Since the late 1990s, telecommunication satellites are covering an increasingly wide range of services, forcing satellite operators to seek more in-orbit flexibility to adapt to their customers’ requirements. To meet this need, the FLIP project developed different payload architecture solutions and flexible payload products.

Key figures

• 20 baseline missions considered
• 1 end-to-end demonstrator of a flexible payload
• 10 flexible products put onto the market, including two generations of PNT transparent digital processors

Key milestones

• March 2018: Flexible payload demonstrator delivered to LIT
• June 2017: Launch of HellasSat 3/Inmarsat-S-EAN satellite incorporating 2.5G PNT
• July 2014: Validation Review of 2.5G transparent digital processor (PNT)
• April 2013: Critical Definition Review (CDR) of MPA/AFSRA demonstrator
• 2007-2008: System-level Preliminary Definition Reviews (PDR)
• July 2006: Project kick-off

Project in brief

The FLIP (FLexible Innovative Payload) project answered a growing demand for flexibility from telecommunication satellite operators. These operators want to be able to manage their satellites in a more dynamic and flexible way once they are in orbit, notably to adapt to market fluctuations.

This demand for flexibility encompasses satellite coverage, K_u-band frequency resources, as well as power allocated by channel and/or region to meet fluctuating network usage.

CNES’s role

Supported by CNES and led by Thales Alenia Space, FLIP developed technological building blocks to afford more flexibility in future satellite payloads, such as adaptable frequency converters, on-board power banks and adjustable coverage antennas.

The project also sought to provide CNES’s telecommunications laboratory with the first flexible payload demonstrator in Europe, to enable end-to-end performance assessment. The FLIP demonstrator is at CNES’s LIT laboratory.

Contacts

Head of Telecoms & Navigation
Jean-Philippe Taisant
E-mail: jean-philippe.taisant at cnes.fr