ESA Open Invitation to Tender: 1-10650
Open Date: 25/03/2021 17:47 CET
Closing Date: 28/05/2021 13:00 GMT +3

During the last two decades, various activities have looked into the behaviour of materials and spacecraft components from the perspective of space debris mitigation. This often implied reaching the conclusion that available characterisation data, such as those properties tested as part of the qualification of spacecraft and launch vehicle upper stages, are not fit for general purpose even though they are drivers for the applications at hand. Notoriously complex examples include oxidised emissivity values or component shielding equation parameters. Methodologies have been established within the space debris mitigation field to work around these limitations, but this has also reduced their accuracy and confidence in the estimated risks based thereon. Under the impetus of strictly applying space safety related standards to spacecraft and launch vehicle design, e.g. for re-entry and on-orbit break-up risks, within ESA and many of its member states, at risk spacecraft components have been systematically identified. In this activity, those components will be addressed by creating a reference model and include them in a database for further integration with risk processes. State of the art reference models, based on validated material properties and predictable physical behaviours, have demonstrated their worth but currently cover only a minor part of an overall spacecraft. The creation of reference databases at material and component level to be used in risk assessment methodologies, which can be re-used efficient in any mission design and validation, significantly reduces the engineering work w.r.t. space debris mitigation requirements and improves the confidence in the predicted risks, which is the goal of the activity.

Directorate: Directorate of Operations
Estabilishment: ESOC
ECOS Required: No
Classified: No
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Contracts Officer: Anca-Mirela Popeia
Initiating Service: OPS-S
IP Measure: N/A
Prog. Reference: E/0717-03 – S2P P1 Space Debris
Tender Type: Open Competition
Open To Tenderers From: AT+CH+CZ+DE+DK+EL+FI+GB+HU+NO+PL+PT+RO
Technology Keywords: 11-B-II-In-orbit Risks
Products Keywords: 4-A-4-Other