ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO10170
Open Date: 10/02/2020
Closing Date: 23/03/2020 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 19.197.15
Prog. Ref.: Discovery
Budget Ref.: E/0600-06 – Discovery
Special Prov.: BE+DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+ES+SE+CH+GB+IE+AT+NO+FI+PT+GR+LU+CZ+RO+PL+EE+HU+CA+SI
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 100-200 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Structures / Inflatable space structures / Orbital Transportation & Re-entry Systems / Descent & Recovery / Descent / Parachutes
Technology Domains: Others
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Systems Department
Division: Adv. Concepts & Studies Office
Contract Officer: Radojevic, Veijko
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 10/02/2020
Update Reason: Tender issue

Missions to Mars and Venus today can make use of aerobraking to save a considerable amount of fuel when acquiring their final science orbit, which typically is low and near-circular. Aerocapture, even more so, has the potential to save up to several thousands ofm/s in delta-v which in turn saves a correspondingly significant amount of fuel. Therefore, either the overall spacecraft mass can be reduced lowering the mission cost or the payload mass can be increased raising the science return. The purpose of this activity is to trade-off the design of an inflatable device such as a ballute for either aerocapture or aerobraking at any solar system body of scientific interest with a sense atmosphere (Mars, Venus, Earth, Titan, gas giants, ice giants).