HARMONY — Innovating New Space Frontiers: Harmonised Federated and Fractionated Systems Unlocking Fresh Perspectives for Satellite Services

Results in brief

Innovating New Space Frontiers: Harmonised Federated and Fractionated Systems Unlocking Fresh Perspectives for Satellite Services

The growing demand for global connectivity, navigation, and climate monitoring has transformed the space sector. Innovations in digitisation, miniaturisation, and reusability, along with regulatory reforms and commercialisation, are driving rapid changes in New Space. As space infrastructure expands and congestion grows, the next evolution lies in integrating heterogeneous spaceborne assets. HARMONY aligns with the 6G vision to merge terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, enabling global, cost-effective coverage and unlocking the potential of space systems for services like Earth observation and navigation. HARMONY seeks to remove barriers between space missions, fostering a sustainable, multi-mission ecosystem. Its two core Innovation Objectives focus on combining wireless connectivity with sensing and imaging and promoting sustainable growth by reducing the environmental footprint of space missions. The project nurtures future leaders while driving the commercial viability of New Space by lowering barriers to entry and operational costs. HARMONY’s research centres on Fractionation, which distributes satellite functions across interconnected modules, and Federation, where satellites dynamically share resources via inter-satellite links. These approaches address bottlenecks in small satellite missions, such as limited processing power and beam capabilities. Combined with software-defined payloads, they enable scalable data processing and improved resolution through distributed antennas. FFSS architectures facilitate gradual deployment, maintenance, and replacement of satellites, significantly reducing environmental impact and costs while advancing space system capabilities. By bridging fractionation and federation, HARMONY provides transformative solutions for the evolving space economy.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Major developments in small satellite technologies coupled with the rapid commercialisation of New Space are disrupting the space landscape. A driving role rests with the telecommunication vertical, where market demands for global connectivity led to the emergence of LEO and MEO mega-constellation and are accelerating efforts for the integration of non-terrestrial with terrestrial networks. Core to this vision is an architectural paradigm shift from large monolithic satellites to an orchestrated network of multi-orbit spaceborne nodes of various sizes and capabilities. On the other hand, space missions traditionally dominated by governmental initiatives - such as Navigation (GNSS) and Earth observation (EO) - are slower in adopting the New Space spirit towards coordination and synergetic exploitation of emerging and established satellite systems. Yet these systems have had transformative impact on our daily lives along a plethora of applications and verticals. Anticipating the next New Space frontiers in commercially driven missions within these domains, a central view of HARMONY is that step change potential will be released by adopting distributed satellite architectures across a range of existing and new applications where the space environment provides unique benefits. Placing innovative space services at its core, HARMONY will adopt a cross-disciplinary & vertically integrated approach in the study of federated and fractionated satellite system architectures and the development of core underpinning technologies in a doctoral network that will nurture future European New Space leaders.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

UNIVERSITAET DER BUNDESWEHR MUENCHEN · NEUBIBERGCoordinatorGermany
CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisFrance
HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY · EdinburghUnited Kingdom
LARGE SPACE STRUCTURES GMBH · GARCHING B MUNCHENGermany
M.B.I. SRL · SANT'AGATA LI BATTIATI CTItaly
THALES ALENIA SPACE ESPANA SA · TRES CANTOSSpain
THALES ALENIA SPACE FRANCE SAS · ToulouseFrance
UAB KONGSBERG NANOAVIONICS · VilniusLithuania
UNIVERSITE DE RENNES · RennesFrance

HARMONY · Innovating New Space Frontiers: Harmonised Federated and Fractionated Systems Unlocking Fresh Perspectives for Satellite Services

Results in brief

Innovating New Space Frontiers: Harmonised Federated and Fractionated Systems Unlocking Fresh Perspectives for Satellite Services

Project objective

Participants

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