ESA Open Invitation to Tender AO9576
Open Date: 12/07/2019
Closing Date: 27/09/2019 13:00:00

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 18.1QC.08
Prog. Ref.: GSTP Element 1 Dev
Budget Ref.: E/0904-611 – GSTP Element 1 Dev
Special Prov.: AT+CZ
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Products: Satellites & Probes / Materials / Non-metallic
Technology Domains: Materials and Processes / Novel Materials and Materials Technology Includes materials not yet used in space but presenting potential interest. / Material Assessment
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Tech, Eng. & Quality
Department: Product Assurance and Safety Department
Division: Materials & Components Technology Divisi
Contract Officer: Magne-Lie, Karine
Industrial Policy Measure: N/A – Not apply
Last Update Date: 12/07/2019
Update Reason: Tender issue

The polyimide films materials combine the performance of polyimide that is intrinsically radiation stable but exhibit higher solar absorptance (yellow colour) and fluoropolymers that are highly transparent with very low solar absorptance (colourless) but sufferdurability in a radiation environment.Developments in previous activities showed solar absorptance of such hybrid materials as low as 0.07 in pristine form and between 0.15 – 0.25 after combined radiation environments (UV, e-, p+). The mechanical flexibility of such polymer films and the easeof surface modifications by vapour deposition make them ideal substrates exterior spacecraft applications, such as enhanced MLI performance and low-cost OSRs.Within this activity the materials matrix shall be fully optimised and performance tested to cover all environmental parameters, i.e. not limited to radiation (vacuum UV, particle radiation) and temperature but also atomic oxygen and synergistic effects to enable fullperformance assessment for all relevant earth orbits. The performance of the optimized polymer film shall then be demonstrated for an OSR as well as MLI configuration.The gained improvement compared toconventional applications shall be quantified in terms of technical performance (e.g. thermal efficiency, in-orbit life time), and through a cost/benefit analysis for both, MLI and OSR applications.The tasks to be done in the frame of this activity will consist of: building from previous activities, full matrix optimisation of hybrid fluorinated polyimides and performance evaluation for LEO and GEO environment, manufacturing of demonstrators for OSR and MLI application for transparent polyimide as well as conventional reference systems, full environmental testing of demonstrators, performance evaluation, and trade-offanalysis for technical performance and cost, demonstration of large-scale manufacturing capability.NOTE: This activity is currently in the GSTP Work Plan but will only be implemented after confirmation of financial support from Delegations. The final list of participating states will be known at tender issue.