ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO9974
Open Date: 02/10/2019
Closing Date: 13/11/2019 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 19.197.06
Prog. Ref.: Discovery
Budget Ref.: E/0600-06 – Discovery
Special Prov.: BE+DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+ES+SE+CH+GB+IE+AT+NO+FI+PT+GR+LU+CZ+RO+PL+EE+HU+CA+SI
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 100-200 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Other
Technology Domains: Others
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Systems Department
Division: Adv. Concepts & Studies Office
Contract Officer: Radojevic, Veijko
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 02/10/2019
Update Reason: Tender issue

Through millennia of trials and errors, Mother Nature has matured technologies to a level of complexity far more advanced than the current human Engineering knowledge. The activity therefore aims to investigate solutions inspired by Nature, to address challenging requirements in the frame of debris removal and, possibly, for other purposes. The objective of the activity is to develop a ecosystem concept breadboard designed through a biomimicry approach to address challenging requirements for space debris removal. The activity in particular aims at using clear mission target objectives as working envelope for a design approach. The immediate benefitthat can be expected is to have at hand innovative solutions in the frame of space debris removal. By using an ecosystem, gains in mass, complexity and cost can be expected as well as increase of reliability; all depending on the retained solutions. The second goal of the study is to open the design space to uncharted territories. This study could become a reference for new system solving approaches, to be used in concurrent engineering, beyond the field of space debris removal.