement in the Center for Inno- vation is consistent with the overall mission of the University of California as a center of higher learning to provide long-term societal benefits through the discovery of new knowledge, and the transmission of advanced knowledge through the training of students. The key contact point will be Professor David Paige who has a long record of accomplishment of developing planetary missions. These developments have been in collaboration with both industry and government-run facilities like Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena. UCLA is located close to the major New-Space companies leading the technological development. We foresee an exchange of both Post Doc’s and PhD’s between CENSSS and both UCLA and JPL.

A world where the Earth and Moon are one ecosystem.

Life on Earth in the future will not be sustaina- ble without satellite-based space infrastructure. Communications, agriculture, transportation, finance, environmental sustainability, as well as a variety of industries will all depend on this extraterrestrial infrastructure. Furthermore, its importance will continue to rise as technology continues to evolve with innovations such as IoT and self-driving vehicles.

How should we develop space infrastructure to make it sustainable and efficient? The key is how we use space resources.

At ispace, we’ve turned our attention to the Moon. By taking advantage of lunar water resources, we can develop the space infrastructure needed to enrich our daily lives on earth—as well as expand our living sphere into space. Also, by making the Earth and Moon one system, a new economy with space infrastructure at its core will support human life, making sustainability a reality. This result is our ultimate goal, and our search for water on the Moon is the first step to achieving that goal.

However, we face many challenges. While tech- nology is important, it alone can’t overcome every difficulty. Finance, law, policy, science, education, and environmental conservation all comprise a social system that must integrate into the planning process. Our vision has attracted the attention of many potential stakeholders around the world who we need to succeed at creating this new ecosystem.

Vestfonna Geophysical AS is a company owned and run by Hans E.F Amundsen.

The interest of Vestfonna Geophysical in CENSSS is centered around two main activities:

Operating of the RIMFAX GPR on the Mars 2020 Mission
Unsing Mars, Lunar and Terrestrial science questions as a guideline to develop instru- ments and technology for remote sensing of planetary bodies.