ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10000
Open Date: 01/10/2019
Closing Date: 12/11/2019 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 19.1EP.09
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 / Power / Power Monitoring and Control / PCDUs, …
Technology Domains: Spacecraft Electrical Power / Power System Architecture / Spacecraft Electrical Power / Power Conditioning and Distribution / Power Conditioning / Spacecraft Electrical Power / Power Conditioning and Distribution / Power Distribution
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Electrical Department
Division: Power Systems, EMC & Space Environ.Div
Contract Officer: Singer, Anze
Industrial Policy Measure: C1 – Activities in open competition limited to the non-Larg…
Last Update Date: 01/10/2019
Update Reason: Tender issue

Nowadays power control units design is unique and it depends on the specific application. Should the needs change, a new development is needed, thus increasing the development time and the non-recurrent-costs. Given the critically of the power conditioning module, redundancy and triple majority voting are needed, adding complexity to the design.In order to increase the flexibility of power management systems, the use of a modular set of independently controlled DC-DC converters can be explored. The goal is to make such DC-DC converters suitable for different purposes, like Solar Array regulation and battery management. The selection of the different functions shall be performed via digital control, which is internal to each module. In this way, the adaptation to new requirements could only consists of modifying the number and/or connection of the modules, avoiding the burden of new development. Apart from theindependent control system, each DC-DC converter module shall include health and on-line degradation monitoring. These features willallow the degraded module to be graciously disconnected from the system before a failure occurs. This concept is being successfullyexplored in some terrestrial applications and could be used in space applications to increase the reliability of the power system.This activity encompasses the following tasks:- Requirements definition.- Review of existing decentralized control methods for DCdistribution systems. Assessment of their capabilities to comply with ECSS requirements regarding power bus quality.- Review of health monitoring methods applicable to DC/DC converters.- Selection and design of DC/DC converter topology suitable for Solar Array Regulation, battery management, series and parallel connection- Selection and design of the digital platform capable of performing the digital control of the converters and the health monitoring functions.- Manufacturing and testing the prototypes.- Verification of requirements.Software shall be delivered under an ESA Software Community Licence, so that any individuals or entities within ESAMember States can access to it and can provide update to the community of users.Procurement Policy: C(1) = Activity restricted tonon-prime contractors (incl. SMEs). For additional information please go to EMITS news “Industrial Policy measures for non-primes,SMEs and RD entities in ESA programmes”.