State-of-the-art Space Upstream Technologies

Antonios Paschalis is Professor at the Department of Informatics & Telecommunications of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), Director of the Digital Systems & Computer Architecture Laboratory (DSCAL), co-Founder and Director of the Inter-Institutional Master Studies Program at Space Technologies, Applications and seRvices (STAR), co-Founder and Director of the Common Master Studies Program with the Greek Army at Secure Telecommunications and Network Systems, member of the former Temporal Assembly of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology of the NKUA, academic member of the Steering Committee of the Hellenic innovation ecosystem in the field of space technologies and applications (si-Cluster), member of the Board of the former Hellenic Space Agency (HSA), and Chairman of the Department of Informatics & Telecommunications of the NKUA for 4 years (2016-2020).

Prof. Paschalis has participated in all phases of ESA space missions: PROBA-3 since 2009 and TRUTHS since 2021 delivering state-of-the-art space technologies for on-board image data compression. Under his leadership, the research group in space upstream technology of DSCAL innovates worldwide in the development in Greece of Payload Data Processing Units and High-Speed Hardware Accelerators, as IP cores in SoC FPGA technology, for all data, 2D and 3D (hyperspectral) image compression algorithms, channel-coding & synchronization algorithms and authentication & encryption algorithms, that satisfy the CCSDS space standards 121, 122, 123, 131, 142 and 352, and constitute a High-Speed Data Chain for "smart" next-generation payloads for EO and optical/RF communication.

Prof. Paschalis participates as Deputy Project Manager and PA/QA Manager and co-I in the ERMIS - Hellenic CubeSat Demonstration Mission with prime contractor the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens that aims to develop in Greece 3 nanosatellites (6U-8U CubeSat type) under the Greek National Satellite Space Programme in order to demonstrate pilot activities like 5G-IoT communication services, RF inter-satellite link, optical laser link, hyperspectral EO applications, ADCS, OBC, Payload Data Processing Units and hardware accelerators of CCSDS algorithms, ground segment capabilities and skills, all unique to Greece and Europe.

Prof. Paschalis was born in 1960, he received the B.Sc. degree in Physics in 1982, the M.Sc. degree in Electronic Automation in 1985 and the Ph.D. in Dependable Computers, under scholarship from the NCSR "Demokritos" in 1987, all from the Department of Physics of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He has about 40 years of experience in the development of fault-tolerant systems, 30 years of experience in self-testing of VLSI circuits and Systems on Chip and 15 years of experience in the design and architecture of high-performance on-board payload data processing units for space applications. He has published more than 160 scientific publications; he is co-author of a book and he holds a US patent (5.960.009). He has supervised 9 graduated Ph.D. students, 5 of them are Professors in Academia. Currently, there are more than 3,100 citations that refer to his published material and his h-index is 34. He is Golden Core Member of the IEEE Computer Society.

Nektarios Kranitis currently serves as a Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, NKUA. He has more than 25 years of experience in the development of FPGA systems, more than 10 years of experience in the development of on-board computers & data handling, on-board payload data processing systems, IP Core based hardware acceleration, and dependable and reliable systems design. He has more than 10 years of experience in design, development, verification and validation of microelectronics compliant with ECSS-Q-ST-60-02C standard. He was awarded a scholarship for doctoral studies from the National Centre for Scientific Research (N.C.S.R.) "Demokritos".

Professor Kranitis has been involved as proposal writer, PI or senior researcher in several R&D projects funded by ESA, EU and the Greek government in onboard data systems technology. He has developed cutting-edge technology hardware accelerators as IP Cores for monoband images (CCSDS 122), hyperspectral images (CCSDS 123) and data compression (CCSDS 121), channel coding for near-earth (C2) and deep-space (AR4JA) applications (CCSDS 131), and authenticated encryption (CCSDS 352 AES/GCM), providing state of-the-art data-rate performance.

He participates in Phase C/D/E1 of ESA PROBA-3 space mission in the development of onboard data processing FPGA firmware of the ASPIICS Coronagraph System Payload as WP Manager for the Image Data Compression IP Core NRE. He also participates in Phase A/B1/B2/Advanced C for On-Board Compression activities for ESA TRUTHS mission. He participated in the development and demonstration of next-generation on-board data handling technologies in collaboration with AIRBUS DS and DLR in the framework of H2020 Hi-SIDE project (GA 776151), managed by HaDEA, which won the 'Innovation in Space Award 2022' at the European Space Forum 2022. He participates as Onboard Payload Data Processing Expert in 2 CubeSat missions, ERMIS and Hellenic Space Dawn (HSD), in the framework of ESA AO/1-11498/22/UK/ND Greek CubeSats In-Orbit Validation Projects. He also participates to the ESA/Greek National Satellite Space Project Axis 1.2 (radar program) developing SAR raw data compression solutions.

He was awarded a very competitive post-doctoral research grant (180k€), serving as Principal Investigator (PI), funded by Hellenic Foundation for Research & Innovation (H.F.R.I) – ELIDEK for developing state-of-the-art hardware accelerator IP Cores for onboard data systems. He has published more than 80 scientific publications in highly cited and peer reviewed transactions, journals and conference proceedings. Currently, there are more than 1700 citations that refer to his published work while his h-index is 23. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (AESS) and the IEEE Computer Society (CS).