ESA Open Invitation to Tender: 1-11348
Open Date: 08/06/2022 12:12 CEST
Closing Date: 03/08/2022 13:00 CEST

SEASTAR is one of the four candidate mission concepts for the eleventh Earth Explorer (EE-11), approved by PB-EO at its meeting of 10 June 2021 (ref. ESA/PB-EO(2021)37). The aim of SEASTAR is to provide Total Surface Current Vector (TSCV) and Ocean Surface VectorWinds (OSVW) at 1 km resolution for all the coastal ocean, shelf seas and marginal ice zones (MIZ). The accuracy and resolution obtained should be good enough to retrieve meaningful values for derivative products, such as strain, vorticity and divergence. This isthe resolution necessary to address issues of submesoscale ocean dynamics and small-scale processes. Processes at this scale are important for air-sea interaction, large vertical velocities and enhanced primary productivity supporting the marine food chain. These small-scale dynamics are also important for dispersion (oil pollution, plastics or larvae), with a particular focus on the dynamics of river plumes exiting estuaries. The small-scale processes are also critical for climate-scale processes e.g. governing the rate of deep-water formation and meridional heat transport. An End-to-end Performance Simulator (EEPS) is a tool which simulates the end-to-end performance of a mission, i.e. from the observed (earth/atmosphere) scene or phenomena to the retrieved geophysical parameters. EEPS are used to support activities such as performance consolidation at mission level, early preparation of user community for mission exploitation, etc. EEPS are precursors to the later developments of Ground Processor Prototype at level 1 for the Ground Segment, and Level 2 processors in the User segment. The activity is split in two phases, aligned with the Earth Explorer 11 Phase 0 and Phase A system studies, respectively. The first phase is to be mainly focused on:- The definition of the simulator objectives, requirements, and interfaces;- A survey of existing models/modules; and- A preliminary definition of the architecture, interfaces and requirements, models and algorithms. The second phase of the End-to-End Performance Simulator is to be mainly focused on:- The consolidation of the architecture, interfaces and requirements; – The detailed design, coding, implementation, testing, verification and validation of all EEPS modules; and the execution of the mission performance assessment campaign.It is proposed to award one phased contract such that the contract shall be terminated after the EE-11 mission down-selection at the end of the Phase 0 if the SEASTAR mission is not selected to proceed to Phase A. Otherwise, the second phase of the activity will be initiated through a proposal update (contract change) to reflect the consolidation of work packages required to respond to the findings of the Phase 0 studies. In order to ensure fair competition and an independent implementation of the EEPS, the Prime Contractor that the Agency will select for this Contract shall exclude both the companies selected as the Prime of the system studies activity for the SEASTAR mission and the companies in charge of the payload definition within the SEASTAR system studies activity.

Estabilishment: ESTEC
ECOS Required: No
Classified: No
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Authorised Contact Person: Satu Susanne Dubbeling
Initiating Service: EOP-8M
IP Measure: N/A
Prog. Reference: E/A104-01 – FoundConcept Block 1
Tender Type: Open Competition
Open To Tenderers From: AT+BE+CA+CH+CZ+DE+DK+EE+GR+ES+FI+FR+GB+HU+IE+IT+LT+LU+LV+NL+NO+PL+PT+RO+SE+SI
Technology Keywords: 8-A-II-Requirement Engineering / 8-C-I-Design and Simulation / 8-C-II-Multidisciplinary Analysis
Products Keywords: 2-I-1-b-Imaging Radars