ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO9023
Open Date: 14/07/2017
Closing Date: 18/09/2017 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 17.1EP.01
Prog. Ref.: GSTP Element 1 Dev
Budget Ref.: E/0904-611 – GSTP Element 1 Dev
Special Prov.: FI
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Payloads / Instruments / Optical Instruments / Imaging radiometers
Satellites & Probes / Electronics / EEE Components / Optoelectronic Devices (including opto-couplers, LED, CCDs, displays, sensors)
Techology Domains: Spacecraft Environments and Effects / Space Weather / Space Weather Monitoring Technology
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Electrical Engineering Department
Division: Power & Energy Conversion Division
Contract Officer: Fabrizi, Lavinia
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 14/07/2017
Update Reason: Tender issue

Design and development of an instrument to measure the integrated flux of solar X-rays across 2 energy bands to be flown on a cubesat with a view to future development of a fully-space qualified unit for space weather purposes.This activity will include the design, development, assembly and testing of a XFM-CS (X-ray flux monitor for cubesats) instrument with a baseline spectrum of 0.05 – 0.8 nm over at least 2 channels. The space-based detection of X-rays is used for space science as well as space weather related activities. This instrument will be geared towards monitoring and forecasting of space weather phenomena and should be capable of detecting all flares of at least class M1 and above with a cadence of 1 minute and on-board processing times less than 1 second.The unit will be designed to be flown on a cubesat and as such will be accommodated on a single cubesat unit, the cubesat bus shall be developed under a separate activity and the final cubesat may have a 2u or 3u configuration. The instrument shall be low mass < 500 g and with low power demands in-line with power generation levels on a cubesat. As such this development shall include the establishment ofsystem requirements, system-level design, detailed subsystem design of the front end sensor unit with electronics and the back-end electronics, thermal modelling of the instrument, testing on a subsystem level, and assembly and testing of the complete system. This activity aims to develop an XFM unit to be flown on a cubesat and prove the usefulness of a future unit given the resources for continuous solar observation and real-time data downlink. It shall be developed using commercial off-the-shelf components where feasible to reduce costs but fully-space qualified equivalent components shall be identified in all cases.

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