ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10286
Open Date: 06/05/2020
Closing Date: 01/07/2020 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 20.1ET.06
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: Ground Segment / Ground Station / F&T equipment / Test equipment
Technology Domains: RF Systems, Payloads and Technologies / TT&C and Payload Data Modulator (PDM) Systems/Subsystems / TT&C System Tools
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Electrical Department
Contract Officer: Erkelens-Sickinger, Franziska
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 06/05/2020
Update Reason: Tender issue

An emulator is needed to properly characterize, during early phases, some key aspects of the transponders, e.g. Ranging performanceand 2-way Doppler tracking. Existing channel emulators are single link emulator, not suitable for the TTC turn-around link realizedby the transponder. Nothing on the market has been found to fulfil these tasks: at every testing campaign, each company comes withan ad-hoc setup trying to emulate the transponded channel, and each time the validation of the set-up itself requires significant effort (is the phase relationship between the up and down channels reflected accurately? Is the set-up introducing unintended delays affecting the measurement? Can these delays be calibrated? Etc.) It is important to have a link simulator both S/W and H/W to test theE2E measurement 2-way for instance to verify RX tracking capability, special contingency situations, Ranging and Doppler measurement and data volume. The TTC Channel Emulator shall introduce the proper link dynamics (amplitude variation, Doppler, Doppler rate)both in the up-link (getting as input the signal as generated by the Electrical Ground Support Equipment/Special Check Out Equipment) and on the down-link (getting as input the signal generated by the transponder) for the different TTC modes (coherent and not-coherent). Attention has to be put on the TTC radiometric measurement, in particular on Doppler (Range Rate) for which the impact on theE2E phase stability (ADEV) must be negligible.The emulated amplitude variation shall consider also the S/C attitude variation, thelink geometry with elevation angle at G/S, the weather conditions, etc… In case of occultation also the effect of solar scintillation shall be included. Interference should be included as well.It shall be possible to use the Channel Emulator for all the possible TTC missions (S, X , Ka) and for the following different set-uo [test at unit level (ATE + Transponder); test at RF compatibility level (Suitcase + G/S reference station); test at SAT level (SCOE + TTC subsystem)]The activity include the following tasks: Specification with Architecture Definition and Expected Performances, Detailed Design, Bread-boarding, and Test.