ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO9103
Open Date: 02/11/2017
Closing Date: 19/12/2017 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 17.112.10
Prog. Ref.: TRP
Budget Ref.: E/0901-01 – TRP
Special Prov.: AT+BE+CH+CZ+DE+DK+EE+ES+FI+FR+GB+GR+HU+IE+IT+LU+NL+NO+PL+PT+RO+SE
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Products: Ground Segment / Mission Operations / Mission Control / Flight Dynamics Systems and Mission Analysis
Techology Domains: Space Debris / Modelling and Risk Analysis / Reentry Risks
Establishment: ESOC
Directorate: Directorate of Operations
Department: Ground Systems Engineering Department
Division: Space Debris Office
Contract Officer: Roettger, Sabine
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 02/11/2017
Update Reason: Tender issue

The current generation of high-fidelity re-entry break-up simulation software is based on wind tunnel testing of different metallicmaterials and verified with scarce observational data. In recent years, studies have significantly increased the volume of available wind tunnel samples and in-situ observations of temperature distribution during the early phases of re-entry are available. Moreover, some on-ground fragments were recovered after uncontrolled re-entries and analysed.The modelling of polymer demise under atmospheric re-entry conditions based on a finite volume approach has been preliminary analysed and proof-of-concepts are available.This activity shall specifically target the demise of carbon-fibre reinforced polymers, which are heavily used in spacecraft or launcher design where there is a high degree of uncertainty on current state-of the-models. An increased interest in the demise properties ofother composite materials. such as ceramics, has been identified during design for demise studies, as they behave very different during the re-entry phase than metals.The effects of re-radiation of one component on another during the re-entry break-up has only been experimentally addressed in some finite volume approaches. Now with the availability of experimental data, a new degree of confidence in the simulation software, and the effect on the on-ground risk, shall be obtained.The improvements and homogenisation of non-metallic material demise models and a large verification activity based on sampled and real world examples will benefit all projects related to satellite, launcher, and component development to assess compliance to the ESA space debris mitigation regulations.The issues stemming from the increased computationally complexity shall be addressed.

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