ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10634
Open Date: 26/02/2021
Closing Date: 28/04/2021 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 20.118.20
Prog. Ref.: S2P P1 Space Debris
Budget Ref.: E/0717-03 – S2P P1 Space Debris
Special Prov.: AT+CZ+DK+FI+DE+GR+HU+NO+PL+PT+RO+CH+GB
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Products: Ground Segment / Mission Operations / Other
Technology Domains: Space Debris / Modelling and Risk Analysis / Debris and Meteoroid Environment Models
Establishment: ESOC
Directorate: Directorate of Operations
Department: Space Safety Programme Office
Contract Officer: Rodriguez Perulero, Marta
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 26/02/2021
Update Reason: Tender issue

Effective space debris mitigation requires a good understanding of the implied risks stemming from operating in a congested space debris environment. Along with space debris mitigation guidelines, which saw a boost in international adoption since the turn of the millennium, various methodologies have been developed to quantify risks related to impacts of small space debris particles on largerobjects and destructive break-up during re-entries. With the increased transformation of space debris mitigation guidelines into design and operation standards for new space missions, there has been an increased focus on understanding the assumptions and limitations of said risk methodologies. In particular, assumptions on the shapes of space debris objects are prevalent in various risk models. These assumptions are a driving factors on how the risk is perceived and computed, which can lead to overly conservative estimates or a significant underestimation. This activity is dedicated to improving risk models with a critical dependency on shape assumptions by increasing the accuracy and the precision of the space debris risk methodologies in the fields of hypervelocity impact (HVI) and destructive re-entry break-up modelling. This shall be done by identifying and assessing the impact of shape assumptions when analysing the risks of small debris impacts on spacecraft; Identifying and assessing the impact of shape assumptions, understood as local / global flow effects and the determination of characterising length scales, on the demise and fragmentation of spacecraft structures during re-entry; Executing a simulation and test campaign to define and improve HVI and re-entry models to account for shapeinformation beyond the current state of the art; and to develop software to implement the improved models into risk assessment methodologies and assess the impact on requirements verification.