ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10375
Open Date: 10/06/2020
Closing Date: 04/09/2020 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 20.129.15
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: Satellites & Probes / Payloads / Instruments / RF and microwave Instruments / Other (Scatterometers,..)
Technology Domains: Materials and Processes / Materials Processes / Advanced Materials Manufacture
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Mechanical Department
Division: Mechatronics and Optics Division
Contract Officer: Karpov, Roman
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 10/06/2020
Update Reason: Tender issue

Microwave heating of regolith is a potential pathway to heat and achieve reaction temperatures in regolith. In this study differenttypes of regolith analogs shall be heated by microwave energy and the process shall be optimized for power efficiency. Microwave heating is considered as an effective pathway to achieve necessary temperatures within the regolith for ISRU applications. Microwave heating of regolith has been studied on a basic level by NASA and is being applied in the mining industry on high value ores to enhance e.g. The grindeability and amenability for downstream processing. The objective is to design a test bed for microwave heating/sintering/melting of lunar regolith simulants, characterize operational parameters like penetration depth, temperature and assess the efficiency with other heating methods ( e.g. Resistive heating/ solar heating…), resulting in an optimized design of a regolith heating/melting furnace.