The European Space Agency (ESA) has issued a new Invitation to Tender (ITT) under its ARTES Advanced Technology programme to tackle one of the biggest challenges in space today: sustainability.

With the rapid growth of large nanosatellite constellations for telecommunications, the risk of space debris and orbital congestion is increasing. Current CubeSat-based designs were never intended to meet stringent debris mitigation requirements, nor are they enabling  a cost-effective mass production. ESA’s updated Space Debris Mitigation Policy now calls for innovative solutions.

Objective

Design, develop, manufacture, and test a next-generation microsatellite platform for large satcom constellations, fully compliant with ESA’s space debris mitigation requirements.

Targeted improvements:

  • Achieve compliance with evolving debris mitigation rules, including passivation, timely and reliable deorbiting, and sustainable operations.
  • Reduce compared to existing nanosatellite designs.

Target TRL: 4

The activity will include the development of:

  • ✅ A platform design comprising structure and core avionics compliant to the ESA Space debris mitigation requirements (ESSB-ST-U-007) as well as optimised for cost effective mass production.
  • ✅ An Engineering Model of the nanosat platform (i.e. structure and core avionics) and its corresponding deployment system will be designed, manufactured and tested
  • ✅ A Product Assurance and Quality Assurance plan, a manufacturing plan and an appropriate tailoring to the ECSS.

Get Involved

Help shape the future of sustainable satellite communications.

Deadline: 06 February 2026, 13:00 CET

Submit your proposal via esa-star: esa-star Publication

Opportunity: Space Debris Compliant Microsatellite Platform for Large Satcom Constellations

Programme: ARTES Advanced Technology