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    ESA > Our Activities > Space Engineering

    Steerable 3m antenna used for satellite tracking

    How is the RF Payload Systems Laboratory equipped?

    The RF Laboratory is equipped with:

    Multipaction facility and RF Corona facility - thermal-vacuum chambers with precisely controlled temperature and pressure control.

    'Passive intermodulation' (PIM) facility – used for interference testing of microwave system elements.

    Ultra-stable reference signal – for time and frequency testing, also made available to the ESA Telecom and Radio Navigation Laboratories- one active maser and three caesium atomic clocks.

    Life testing facility – accelerated and long-term testing of TWTAs, SSPAs, oscillators with thermal chambers.

    General microwave and MMIC testing facility – for general purpose testing of microwave and millimetre-wave modules, includes thin film rapid prototyping for testing.

    The Radio Navigation Laboratory is equipped with:

    • Galileo/GPS/GLONASS simulators - with interference generator.
    • GIOVE-A/B simulator – for testing of ground segment receivers.
    • ORUS software - for the analysis of digitally captured real signals.
    • IMAGE software - to generate EGNOS performance data for general public.
    • Formation flying test bed - to evaluate proposed implementation of satellite formation flying.
    • High-gain dish antenna - to track individual navigation satellites without interference.
    • Mobile in-the-field test equipment - for measuring localised interference and multipath.

    The RF Remote Sensing Laboratory is equipped with:

    • Instrument modelling software – for SAR performance assessment and design
    • SAR digital calibration transponder – for assessing in-flight performance of SARs
    • Active array/front end simulators
    • PARIS orbit assessment software
    • GNSS-R simulator – for examining the end-to-end performance of GNSS-R instruments operating over the oceans, including PARIS
    • OceanPal instrument – for carrying out external experiments into PARIS and GNSS-R such as soil moisture monitoring
    • SIRA – Simulator for Interferometric Radar Altimeters – combines a state-of-the-art ocean model, ocean scattering module and radar instrument characteristics for performance assessment and design of wide-swath ocean altimeters
    • Cloud and rain radar test bed - which makes use of an arbitrary waveform generator for assessing the performance of ultra-low sidelobe radar waveforms

    The ESA Telecom Laboratory is equipped with:

    • Interactive Satellite Networks consisting of gateways and satellite interactive user terminals with star and mesh connection capabilities.
    • Uplink stations in Ku, C and Ka frequency bands
    • Satellite Capacity
    • Network simulation and emulation facilities
    • Wideband satellite channel Simulators and DVB-S2 Test Bed
    • High-speed data link test beds for Earth observing and Telecom applications.
    • Test Equipment for multimedia applications, such as video conferencing end points, collaborative working platforms, video streaming equipment
    • Two test vehicles, one for broadband/mobile communications and the other for interactive broadband communications

    Last update: 19 September 2012

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      • RF Payload Systems Laboratories
        • What kind of testing does the RF Payload Systems Laboratories carry out?
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                  • Radio Frequency Payload Systems
                  • Electrical
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                  • ESTEC - ESA's technical heart

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