Anaren has announced that they have received a $7 million contract award from Airbus Defence and Space for an advanced beamforming assembly to be deployed on the Eutelsat Quantum Satellite program, which Airbus Defence and Space is developing for Eutelsat, as part of a Public-Private funded partnership with the European Space Agency. The Eutelsat Quantum program will feature the world’s first fully reconfigurable commercial satellite, allowing Eutelsat to adapt the satellite in response to new demands in coverage, bandwidth, power, frequency, and even changes in its orbital position. Anaren will deliver its first flight-set hardware to Airbus Defence and Space in calendar year 2017, with additional system tests and production anticipated over subsequent years.
Given the stated goal of in-orbit adaptability, the Anaren solution fully integrates active RF beam-shaping and control functionality into a package which will meet the demanding size, weight and power requirements needed for this new platform.
Eutelsat Quantum is a first for the commercial satellite industry, featuring software-defined ‘receive’ and ‘transmit’ coverages in the Ku-band; on-board jamming detection and mitigation; and flexible beam-steering, frequency adjustments, and bandwidth reassignment functionality in order to accommodate customers’ needs or market demands. Eutelsat Communications is one of the world’s leading operators of communications satellites used by broadcasting organizations, telcos, internet service providers, government agencies, and other customers. Based in Paris and with offices around the world, the company has a workforce of approximately 1,000 employees in 32 countries worldwide.
