Industrial Space Day for BepiColombo Mission
ESA, together with Astrium GmbH, will hold an Industrial Space Day for BepiColombo Mission at ESTEC 6 March 2007 to inform as soon as possible candidate subcontractors of the various subsystem and equipment procurement opportunities as well as the procurement planning and procedure.
The interdisciplinary BepiColombo mission is devoted to the thorough exploration of Mercury and its environment with the aim to understand the process of planetary formation and evolution in the hottest part of the proto-planetary nebula as well as to understand similarities and differences between the magnetospheres of Mercury and Earth.
The mission will be carried out as a joint project between ESA and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). The baseline mission consists of two scientific orbiters: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The orbiters will be launched together on one Soyuz-Fregat 2-1B. ESA is responsible for the MPO, including instrument integration, and JAXA is responsible for the MMO.
Following a competitive procurement process, the Agency will recommend the Industrial Policy Committee (IPC) to select Astrium GmbH as the Prime Contractor for the Implementation Phase Contract. The decision of the IPC is expected end of January 2007 while the Mission approval is expected to be confirmed by the Science Programme Committee (SPC) end of February 2007.
Industries interested in participating to the Industrial Space Day for BepiColombo Mission at ESTEC 6 March 2007 should notify their interest not later than 15 February 2007.
For more information and details on how to register see the EMITS news, Industrial Space Day for BepiColombo Mission, 6th March 2007, ESTEC - Noordwijk.
