Periodic Reporting for period 3 - 2-3SST2016 (Second and third funding line in 2016-2017 for the establishment of a European SST service provisionfunction)
Reporting period: 2020-01-01 to 2020-12-31
• Part I is the continuation of the 2SST2015 action. The objective of the Part I of the 2-3SST2016-17 project is to continue to support the pooling of national resources on the SST objectives outlined in the aforementioned Decision. This is being performed by consolidating the EUSST functions and SST capability at European level, and supported by the implementation of an Integrated Management for all SST2016-17 projects within 2-3SST2016 17.
• Part II is planned for a duration of 39 months ending in Dec 2020. Part II addresses Actions 7 and 17 - SGA for “Improving the Performances of the SST at European Level” where the COM supports the priority upgrading and development of assets, in particular radars and telescopes, operated by Member States participating in the SST support Framework to improve the overall performances of the SST services and possible impact on the architecture of the European SST functions necessary to ensure, in the long-term, a high level of performance of this European service. The objective of the Part II of 2-3SST2016-17 is to continue to support the SST evolution needs in line with the objectives and challenges of Horizon 2020 related to protecting Europe´s investment made in space infrastructure. This is being performed by the improvement of the EUSST functions and capabilities, in accordance with the Action Plan outlined in the EUSST Framework Partnership Agreement [AD-6], as well as to continue the trade-off of future EUSST architecture and the upgrade or renewal of identified sensors (radars, telescopes and laser stations) controlled by the EUSST Consortium Member States.
- Preparation activities for the inclusion of new MS in the SST Consortium performed
- Establishment of a Joint Project Management Team
- Establishment of new service provision portfolio for CA, RE and FG services as of 1st July 2018
- Establishment of an EUSST database for the exchange of information between National Operation Centres
- Conducting a second User Feedback Campaign
- Performing an Horizon Scanning and Architectural Studies (added value analysis)
- Upgrading of SST sensors at national level
From the dissemination point of view:
During the period covered by this project, EU SST has made a qualitative leap in terms of Dissemination activities, achieving the following results:
- Revamp of EU SST website (https://www.eusst.eu)
o The site was redesigned with a new, more user-friendly content structure consisting of the following sections: Home (with basic information about EU SST), About (with more detailed information including a map of sensors and the EU SST architecture), Services (with the main features of the three SST services: Collision Avoidance, Re-entry Analysis and Fragmentation Analysis) and Newsroom (which contains a repository of events organised or attended by EU SST such as webinars, workshops and conferences, as well as scientific publications and the latest EU SST news).
- Development of EU SST social media presence
o In 2020 EU SST started actively managing its Twitter channel (https://twitter.com/eu_sst) and created a LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/company/eusst). EU SST also has a YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoOSdxYh9aoUKmvIjpfsJBw).
- Two webinars
o 1st EU SST Webinar (https://www.eusst.eu/newsroom/1st-eu-sst-webinar/) held in 2019, with the objective of presenting the EU SST capability and providing information about the SST services.
o 2nd EU SST Webinar (https://www.eusst.eu/newsroom/2nd-eu-sst-webinar/) held in 2020, with a focus on Operations. The webinar tripled the number of participants (more than 450) and registrations (almost 600) compared to the first edition.
- Dissemination of EU SST results
o The potential collision of objects COSMOS 2004 & CZ-4C R/B in October 2020 was reported nearly live on Twitter (https://twitter.com/EU_SST/status/1316728067621093376).
o In December 2020 an article on EU SST as precursor capability for space traffic coordination (https://www.eusst.eu/newsroom/eu-sst-precursor-capability-operational-coordination-space-traffic/) including two examples of operational coordination within EU SST (the potential collision of satellites VENµs and Terra, and of satellite Sentinel 6p and a piece of debris - COSMOS 249 DEB), was published on the EU SST website and on social media.
- Update of EU SST Service Portfolio (https://portal.eusst.eu/portalng/public-download/ServicePortfolio)
o The updated Portfolio has now an improved visual appearance and a new content structure, in line with the evolution of the EU SST services. It was published on the SST Portal and the EU SST website in 2020, along with a promotional campaign.
(1) a consolidation of the EUSST system, based on national assets, in which the collaboration between the project participants allows an increase in European independence in provision of services and the improvement of the performance of the said services. This activity has been mainly focused on the consolidation of networking between OCs, the integration of assets and the consolidation of the provision of the defined SST services; and
(2) an improvement of the EUSST system, based on national assets, in which the increase of the SST assets performance allows i) the decrease in European dependence on the access to data for the provision of services and ii) the improvement of the performance of the said services.