ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10348
Open Date: 05/06/2020
Closing Date: 31/07/2020 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 20.123.02
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 / Propulsion / Chemical Propulsion ¿ BB / Tanks *See Structures
Technology Domains: Propulsion / Chemical Propulsion Technologies / Liquid Propulsion Systems
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Mechanical Department
Division: Propulsion & Aerothermodynamics Division
Contract Officer: Garre, Maximilian
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 05/06/2020
Update Reason: Tender issue

The reduction of spacecraft height is advantageous for launchers (movement of the centre of mass), allowing larger spacecraft payloads to be integrated under the fairing, and could be ejected from the spacecraft after tank depletion, thus reducing attitude control requirements for the spacecraft during the mission life. In addition, this would be an advantage for future landers, allowing for more compact propulsion stages.The scope of this activity to investigate toroidal tanks for space propulsion application. Currentlystate of the art propellant tanks are spherical and due to volume constraints spacecraft are built around them which results in spacecraft that have an increased height, the propellant tanks are difficult to access after spacecraft assembly and for GTO/exploration missions the spacecraft is carrying empty mass (Majority of the tanks depleted on transfer) before the mission begins.This activity is to look at toroidal (doughnut) tanks which would sit externally and below the spacecraft stack. They would reduce the overall height of the spacecraft (thus allowing for taller Payloads to be fit under the fairing), would allow for better sizing of landers and potentially could be decoupled from the spacecraft after tank depletion to reduce the s/c mission mass (and thus improve GNC/AOCS).The activity will have the following specific objectives:- Trade-off on size, mass and volume- Trade-off on PMD concepts- Materials selection- Analysis filling/emptying tank in relevant conditions- Manufacture and Test of a breadboard / demonstration model- System Requirements review with component requirements and supporting design/analysis .