ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10032
Open Date: 06/12/2019
Closing Date: 31/01/2020 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 19.112.18
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
Technology Domains: Ground Station Systems and Networks / Ground Station System / Microwave and Optical Active/Passive Systems
Establishment: ESOC
Directorate: Directorate of Operations
Department: Ground Systems Eng. & Innovation Dept.
Division: Ground Station Engineering Division
Contract Officer: Bednarek, Maren
Industrial Policy Measure: C3 – Activities restricted to SMEs & R&D organisations, prefe…
Last Update Date: 06/12/2019
Update Reason: Tender issue

The European Space Agency (ESA) is developing a Laser Ranging Stations (ELRS) for measuring the range and precise orbit of satellites and shall be deployed at IACs Teide Observatory (OT) in Tenerife, Spain within the first half of 2020. It shall serve as a technology test bed for state-of art equipment and techniques. In particular, the ELRS is designed to be also adapted into an optical ground station (OGS) for LEO-Ground (LEO-DTE) optical links. The Agency is committed to support in-orbit demonstrations (IODs) with planned missions in LEO that are embarking optical communications terminals:i.T-Osiris (DLR-IKN / Tesat) on the ISS Bartolomeo platformii.Optel-u (TAS-CH) on Yuzhnoe iii.Cube-L (Tesat) on Pix-Lall to be launched in the2020-2022 timeframe with the intention (at least in the case of T-Osiris) of commercial operational use of the optical link. It is therefore intended to equip the ELRS (which will operate during day and night from remote e.g. from the ESA OGS) with the necessary back-end optics to operate as an OGS for the above mentioned IOD and participate in a first European operational nucleus optical network. A corresponding Internal ICD had thus been elaborated in consensus with all involved parties (DLR-IKN, Tesat, TAS-CH) describing (among other) the optical interface between the ELRS (telescope + interface optics) [AD4] to the receiver back-end of the different missions (at the time of this writing having proprietary elements of the optical terminal developers and therefore to be provided by the latter). The intention isto develop a universal optical interface so as to enable the IODs of the mentioned missions from the ELRS by exchanging the respective proprietary receiver back-end.The objective of the present work is thus to develop, install, and validate the ELRS interface optics for LEO-DTE communication (termed henceforth Optical Bench) to the free Nasmyth focus of the ELRS telescope, interfacing tothe telescope on the one end, and to the communication detector on the other end. The optical bench shall also include the pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) system required for its function as OGS. Procurement Policy: C(3) = Activity restricted to SMEs RD Entities. Foradditional information please go to EMITS news „IndustrialPolicy measures for non-primes, SMEs and RD entities in ESA programmes”.