Extended human exploration (and ultimately, settlement) on Mars has long been an ambition, and with the rise of private space companies and increasing numbers of successful data-retrieval missions, what was once a theoretical prospect is now rapidly becoming a plausible reality. For this to be realised, shelter and infrastructure will need to be established, requiring construction materials for structures exposed to the Martian atmosphere as well as within habitable environments. Naturally, transporting bulk construction materials from Earth is unfeasible and so a number of potential solutions have been suggested, ranging from inflatable habitats to below surface structures. In-situ resource utilisation has gained considerable traction and there has been research into various forms of this such as Martian concrete and 3D printed regolith, although these require additives and/or energy intensive processes. A more ideal solution to this space-age problem may, in fact, be one of the most ancient forms of construction: rammed earth. Rammed earth has seen something of a resurgence as a sustainable building material and interest in understanding the sources of its strength and durability has been renewed. In particular, recent studies have modelled rammed earth as an unsaturated soil, pointing to a "pore suction" that develops as rammed earth dries out and equilibrates with its surrounding environment. This is similar to the way that adding just a small amount of water to dry sand allows sandcastles to be built at the beach. Sadly, no one has been able to bring samples of Martian regolith (soil) back to Earth but thanks to exploratory probes a good understanding of the composition of the material that covers the Martian surface exists. This information has been used to make replica, or simulant, Martian regolith from materials existing on Earth. These simulants have been vital for testing the prototype of the Perseverance rover that NASA landed on Mars in 2020. Some previous research has been conducted into the potential of rammed earth Martian regolith using regolith simulants, but this previous work did not investigate the effects of the Martian atmosphere and gravity on the material produced. The way that rammed earth on Earth reaches equilibrium with the environment in which it is situated in is crucial to the strength it exhibits and the same will apply on Mars. It is therefore vital to test rammed earth under the prevailing conditions to understand if this technique is viable for building Martian infrastructure. This project will therefore investigate how rammed earth can be made on Mars and what its likely mechanical properties will be in-situ. This will be achieved by testing samples of simulated Martian soil, compressed into blocks and subjected to Martian atmospheric and gravity conditions. Doing so is very challenging as the Martian atmosphere is very low pressure (around 1-2% of the air pressure on Earth), the maximum temperature is 20 degrees Celsius (but can drop to more than 50 degrees below freezing) and the air is 95% carbon dioxide. Harder to simulate still is the low gravity on Mars (around one third of that on Earth). This project will simulate the atmospheric pressure, temperature and air composition in atmospheric chambers, within which the material properties will be determined. Martian gravity conditions can't be replicated exactly but tests will be conducted at high levels of gravity in a geotechnical centrifuge and at microgravity by doing experiments in free-fall and this information will be used to extrapolate the material performance on Mars. This project will establish the feasibility and fundamental tools to build using rammed earth on Mars and will lay a foundation for future research and development work investigating optimal structural forms and construction techniques for the creation of Martian structures and infrastructure.

The main objectives of 2SST2015 are the initial networking of SST assets and preparation of the establishment of a European SST Service provision function. The project is the first of a series in the upcoming years and has to be seen in context with two parallel projects for initial service provision and for SST roadmapping and infrastructure.

This 3SST2015 project is aimed at supporting the emergence of a European SST service built on a network of existing SST assets, notably sensors (radar, laser and telescopes) owned by SST Consortium Member States. This will require the commitment of Consortium Member States owing relevant assets to cooperate and provide an anti-collision, fragmentation and re-entry service at European level in order to increase the autonomy of Europe concerning the operational objectives derived from the SST decision, which will be partially fulfilled by the operation of the initial European SST system. Given that this system is mainly based on national systems, at the initial stage many of the activities will be based at national level. At the same time, and in order to achieve the convergence within a joint action that will allow the minimum desirable level of performance, an appropriate degree of coordination between SST Consortium Member States is needed. The project is following a shared working approach between the key players within the field of SST in Europe. Following the guidelines given by the implementing decision of the European Commission (C(2014)6342 final of the 12.09.2014), the backbone of the planned activity is formed by a set of SST committees forming the decision platform of the SST Consortium, composed of the five designated national entities in cooperation mechanisms with the EU SatCen. Three Committees are foreseen for the governing structure of the SST Consortium: the Steering Committee as the decision platform, the Technical Committee as the professional motor and to the Security Committee dealing with bi- and multilateral aspects of security constraints and issues. The main activities are addressed in terms of: Performance assessment and architecture of SST, an SST Action Plan” and the Priority upgrading of existing sensors owned by the Member States member of the SST consortium.

The project “PER ASPERA (ASTRA)” (Latin meaning “Through hardships to the stars”) aims at developing an integrated master plan (a.k.a. roadmap) of activities and associated activity descriptions, for a Strategic Research Cluster (SRC) in Space Robotics Technology. The roadmap will be implemented within a Strategic Research Cluster (SRC) through operational grants, which will be recommended by PERASPERA and issued by the European Commission. PERASPERA will plan and accompany the SRC to attain its overall objective to deliver, within the 2023/2024 framework, key enabling technologies and demonstrate autonomous robotic systems at a significant scale as key elements for on-orbit satellite servicing and planetary exploration. The main deliverables of the PERASPERA project will be: [1] a thoroughly coordinated/harmonised roadmap of space robotics technologies, concept development and demonstration activities. The coordination/harmonisation relies in the pre-existing network of the partners, complemented by new measures implemented by PERASPERA [2] draft text for the calls (and related technical annexes) that will allow tightly coupled developments across different operational grants [3] a Plan for the analysis and evaluation of the results of the SRC, that will be enacted by the PSA across its duration [4] a Plan for the specific exploitation and potential use of the SRC expected outputs that will also consider spin-out [5] a plan for risk assessment and contingency analysis [6] wide-reaching dissemination and outreach actions to communicate to the public and educate the young engineers that will make space robotics become mainstream

NCEO's NPG activity delivers expert scientific, technical and operational advice on EO-related policies and services to government departments and agencies. NCEO works particularly with the UK Space Agency and Defra, with a growing liaison with BEIS Climate Team. Advice covers scientific and technical insight; appraisal and review, reports; organisation of technical working groups and science surveys; and inputs to statements. Our expected activities are to provide: 1. Advice by the NCEO Director and senior staff to the UK Space Agency regarding UK Space Policy, including the subscriptions to European Space Agency programmes, Industrial Strategy and spectrum usage. 2. Advice to the Defra group, including Chief Scientific Advisor's Innovation programme regarding the application of space-based Earth Observation to environmental policy and services, including advice on the EU Copernicus programme, the Defra EO Centre of Excellence and the emerging UK Government Earth Observation Service. 3. Ad hoc advice to other government departments and agencies regarding the suitability of EO for particular applications and ways of overcoming particular challenges (e.g. supply of analysis ready data, utility of data cubes), for example to the BEIS Climate Team. 4. Coordination of advice to UK government (Defra, UK Space Agency) and technical expert activities related to the international Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), including high level briefings. The aim is that UK organisations can contribute to and benefit strongly from developments in the international community, a current government priority. Societal and public benefit are important drivers for these global engagements.