ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10492
Open Date: 02/02/2021
Closing Date: 16/03/2021 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 20.1QC.01
Prog. Ref.: Technology Developme
Budget Ref.: E/0901-01 – Technology Developme
Special Prov.: BE+DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+ES+SE+CH+GB+IE+AT+NO+FI+PT+GR+LU+CZ+RO+PL+EE+HU
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Thermal Control / Heat storage and rejection / Coating and insulation
Technology Domains: Thermal / Heat Storage and Rejection / Coatings and Insulation
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Product Assurance and Safety Department
Division: Technical Reliability and Quality Div
Contract Officer: Magne-Lie, Karine
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 02/02/2021
Update Reason: Tender issue

Aerobraking phase of ENVISION is critical in terms of duration and required operations. One limitation duringaerobraking is the temperature reached on Multi Layer Insulation (MLI) due to the aerothermal heat flux.MLIs can withstand during short durations (intermittent exposure) higher temperatures than their steady statequalification temperature. Using intermittent temperature limit instead of steady state limit would allow to drasticallyreduce the duration of the aerobraking phase, resulting in significant cost savings on the operations, without re-design of the existing materials.This requires characterization of materials in conditions representative of the whole aerobraking phase in terms of heat flux, duration (heat load) and thermal cycles (several thousands of atmospheric passes are expected).This activity encompasses the following tasks:- requirements consolidation, including specific Venus environment- selection of candidate materials suitable for MLI under Venus environment- test the materials according to Envision mission requirements in terms of thermal cycling, radiation environment andaerobraking (aerothermal flux and heat load)- Assess MLI performance degradation under realistic aero fluxes conditions, including impact of Venus atmosphere(e.g. degradation due to erosion)- Define, manufacture and test a MLI blanket, in line with EnVision mission requirements.Outcome is a definition of a MLI blanket optimized for ENVISION, including thorough characterization of the materialsincluding the reachable intermittent temperature as a function of relevant parameters such as atmospheric pass duration and total number of atmospheric passes.