ESA Open Invitation To Tender AO8259
Open Date: 30/03/2015
Closing Date: 11/05/2015

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 14.123.15
Prog. Ref.: GSTP Period 6 E1 PRJ
Budget Ref.: E/0904-611 – GSTP Period 6 E1 PRJ
Special Prov.: GB
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Technical & Quality Manag
Department: Mechanical Engineering Department
Division: Propulsion & Aerothermodynamics Division
Contract Officer: Wesolowski, Szymon
Last Update Date: 30/03/2015
Update Reason: Tender issue

As already proved feasible by the flight of the Sounding Hypersonic Atmospheric Re-entering Kapsule (SHARK) on the MAXUS-8 sounding rocket, the present activity shall make use of the spare payload volume, otherwise used for ballast, to perform a low cost flight test of a supersonic parachute on the MAXUS mission in 2016. Also, an initial internal feasibility study showed that there is possible to test a suitable sized parachute (1m diameter) in the available mass and volume constraints given by MAXUS, therefore there is a very good opportunity to develop state-of-the-art technologies for testing supersonic parachutes in Europe. The proposed activity includes: – the detailed design of the capsule, parachute and deployment system including instrumentation and avionics – the procurement (COTS)/development/manufacture of all items above – post flight analysis. The proposed activity does not include installation of the payload on MAXUS nor procuring the flight opportunity – which ESA would be procuring separately, directly from the MAXUS operators. The following minimum instrumentation is foreseen to obtain flight data for design: – Timer to measure events from MAXUS separation (initiation) to touchdown – Video of the deployment and steady state descent, – Accelerations and Angular rates of the capsule, – Axial force during deployment, and – Pressure sensor(s). Further, since the capsule will be analysed by CFD to assess the wake, heating and the stability for the reference mission, there is also an opportunity to test future mission capsule shape dynamics in relevant conditions.

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