ESA Open Invitation to Tender: 1-11410
Open Date: 09/06/2022 16:46 CEST
Closing Date: 29/07/2022 13:00 CEST

In the frame of the Missions of Opportunity enabled by international cooperation, ESA and NASA have coordinated studies of gravity monitoring constellations optimised to observe mass changes and transport in the Earth system. In 2016 the report from the ESA-NASA Interagency Gravity Science Working Group defined the benefits of such a unique cooperative effort. The objective of the NGGM – Next Generation Gravity Mission (also known as MAGIC – for Mass-change and Geosciences International Constellation ) is the long-term monitoring of the temporal variations of Earth’s gravity field at high resolution in time (down to 3 days) and space (100 km). NGGM/MAGIC will observe Earth mass change and reinforce services by monitoring hydrology, cryosphere, oceanography, solid Earth and climate change. This gravity mission evolution will provide continuity of science and services with respect to predecessor missions like GRACE, GOCE and GRACE Follow-On and will complement other ESA Earth Explorer programme and Copernicus missions. The aim of this activity is to design, develop, manufacture and test one power-efficient low current stand-alone dry neutraliser system at Engineering Model (EM) level that would be suitable to be used for charge compensation of ion-emission based micro-electric propulsion system for NGGM that would include FEEP thrusters and micro propulsion RIT thrusters.

Estabilishment: ESTEC
ECOS Required: No
Classified: No
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Authorised Contact Person: Satu Susanne Dubbeling
Initiating Service: EOP-8M
IP Measure: N/A
Prog. Reference: E/A104-01 – FoundConcept Block 1
Tender Type: Open Competition
Open To Tenderers From: AT+BE+CA+CH+CZ+DE+DK+EE+GR+ES+FI+FR+GB+HU+IE+IT+LT+LU+LV+NL+NO+PL+PT+RO+SE+SI
Technology Keywords: 19-B-I-Electrostatic Systems
Products Keywords: 2-K-3.1-c-Thruster module (Plasma/Ion Thrusters), Xenon Flow Control Unit,… *For Thruster Pointing See Mechanisms