The project has for target to demonstrate the feasibility of an antenna with a large number of beams in Ka band, for the civil and military telecommunications. This need is clearly identified for the multimedia systems, in the objective to increase their capacity. A multispot antenna affords a better robustness to jamming on the theatres of operations, and is thus very attractive for the military telecommunications. Very directive spots are achieved with a very big antenna aperture. The reflector maximal diameter in Europe is 2.4*3,6 m2. A solution with a foldable reflectarray antenna is being developed in Thales Alenia Space. It is envisaged at the moment only for the low frequency bands (L, S, C). This antenna is ideal for the sizes included between 4m and 8m. It is an alternative solution of the big American Mesh reflectors, while requiring much lower development costs. The rise in frequency of the big radiating apertures induces manufacturing accuracy and thermo-elastics issues, which affect the quality of the beams. The disruptive concept proposed here consists in using this big radiating aperture in a new configuration, an Imaging Array. The Imaging Array is made of two confocal reflectors, one very big, the other smaller. This optical subsystem magnifies a primary phased array. With such an architecture, it becomes possible to clear for the effects of the static and dynamic deformations by means of phase shifters placed at the level of the focal array. The demonstration of this feasibility constitutes the first objective of this project. It will be applied to the particular case of a large reflectarray. The second critical point of such an antenna subsystem lies in the Beam Forming Network (BFN). An innovative approach, free of anteriority in intellectual property, is developed at the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications of Rennes ( IETR). It concerns a BFN referred to as a "Pill-Box". We suggest performing in this project the first demonstration of such a Pillbox BFN in two dimensions. The concept is moreover original and a joint patent registration IETR / TAS is currently being developed. This experimental demonstration, associated with the optimal dimensioning of the architecture antenna, and in the demonstration of the possibility of clearing for the shape imperfections of a large reflectarray will show the feasibility of such an antenna subsystem. This project will allow to remove both critical points identified for such an antenna. It will open considerable perspectives because the aimed product corresponds to a priority need for telecommunications civil and military operators.

Developing an improved Personal Locator Beacon (PLB), enhanced MEOLUT and physiological monitoring application providing an end-to-end solution based on the SAR/Galileo service and particularly the unique Return-Link-Service (RLS). The improved PLB is wrist-worn, integrating a 406MHz Cospas-Sarsat compatible beacon and a Digital Selective Calling (DSC) transceiver compatible with marine VHF radios. The enhanced MEOLUT supports increased uplink data throughput. The specific application monitors at the PLB and communicates to the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC), via the MEOLUT, the user’s physiological status. The integrated PLB and the enhanced communication will enable operational advantages for increasing the rescue probability, by: 1. Detecting a mariner's distress call by SAR satellites, and by nearby ships equipped with a DSC radio. 2. Saving battery power by controlling the PLB transmission power and repetition rate, upon RLS and DSC acknowledgments. 3. Enabling the RCC and assisting ships to provide rescue suitable to the specific case. Increasing the data throughput will be achieved based on a mathematical method patented by Mobit and implemented in its present PLB (SAT406), and with the cooperation of a MEOLUT developer – Thales Alenia Space. This method could pave the way for an enhanced communication protocol between PLB and RCC, facilitating and improving the rescue operation. In the project, the specific application of monitoring and communicating the user's physiological status will be developed by GeoNumerics, an SME specialized in geomatic and navigation algorithms that has developed a “stochastic graph navigation” method for “qualitative navigation.” The project products are: an innovative PLB to be introduced to the marine market, and MEOLUT enhancing offering added value services for the SAR community and users, potentially becoming standard.

L'objectif global est d'améliorer les méthodes de gestion du trafic, en utilisant d'une part les données actuellement disponibles, et d'autre part les informations pouvant provenir de véhicules traceurs, afin d'obtenir une meilleure connaissance en temps réel des situations de trafic à l'échelle de l'agglomération et être en mesure de diffuser de l'information dynamique aux usagers.

