The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Qinetiq a contract to develop two demonstrator systems of the company’s hollow waveguide optical integration technology that are intended to assess the potential of the technology for space missions, Qinetiq announced Oct. 11.

The contract is valued at 310,000 euros ($389,000), and the initial aim of the 18-month project will be to assess design concepts and manufacturing processes. The team then will develop, manufacture and test two prototypes – an active LIDAR that can determine wind speed and a passive spectrometer, which will measure the properties of light.

Ultimately, the technology could be used in a wide range of sensors for Earth observation, planetary exploration, atmospheric sensing and optical communications, Qinetiq said.