ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10300
Open Date: 29/04/2020
Closing Date: 04/06/2020 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 20.129.09
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: Ground Segment / Development and Construction of Space Segment / Assembly Integration and Test / Optical Ground Support Equipment
Technology Domains: Optoelectronics / Laser Technologies / Laser Sources
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Mechanical Department
Division: Mechatronics and Optics Division
Contract Officer: Reinsoo, Anna
Industrial Policy Measure: C1 – Activities in open competition limited to the non-Larg…
Last Update Date: 29/04/2020
Update Reason: Tender issue

Develop a reliable, self-calibrating, laser based, tuneable illumination system, up to an optical fibre output interface. Accurate wavelength and/or flat-field calibration for optical instruments is a vital prerequisite for optical payloads of Earth Observation satellites.As a lesson learned from the Sentinel series, the timely availability of calibration and validation sources is critical. For that reason each satellite project usually procures individual optical ground support equipment (OGSE), consisting of a calibration source (light bulb, LED or laser based) and an optical bench. This results in multiple one-off developments with re-occurring issues during the development and commissioning. Since the whole OGSE,especially the illumination source, is very similar for the different payloads, it would bebeneficial to have continuation and a common baseline from the start.. This baseline shall be developed and built within this activity. All recent Earth Observation payloads selected laser based illumination sources to meet their requirements for calibration and verification. The existing solutions are far from ideal, showing high-failure rates, are not modular and suffer from output power degradation. Especially in the ultra-violet spectral region, e.g. Sentinel-5 dye laser solution. One of the most challenging requirements is that these sources have to be broadly tuneable from the ultraviolet to the short-wave-infrared and simultaneously have spectral narrow emission. Price competitive sources exist (dye lasers), but have deficiencies when it comes tostability of operation and high system availabilityaspirations during satellite AIT/AIV phase. This activity shall address these issues by developing a new laser source, fully based on industry grade diode pumped solid state lasers implementing modern and efficient non-linear frequency conversion. In addition,special care will to be taken to design a system that requires as little as possible maintenance, making it suitable for mobile operation at various integration and testing sites.The activity encompasses the following tasks:- review of current spectral laser based illumination sources- design, manufacturing, testing and verification of the elegant breadboard based on the Sentinel-5 use case. Procurement Policy: C(1) = Activity restricted to non-prime contractors (incl.SMEs). For additional information please go to EMITS news “Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and RD entities in ESAprogrammes”.