OQ Technology has been successfully awarded € 1.1 Million a contract for ERMIS mission.

OQ Technology has been successfully awarded € 1.1 Million a contract to design, build, integrate, test and demonstrate three advanced nanosatellites featuring multiple payloads providing space-based 5G narrowband internet-of-things communications services, an optical communications link, as well as hyperspectral Earth observation data to support precision agriculture as part of the ERMIS mission. ERMIS [Hellenic Cubesat Demonstration Mission] is a pathfinder demonstration of key space connectivity capabilities linked to Greece’s 200M€ national small satellite project using a constellation of small satellites.

OQ Technology Hellas is a subcontractor and a key member of the ERMIS consortium led by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). Other members of the consortium include the University of Patras, the University of the Aegean and the National Observatory of Athens.

ERMIS-1 and ERMIS-2 Cubesats built by OQ Hellas will host the payloads of OQ Technology Luxembourg to demonstrate 5G internet-of-things non-terrestrial network (5G-IoT-NTN) connectivity and additionally incorporate Inter-Satellite Link (ISL) to enhance its coverage.

The importance of 5G technology in satellite IoT (Internet of Things) lies in its ability to provide high-speed, reliable, and low-latency connectivity to a wide range of devices, including those in remote and difficult-to-reach locations. In satellite IoT, 5G technology enables the integration of satellite networks with terrestrial networks, creating a seamless and unified network that can support a wide range of applications, including smart agriculture, pipeline monitoring, transportation tracking, and much more. Moreover, 5G technology enables satellite IoT devices to operate in challenging environments, such as harsh weather conditions, remote locations, or disaster areas, where traditional communication networks may not be available.

Demonstrating and testing ISL for 5G IoT NTN will enable OQ Technology to offer enhanced coverage and faster speeds in delivering data to its customers reliably and seamlessly. The two satellites will join OQ Technology global growing satellite fleet of 5G NB-IoT. The technology is based on 3GPP Release 17 standardized 5G connectivity.

ERMIS-3 co-built by OQ Hellas with NKUA will host payloads from the other members of the consortium to demonstrate optical communications link and hyperspectral Earth Observation data to support precision agriculture.

Mr. Vaios Lappas, Department Head, Aerospace Science & Technology, University of Athens, and the technical officer of the Prime Contractor quoted that ‘We are very pleased that Greece’s first small satellite constellation will be using game changing technologies in telecommunications, IoT/5G, hyperspectral imaging. A key and important aspect of our project is the cooperative nature of academia and industry leaders such as OQ. Working with a world innovator such as OQ will push national and European leadership in 5G/IoT and foster growth, new jobs and unique space applications which come with the use of 5G/IoT.’

Figure 2: ERMIS Team with ESA experts at the Greek CubeSat Projects Workshop

The initiative underpins efforts – led by ESA on behalf of the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance – to expand the nascent space industry in Greece, enabling the digital transformation of society while creating jobs and generating prosperity, as part of the nation’s EU-funded Recovery and Resilience Facility. The ERMIS 4.8M€ project is funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU and by the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance.

Mr. Frédéric Rouesnel, Greek National Telecom Satellite Project Mission Project Manager recalled that "On 26 November 2021, the ministry of Digital Governance in Greece implemented an agile path to materialize the Greek National Satellite Project aiming to enhance the capabilities  of Greek Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in satellite technologies and applications, especially for communications and Earth Observation, and to empower the country to build the necessary expertise for satellite systems design and implementation locally. OQ Technology, already a front runner in Satellite 5G-IoT domain, through the ERMIS mission is well aligned with this vision, ambition, challenge and is well positioned to be the commercial and technology driver for building capabilities for satellite technologies locally in Greece while at the same time delivering state of the art satellite based 5G-IoT connectivity globally.”

Mr. Omar Qaise, Founder & CEO of  OQ Technology Group added that “OQ Technology group companies are collaborating together on an European but also global level to leverage the capabilities and opportunities in these markets but also build new partnerships and skills - We work with global satellite manufacturers, nevertheless to accelerate our satellite 5G constellation deployment it is essential also to have the capability to deploy the ERMIS platforms carrying 5G NB-IoT payloads in the near future – We are very grateful to the European Space Agency (ESA) for granting our consortium the ERMIS opportunity, we are thankful to our trusted Greek consortium partners who made this proposal a success and we look forward to working together to bring ERMIS satellites to orbit soon.”

