Critical technology breadboarding for the PARIS In-Orbit Demonstration mission

The PARIS In-Orbit Demonstration mission is under study at the European Space Agency (ESA) to explore the scientific potential of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals reflected off the Earth surface. It consists of one single payload, PARIS, mounted on a small platform. This small satellite is intended to be launched as a piggy back passenger in a suitable launcher vehicle. The PARIS payload is a new instrument which tracks and receives direct and reflected GNSS signals through a pair of beam-forming antennas, mounted back to back. The direct and reflected signals are amplified, down-converted, digitized and cross-correlated with each other. The cross-correlation waveforms are the raw measurements from which to extract a variety of scientific information about the Earth surface and atmosphere. This paper focuses on the critical breadboarding of the active antenna, which includes calibration switches, low noise amplification, RF filtering and electrical to optical conversion, all at GPS and GALILEO upper and lower frequency bands, L1/E1 and L5/E5.