Critical Facilities Serving Space EEE components for EU non-dependence – High and Very High Energy Irradiation Test Facility Market Deployment

Expected Outcome:Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:Reinforcing EU strategic autonomy by reducing non-EU dependencies on critical space EEE components across their entire supply chain, including radiation testing facilities;Providing unrestricted access to critical space EEE components and testing facilities relevant for EU space missions (Galileo, EGNOS, Copernicus, IRIS2 and EU pilot missions on In-Orbit Space Operations and Quantum Gravimetry);Developing or regaining capacity to operate independently in space by developing resilient space EEE components and testing facilities supply chains, relying on EU supply chains and/or trustable and reliable supply chains not affected by non-EU export restrictions;Enhancing competitiveness by developing products and capabilities reaching equivalent or superior performance level than those from outside the EU and compete at worldwide level. Scope:Unrestricted access to state-of-art space EEE components and related technologies is a pre-requisite for the EU space industry responding to EU space missions. However, especially for some families of components, the available solutions in EU do not meet the current high-performance space requirements. This is also the case for testing facilities, especially high and very high energy testing facilities which are not available in EU. Currently, alternative irradiation testing facilities located outside EU, are either overbooked or often prioritized under the light on national security limiting their use by EU space stakeholder or severely delaying their access. This represents a challenge in terms of reliable and trustable supply chains for the implementation of EU space missions.Within the frame of this topic, it is expected to finance and implement a development project aiming at maturing the development of a dedicated irradiation test facility open to EU space stakeholders with focus on testing EEE components for space applications