The Invitation to Tender for the Global Radiation Belt Prototype for LEO Constellations was released on 30 September 2021, with a closing date of 12 November, 2021 13:00 CET. Please see the ESA-STAR web site for further details:
https://esastar-publication.sso.esa.int/ESATenderActions/details/6605
Telecommunication services in the mid Earth orbit range (1000 km -> 10000 km altitude) are becoming increasingly common and flying in regions where the standard radiation belt models exhibit great uncertainties. Previous studies have shown the trapped proton models to be grossly underestimating the high energy fluxes in the environment; and the trapped electron models may be overstating the fluxes of energetic electrons within the region. The result of these uncertainties is the underestimation of single event effects and degradation of components from protons, and the over engineering of spacecraft due to the electron environment predictions.