ESA Open Invitation To Tender AO8423 
Open Date: 19/10/2015
Closing Date: 30/11/2015

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 15.129.14
Prog. Ref.: GSTP Period 6 E1 PRJ
Budget Ref.: E/0904-611 – GSTP Period 6 E1 PRJ
Special Prov.: DE+NL+IE
Tender Type: C
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Technical & Quality Manag
Department: Mechanical Engineering Department
Division: Mechatronics and Optics Division
Contract Officer: Almeida, Rudolfo
Last Update Date: 19/10/2015
Update Reason: Tender issue

Fiber optic communication combines a number of unique properties such as being dielectric and EMI free, lightweight, mechanically flexible, and protocol agnostic (can convey any type of signal) at any data rate. Indicatively the WFI instrument of the ATHENA (ex IXO) space science mission has baselined fiber optics for such links. It is also worth noticing that SMOS, the first satellite payload worldwide to critically depend on the use of tens of fiber optic links, decided to use this technology for its EMI properties and mechanical flexibility as the payload required to deploy 3 branches of a radiometer. To meet these future needs the objective of theactivity is to develop an EM of bi-directional optical transceiver module capable of multi-gigabit digital optical communication. Such a component would provide a complete intra-satellite digital optical communication solution covering data rates from Mbps to 10 Gbps, bringing all the advantages of optical communications together with harness reduction by applying a bi-directional approach. Procurement Policy: C(1) = Activity restricted to non-prime contractors (incl. SMEs). For additional information please go to EMITSnews „Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and R&D entities in ESA programmes”.

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