Wanted: innovative minds for Star Tiger


A new approach to technology research and development
 
The objective of the Star Tiger activity is to explore a new way of performing technology research and development in general.
The key features and guiding principles of StarTiger are:
  • to co-locate a multidisciplinary group of dedicated highly motivated researchers and experts in a centre that has all the necessary facilities to allow a quantum step forward in technology development
  • to grant to the team priority access to state of the art equipment, facilities (e.g. testing, production, etc.), computing power and technical support,
  • to allow them to work for an intense period, no longer than 6 months, devoid from administrative red tape and normal everyday day distractions, on a particular project.
The ‘end goal’ is to provide significant advancement with respect to the present state-of-the-art of the technology selected for development in a promising technological area. Furthermore, it is aimed at providing a dramatic reduction in the turnaround time for state-of-the-art technological developments.

Whilst the Star Tiger concept is generally applicable to all innovative technology research, a pilot project has been selected in the field of antennas. ESA’s objective is to develop a colour terahertz-wave imager, which would represent a true breakthrough for sub-millimetre-wave remote sensing from space, as well as to open up new opportunities within several non-space application areas.

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
 
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) located in Oxfordshire near Didcot is a world-class UK research institution part of the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CLRC). RAL has a staff of around 1200 who support the work of over 10 000 scientists and engineers, mainly from the university research community. Its main facilities enable research into new materials and structures, for example from battery electrolytes to turbine blades, X-ray laser research, space-based astronomy, the coordination of particle physics and many other topics.

ESA is looking for 10 scientists for Star Tiger
 
ESA is looking for 10 scientists to bring together the expertise required for the Star Tiger pilot project. The aim is to produce a compact colour terahertz imager using state-of-art micro-machining technology. It will integrate such innovative technology areas as planar antenna technology, planar detector technology, photonic bandgap materials and miniaturised back-end electronics.



Release date: 2 April 2002