ESA Open Invitation To Tender AO8938
Open Date: 12/05/2017
Closing Date: 23/06/2017 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 17.133.05
Prog. Ref.: GSTP Element 1 Dev
Budget Ref.: E/0904-611 – GSTP Element 1 Dev
Special Prov.: CH
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Materials / Composite Materials / Reinforcement Material: Others / Satellites & Probes / Structures / Secondary Structures
Techology Domains: Structures / Advanced Structural Concepts and Materials / Design and Verification Technologies / Materials and Processes / Space Environmental Effects on Materials and Processes / Interaction of Materials with the Space Environment
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Mechanical Engineering Department
Division: Structure and Mechanisms Division
Contract Officer: van Hilten, Linda
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 12/05/2017
Update Reason: Tender issue

In the last years, the interest in the development of bio-composite materials for space application has increased and the development of such materials has started with the aim of reducing the environmental foot print of our space missions.At the ESA, material developments have been undertaken in order to design and develop a demisable bio-composite material for load carrying applications inspacecraft platforms, payloads and equipment. These materials have been characterised against mechanical and environmental loads. Also demisability testsare being performed in order to check compliance with the ESA/ADMIN/IPOL(2014)2 the Space Debris Mitigation Policy for Agency Projects.Having now available a set of bio-composite material suitale for space application, the next step is to consider a space application and verify the applicability of suchmaterials for a generic LEO mission. In order to do that, the following activities shall be accomplished:- Material State of the Art Review- Design analysis and manufacturing of LEO spacecraft structural component to be selected.- Demonstration test campaign shall be performed on the demonstrator structure and test evaluation shall be presented with compliance status to the requirementsof the target application.- A development plan shall be established covering foreseen efforts to achieve TRL 6 in potential future ESA studies for bio-composites. The development planshall also describe the possible application range for current state-of-the-art biocomposites in space structures applications.- An evaluation of the environmental benefits for bio-composites for the selected space structure application shall be performed and reported.

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