Earth science benefits tremendously from spaceborne synthetic aperture radar. By combining multiple images taken from different angles, we can create accurate digital elevation models and high-resolution tomograms that unveil the three-dimensional structure of vegetation, ice, and dry soil. Whereas today such images are acquired sequentially with conventional satellites, compromising product quality and hindering the monitoring of fast dynamics, DRITUCS envisions distributed sensor concepts to acquire all data in a single pass, paving the way for effective and powerful monitoring of our planet. We exploit clusters of smallsats and build high-quality products from noisy and undersampled data. This makes a key contribution to multi-dimensional imaging theory and represents a paradigm shift from state-of-the-art techniques that demand expensive, high-quality imagery to create digital elevation models and tomograms. Smallsats can be mass-manufactured and lead to low-cost solutions. They are a disruptive NewSpace technology that needs to be complemented by novel distributed approaches to replace and enhance large aperture, high power radar systems. We are pursuing three scientific paths to lay the foundations of a) distributed multi-baseline interferometry, b) distributed tomography, and c) multiple-input multiple-output tomography that takes advantage of waveform diversity to infer unique information about different scattering mechanisms in natural and man-made environments. The elaboration of theoretical models and the development of signal processing algorithms will be complemented by experimental demonstrations with drones. DRITUCS is a giant leap for radar remote sensing with a significant impact on numerous applications. It will pose the basis for future advanced Earth observation missions that will offer remarkable societal benefits and boost European capabilities in the emerging NewSpace sector.

This research aims to develop a unified framework to compute in real-time optimal guidance solutions by merging two of the most promising technologies arisen over the last years, that is, pseudospectral optimal control, and convex optimization. The rationale for this choice can be found in the following motivations: 1. The former theory has very interesting properties, such as the quasi-exponential convergence to the true optimal solutions, and was already used to re-orient the International Space Station in 2006, leading to a save of about 1,000,000$ in terms of required propellant with respect to the previous methods. 2. Convex-optimization provides the technology to solve optimal control problems in real-time, a key feature for the future space systems, and computes the global optimum. 3. The two technologies are complementary as each method’s drawbacks are counterbalanced by the other method’s strengths, and their unification will yield an improvement of performance since the solutions will be optimal, in the sense of maximizing or minimizing a given criterion, while nowadays only sub-optimal schemes are available. 4. The research outcome will find applications in several industrial fields, leading to beneficial effects outside the space engineering field as well. The hybrid approach will consist in transcribing the original optimal control problem by using pseoudospectral transcription, that is, by adopting differential, integral, and discretization operators coming from pseudospectral methods. The resulting discrete problem will be then posed in convex form, suitable for real-time applications. The research will focus on the theoretical and algorithmic part, to be developed at the San Diego State University with Prof. Ping Lu during the first two years of program, while the third year will be spent at the German Aerospace Center, where the results will be implemented on a real-time architecture to show the maturity achieved by the proposed method.

OPeRATOR project will develop the capability to analyse a digitally operational, virtually integrated aircraft with respect to realistic operational scenarios. Systems and propulsion have become some of key contributors to meeting the Flight Path 2050 goals, introducing radically new approaches to aircraft design, the integration of new technologies and further optimization of aircraft operations. The key objective of OPeRATOR is to develop modelling and simulation technologies that enable virtual validation of such technologies under highly representative operation conditions. To this end, OPeRATOR will develop a Software library that is able to (1) make a virtually integrated aircraft model fly by appropriately integrating flight physical aspects, (2) virtually operate it in a realistically modelled environment and (3) to enable the analysis of over-all and individual system behaviour during user-specified virtual missions. The software library will be implemented in the Modelica language and capabilities will be provided to interface the models developed into other analysis tools. OPeRATOR is a mono-partner proposed by DLR (DE), who has been contributing in this field and is keen to bring its competences and expertise with multi-disciplinary flight physics and systems modelling, Modelica library and language development, the Functional Mock-up Interface standard, as well as realistic mission simulation for aircraft over-all design to the project.