ESA Open Invitation to Tender: 1-10186
Open Date: 07/03/2022 11:34 CEST
Closing Date: 27/05/2022 13:00 CEST

Objective: The objective of this activity is to design, analyse and test a tether-based deorbiting system for low Earth orbit satcom. The de-orbiting system should be highly autonomous and minimise the use of spacecraft resources. Targeted Improvements: Enabling a deorbiting time in the range of 100 days compared to the several years required by the latest regulations. Description: Most of current deorbiting systems require the resources of the spacecraft propulsion subsystem. This leads to an oversizing of the subsystemto enable a deorbiting manoeuvre at end of life. Passive deorbiting removes the need to store extra fuel for deorbiting purposes. The two main passive deorbiting systems are sails and tethers. This activity will focus on tethers, as they have a simpler deploymentsystem and the potential for better performance than sails, in particular flexibility to trade-off de-orbiting time against tether length. The foreseen system shall be compatible with any orbit up to 1,400 km of altitude and any spacecraft with a mass up to250 kg. The targeted system mass is around 5 kg. This activity will cover the design of the tether, including the interfaces withthe host spacecraft, and manufacturing and testing of the deployment system. A collision avoidance analysis will be performed to ensure that the deployed system will be safe in a realistic operating environment. Procurement Policy C1: Activities in open competition limitedto non-Large-System Integrators (LSIs)) as prime. LSIs are allowed to participate as sub-contractors. For additional information please go to EMITS news “Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and RD entities in ESA programmes”. Footnote: On Delegation Request activities will only be initiated on the explicit request of at least one National Delegation.

Directorate: Directorate Telecom Integrated Applica
Estabilishment: ESTEC
ECOS Required: No
Classified: No
Price Range: > 500 KEURO
Authorised Contact Person: Nicole Rinaudo
Initiating Service: TIA-TTS
IP Measure: C1
Prog. Reference: E/0534-01G – CC-AT 4.0.1
Tender Type: Open Competition
Open To Tenderers From: AT+BE+CA+CH+CZ+DE+DK+EL+ES+FI+FR+GB+HU+IE+IT+LU+NL+NO+PL+PT+RO+SE
Technology Keywords: 19-D-II-Testing and Diagnostics
Products Keywords: 2-K-3-a-Electrostatic Propulsion Systems / 2-K-3-b-Electromagnetic Propulsion Systems