ESA Open Invitation To Tender AO8230
Open Date: 01/05/2015
Closing Date: 26/06/2015

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 15.164.02
Prog. Ref.: CTP – General
Budget Ref.: E/0401-01B – CTP – General
Special Prov.: B+DK+F+D+I+NL+E+S+CH+GB+IRL+A+N+FIN+POR+GR+LUX+CZ+RO+PL
Tender Type: C
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Keywords: Detector cooling system, astrophysics, x-ray, sub-mm, cryostat
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Science & Robotic Explor.
Department: Future Missions Preparation Office
Contract Officer: Byberg, Helena
Last Update Date: 01/05/2015
Update Reason: Tender issue

In a first phase, a flight like cryostat breadboard compatible with European coolers and future astrophysics mission focal plane array (FPA) requirements shall be developed and manufactured, simulating the various cooling stages down to 2K with ground segment equipment/mass thermal dummies, with the main purpose being to achieve a highly efficient insulation. To minimise costs, mass optimisation of classical structural elements (e.g. vacuum vessel) will not be required. Parasitic loads from science harness and non-operating coolers will only be simulated by heaters and/or thermal dummies. After successful verification of the cryogenic performance, a mechanical test campaign shall be performed to increase the TRL of the cryostat to 5. In a second phase, the cryostat will be equipped with the actual engineering model coolers, developed in currently running or previous activities to verify the overall performanceof the cryochain, test the dynamic behaviour (e.g cooldown, T-stability) and verify the compliance with the I/F requirements from the FPA (e.g. magnetic stray-field, exported vibrations …). Since it is assumed, that all the coolers are already at TRL5, mechanical testing of the complete assembly is not deemed necessary. In a last phase a representative TES sensor and multiplexer will be integrated and tested together with the cooling chain. The emphasis shall be on the verification of the compatibility of the coolers with the detector assembly in terms of cooling power, intermediate stages intercepts, temperature profiles during cool-down/warm-up andcycling, temperature stability, micro-vibrations, EMC and magnetic fields.

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