Today, information systems are one of the world's main resources. As accentuated by the Covid-19 crisis, our society relies on an ever-increasing need to process and communicate data, with significant repercussions on politics, defense, health, innovation, daily-life and the economy. The level of security remains a major issue for many use-cases, where secret key encryption are provably secure and can be implemented in the real world via quantum solutions. Quantum-safe communication, the first commercially available quantum technology, provides a unique means to establish, between distant locations, random strings of identical secret bits, with a level of security unattainable using conventional approaches. The implementation of actual quantum systems has become crucial, given the strong military, societal and economic impacts. This path, considered as one of the most promising for IT innovation, benefits from largely endowed R&D programs, such as the EU Flagship and other national initiatives (UK, Germany, China, USA, France). With the development of quantum computers and sensors, it becomes of prime necessity to connect them. Consequently, tasks such as distributed quantum computing and sensing will lead to a large-scale quantum Internet. The major obstacle to the adoption of such networks lies in the limited distance (~100 km) over which they can be deployed, due to losses in optical fibers and the curvature of the Earth. In the absence of reliable quantum repeaters, the space segment represents the only potential way to circumvent this limitation. To date, the only real demonstrations have been made in China (Micius satellite), but many projects are underway at the international scale. SoLuQS aims at effectively answering this demand by building industrial "entanglement source" prototypes that meet the constraints of spatialization, without compromising their performance. The key words of our achievements will be compactness and integrability, allowing satellite exploitation for both civil and military domains. These devices will eventually allow the connection of 2 metropolitan quantum networks (Paris and Nice). SoLuQS will therefore follow the promising path of new telecom-compatible laser optical communication systems in free space, and is thus part of the ASTRID AAP's thematic axis 3, "Cryptography - Communication", with a focus on "network security", their "operational implementation" based on "multimodal entanglement", as well as "space solutions". We will develop, at the French scale, the necessary tools for spatialization, in view of establishing a secure space/ground communication link, in order to anticipate future satellite realizations. SoLuQS brings together the best international teams in quantum communication (INPHYNI and LIP6) as well as a major French space industrial group (Thales Alenia Space) which will promote both integration and spatialization of the achievements. The consortium will pursue an active knowledge dissemination strategy. IP and the attraction of industrialists have a directly exploitable economic value, both in terms of patents, market reach, and creation of start-ups. We will ensure the training of staff and students as well as the promotion of partners in both the academic and industrial communities. These activities will be complemented by dissemination actions (international conferences, scientific and general public publications, etc.) in order to maximize the project impact. Taken as a whole, our actions will ensure France to play a leading role on the international level, in terms of disruptive quantum technologies for space quantum communication.

The aim of the PRISMS project is to develop a tool for modelling and predicting the effects on the Earth's ionized environment of electromagnetic emissions and particle ejection from the Sun. Through the PRISMS project, we ambition, by coupling individually validated models, to build an integrated model that will be able to propagate electromagnetic emissions from the Sun and plasma emissions from the solar wind, at the L1 Lagrange point, to the ionized space environment of Earth, with coupling functions adapted to ensure the delicate transmission at the interface between the solar wind and the terrestrial environment. This global model will be constrained by space observations, which will condition the coupling functions in order to better characterize the perturbation and its propagation. The model will evaluate the effects on the ionosphere dynamics of electromagnetic disturbances during solar flares and the effects associated with magnetic storms (corotating interaction regions and coronal mass ejections) and thereby the impact on radio communications through the propagation of electromagnetic waves in this environment. In addition, by developing a suitable module, the model will calculate the ground magnetic trace of these disturbances. At the end of the project, we will have implemented a prototype operational system that will have the ability to follow in near real-time the variations of electromagnetic solar emissions and of thje properties from the solar wind and to describe the disturbances induced by solar activity on the propagation of radio waves. This effort is part of a strategy of national independence with respect to modeling of the damaging effects of the Sun on the industrial, societal and military activities in France and more broadly on an European level.