ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10313
Open Date: 28/04/2020
Closing Date: 23/06/2020 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 20.1ET.08
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: > 500 KEURO
Products: Ground Segment / Development and Construction of Space Segment / Assembly Integration and Test / Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) and Special Check Out Equipment (SCOE)
Technology Domains: Electromagnetic Technologies and Techniques / Antennas / Measurement, Characterisation and Calibration Techniques for Radiative Payloads and Antennas
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Electrical Department
Division: RF Payloads & Technology Division
Contract Officer: Singer, Anze
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 28/04/2020
Update Reason: Tender issue

The tendency for future Earth Observation missions embarking RF payloads is clearly pushing for large antenna technology that allows increasing resolution, complemented with a broad use of the frequency spectrum (and increase of frequency) depending on the observation of interest. Future missions employing large deployable arrays or large deployable reflectors of 9 meter circular apertures (or larger) and frequencies above C band (e.g. G-CLASS:H20). Testing and verification of the complete antenna performance is required in order to achieve the tight accuracy requirements demanded by the instrument and the intended science objectives. This is due to the fact that with increased frequency, the tolerances play a major role on the uncertainties of the in-flight performance.Current antenna testing compact ranges can accommodate apertures in the order of 5 or 6 meters and require the antenna under test to move forthe measurement, which is far from optimum for large deployable structures and building dedicated very large Planar Near Field facilities for large deployable antenna structures is an extremely expensive endeavour.This activity will evaluate alternative solutionsthat enable the verification and validation of performance of large deployable antenna structures. The breadboard shall include themajor critical aspects of the implementation that demonstrate the capability of the acquisition system to generate the required near field data set, which is then transformed to the Far Field to obtain the final antenna performance.