ESA Open Invitation to Tender: 1-10803
Open Date: 25/05/2021 13:06 CEST
Closing Date: 06/07/2021 13:00 CEST

The objective is to provide Slovak entities an opportunity to acquire practical and relevant space hardware development experience.The programme of work will offer greater familiarity with the working practices of the Agency and the use of applicable space standards (ECSS). Preliminary design, development and calibration of a Coarse Sun Sensor will serve as an opportunity to further strengthen the Slovak industrial base.The activity is a potential stepping stone to other space product developments, and will increase readiness of Slovak entities to collaborate with European partners for future activities in the space sector. Specifically, the activitywill:1) Consolidation of the Technical Requirements Specification (TRS) of an analogue Coarse Sun Sensor (CSS) in accordance withthe standards andguidelines described by the European Cooperation for Space Standardization in the ECSS standards, in particular E-20 and E-32.2) Develop and commission a test facility for accurate calibration and performance characterization of the sensor alsoinline with ECSS standard.During the course of the activity, the Technical Requirements Specification (TRS) shall be reviewed andagreed with the Agency in a Requirements Review (RR). The preliminary design activities and architectural trade-offs shall be supportedby manufacturing and testing a Sun sensor breadboard. To limit the development risk, the activity shall be split in 2 contractual phases. The first phase shall end at the requirements review, where the consolidated technical requirements specification, the test facility design, and the architectural design shall be reviewed by the Agency. The second phase shall encompass the manufacturing andcommissioning of the test facility, preliminary design activities, and breadboard test activities. The preliminary design, supporting analyses and breadboard tests shall be reviewed by the Agency in a Preliminary Design Review (PDR). After completing the activity,an ending TRL of 5 is expected (PDR supported with breadboard results).This development offers the advantage of a potential additional source supplier of CSS on the world market, which is also highlighted as a need in a recent market analysis conducted by ThalesFrance „Market Assessment for Sun Sensors” (ESA RFP 3-16355/19/NL/GLC/vr). This study has shown that the current European suppliers’ capacity is not expected to meet the future demand, and production has to be scaled up.Further, it is shown that the world widesupply of sun sensors is at risk and therefore there are potential opportunities to supply outside of Europe to fill potential gaps onthe US and Asian markets for this type of sun sensor. This need has also been included in the 2020 European Space TechnologyMaster Plan (ESTMP), chapter 5, and aim V.In particular the activity will target, the market segment of New Space and constellation satellites, where a gap in supplier capacity for Sun sensors at reduced cost and coarse performance has been identified. Thus, theCSS to be developed in this activity is considered to be complementary to the existing European suppliers.

Estabilishment: ESTEC
ECOS Required: No
Classified: No
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Contracts Officer: Marnix Houten
Initiating Service: TEC-SAS
IP Measure: N/A
Prog. Reference: E/0908-09 – PECS Slovakia
Tender Type: Open Competition
Open To Tenderers From: SK
Technology Keywords: 5-D-I-AOCS/GNC Optical Sensors
Products Keywords: 2-A-1-i-Sun Sensors