An international consortium led by Alén Space, with the participation of GMV (Spain and Poland), WideNorth and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a project focused on the detection and monitoring of radio frequency interference (RFI) from space.
The initiative is carried out under the FutureEO programme and funded by the European Space Agency, with the objective of developing a prototype capable of identifying and geolocating interference sources on the Earth’s surface across a wide frequency range, from 1 to 40 GHz.
The project addresses one of the current challenges of the space sector: protecting the radio spectrum against interference that can compromise the operation of Earth observation satellites and other critical space systems. To this end, the consortium will develop a CubeSat-format satellite prototype, conceived exclusively for ground validation, enabling the assessment of the payload’s capabilities and the associated algorithms for interference detection and geolocation.
As a pioneer in the development of spectrum monitoring technologies, Alén Space is responsible for the overall coordination of the project. Its activities include the preliminary design of the satellite platform, the manufacture of the payload and the satellite laboratory prototype, and the development of the on-board application for interference detection and identification. Alén Space will also carry out the necessary testing to validate the functionality of the payload, which is based on TREVO, the company’s high-performance software-defined radio (SDR).
The international consortium brings together entities from Spain, Norway and Poland. In addition to Alén Space, partners include WideNorth, responsible for the design, manufacturing and verification of the radio frequency front-ends that will form part of the payload prototype; GMV Poland, in charge of mission analysis and end-to-end system simulation; GMV Spain, responsible for defining ground segment algorithm requirements and conducting test campaigns; and Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), which will design and develop the interference geolocation algorithms for the ground segment.
This contract strengthens the consortium’s position as a reference in the development of advanced spectrum monitoring technologies and represents a significant step towards expanding the range of space solutions aimed at protecting orbital assets and supporting future specialised constellations.
The project is already underway and has a planned duration of 24 months, starting on 1 December 2025.