YEESS: The new “space virtual enterprise, larger than any other space enterprise in Europe, who did not exist 5 years ago”

Space is not a big place, neither our planet Earth. It looks an oxymoron, but the reality shows that the Low Earth Orbits are now considerably crowded, having grown from 1500 to over 8200 (UNOOSA, Jan22), out of which nearly a half belong to a single US constellation, Starlink.

That is why the European Commission and ESA decided to launch the IRIS² constellation, an attempt to reserve the sovereignty and voice of Europe into the game, going beyond secure communications and including Earth Observation and GNSS as additional fundamental services that will differentiate the EU operation.

Since the Lisbon 2000 objective (3% devoted to R+D+i), Europe keeps repeating itself its strengths in research capacities (now 3^rd in the world after China and US), and its weaknesses in technology transfer (TT), with poorer results in entrepreneurship. Mazzucato (“The entrepreneurial State”) proposes to change this perspective of poor TT into the analysis of the industrial infrastructure, its behaviour, its readiness to invest in technology as well as the purchase policies and practices of the public institutions.

Recently ESA has awarded 9 Copernicus Contributing Missions that soon will be disclosed, showing a new attitude towards the opportunity, pointing at new players with high potential.

And The European Commission has dictated the rule of 30% SME content in the aforementioned IRIS² open competition.

But is this willingness to push the European Space SMEs corresponding to an industrial reality?

Otherwise, it could be a lost effort.

In a truly bottom-up, continuous and open process, the most promising European Space SMEs have grown the Young European Enterprises Syndicate for Space, YEESS. If we imagined this perimeter of activities as a single virtual company, we could show the leadership of YEESS in a robust set of technologies and services like space deployers, rockets, motors, thrusters, antennas, RFI, optical cameras, EO full solutions or launch services, amongst others. They are provided by companies that successfully sell those technologies outside Europe. This catalogue can hardly be found outside YEESS, especially with the dominant focus into small satellites.

Furthermore, the majority of our members are Gazelle companies (as defined by Eurostat), who have arrived at over 900 jobs, mainly highly skilled engineers, that did not exist 5 years ago, who exist based on new private investments and who take growth as a strong commitment with all stakeholders. This segment represents the vast majority of the growth and new employment of the space sector.

Not many other initiatives, from various economy sectors, can provide this given to new generations in Europe. Our common destiny, through various countries in Europe, is also a destiny of employment, technology, space challenges and adventure.

But this initiative requires continuous attention, care and intelligence, in other to have an international consolidation that keeps the aggressive growth rate.

Soon YEESS will provide its publication from its observatory of business data, offering those evidences as a best practice for companies and institutions.

And therefore, the initiatives like Copernicus Contributing Missions or IRIS² are a must that makes YEESS sustainable. Thank you for these bold steps.

Juan Tomás Hernani

President of YEESS

The YEESS syndicate is an alliance of young European space entreprises at the service of Europe. YEESS entreprises are agile and available to reinvent our transportation on Earth and to Moon and Mars.

New space is not new, but continues to be new every day, with a momentum fed by the convergence between a growing demand for data, a decrease of costs and an increasing role of software in the value chain.

New actors are entering space based businesses by the day, generating neo dreams and new realities, sustaining a momentum of changes in the entire space sector, young enterprises and legacy companies, private investors and public institutions. These changes are not proper to space, but space contributes more and more all changes which affect our lives, for the good or for the bad.

However, in these changes, the image is different from the reality; lobbyists, commentators, promoters provide an image driven by their objectives rather than by the facts. In particular, Europe looks brighter and more successful from outside Europe than from Europe.

The lobbyists are more on the side of legacy companies and the commentators look more interested in weaknesses and failures than by strenghts and successes.

This is the reason why, I more than welcome the creation of the new platform, Young European Space Entrepreneur Focus, which will give the floor to young European entrepreneurs who will give directly their views about the global picture and how they change that picture.

In order to support this new platform, I shall sustain my connections with as many young European entrepreneurs as possible. They all bring a wind of change which will put Europe one step higher in space.

Mr. Jean-Jacques Dordain

Former Director General of the European Space Agency (2003-2015)

Member of the Advisory Board of the Government of Luxembourg on Space Resources