PS25128: UKSAC25_0044 – Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) 2025-26 Studies

• Value: £42K

This lot contains one study, though UKSA reserves the right to award multiple variants to multiple bidders in the event sufficient high quality bids are received: Lot 1.1: Analysis of the data from EISCAT Beampark Campaign Total Contract Value: Up to £25,000 (inclusive of VAT) Total Contract Duration: 6 months Characterisation of the Small Debris Space Environment remains an ongoing critical challenge for addressing space sustainability. NSpOC has previously funded a 24 hour beampark campaign using the EISCAT UHF radar system with the raw data analysed through an ESA contract. At the recent IADC, it was discussed that shorter follow up beamparks targeting specific fragmentation events would also be very beneficial. As a result of this, NSpOC has arranged for a further 24 hours of time but split up over 6 x 4 hr sessions targeting the recent CZ-6A fragmentation. The campaigns target 200-2000 km with a 75E pointing direction. We require a supplier to analyse the raw data to pull out detections and use the circular orbit assumption to extract an orbital inclination and altitude and make an assessment of object size based on the signal strength.

• Value: £250K

Lot 2: Working Group 2 : Environment and Database - The scope of Working Group is the characterisation and modelling of meteoroid and debris around the Earth and storage and access of the data by electronic means, including meteoroid and debris models, short and long-term evolution, collision prediction and risk assessment. This lot contains three separate studies, and bidders may bid for one or more of these studies within these lots, noting UKSA reserves the right to award multiple studies to multiple bidders where sufficient high quality proposals are received. To support on-going research support is sought on the following: 1. Lot 2.1: Assess the utility of existing metrics and develop new metrics for space environment Total Contract Value: Up to £50,000 (inclusive of VAT) Total Contract Duration: 6 months Review the formulation of existing proposals of metrics for the space environment to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Develop or continue the development of environment-level metrics that can be used to quantify the status of the orbital debris environment and define its sustainable use. Compare proposed metrics against other indicators and metrics of the space environment to understand their respective strengths and weaknesses and to establish their utility in understanding sustainable space activities. 2. Lot 2.2: Develop software and tools to assess the environment Total Contract Value: Up to £50,000 (inclusive of VAT) Total Contract Duration: 6 months Develop key software components and tools to establish further UK capability to model the long-term evolution of the space environment. Apply software and tools to benchmark cases against other internationally developed models. 3. Lot 2.3: Timelines for End of Life (EOL) disposal Total Contract Value: Up to £50,000 (inclusive of VAT) Total Contract Duration: 6 months Quantitative assessment of the impacts of reducing the lifetime of the spacecraft at End-of-Life considering residence time in congested areas e.g. constellation shells, space stations. An assessment of risk and approaches to orbit design which may minimise risk and improve sustainability of the missions.

• Value: £125K

Lot 3: Working Group 3 : Protection - The scope of Working Group comprises the design and technology of shielding against meteoroids and space debris and the associated test methods which include test facility and procedure, hypervelocity impact data, simulation software. This lot contains two studies and bidders are able to apply for one or more of these, noting UKSA reserves the right to award multiple contracts to multiple bidders where sufficient high quality proposals are received. To support on-going research support is sought on the following: 1. Lot 3.1: Explore options for simple thresholds to quantify the vulnerability of spacecraft to impacts Total Contract Value: Up to £25,000 (inclusive of VAT) Total Contract Duration: 6 months Within the national and international standards dealing with space debris mitigation the requirements are provided based on the size of space debris. The size of the associated space debris is linked to those which create a spacecraft failure in terms of probability of loss of functionality leading to the loss of collision avoidance manoeuvre capability and/or post mission disposal capability. Suppliers are sought to address this topic to support the development of impact vulnerability-based thresholds that can be used in the future as simplified metrics. The intention is to focus on design-dependent spacecraft vulnerability. 2. Lot 3.2: Define fragmentation event simulations for multiple simplified modern spacecraft designs (geometries, materials) and collision conditions (e.g. impactor properties, impact location, velocity, incidence angle) and characterise the fragments generated for different collision conditions Total Contract Value: Up to £50,000 (inclusive of VAT) Total Contract Duration: 6 months Within the national and international standards dealing with space debris mitigation assumptions are made on the size or energy of space debris that is likely to create a catastrophic break-up and generate the related fragment distributions. In practice, the employed definition of "catastrophic" to justify the "critical" threshold of the space debris involved is often qualitative and limited by the availability of the state-of-the-art research. Suppliers are sought to characterise fragments released in hypervelocity impacts that can be used in future for deriving fragmentation severity.

• Value: £83K

Lot 4: Working Group 4 : Mitigation - The scope of Working Group comprises the study of all measures to reduce or avoid the creation of space debris or reduce the hazards created by space debris. This includes identification of space debris sources, design and operation of space systems to avoid or reduce the creation of space debris, guidelines for debris mitigation. This lot contains two studies and bidders are able to apply for one or more of these, noting UKSA reserves the right to issue multiple contracts to multiple bidders in the event sufficient high quality proposals are received. To support on-going research support is sought on the following: 1. Lot 4.1: Lunar Debris Mitigation Guidelines - further work on disposal options Total Contract Value: Up to £25,000 (inclusive of VAT) Total Contract Duration: 6 months The UK Space Agency is keen to support efforts to develop recommendations for the sustainable use of Cislunar space. This study will seek to identify key research gaps and further develop the work carried out in the previous studies to feed directly into the IADC WG and other international forums. The outputs of this study may also be used by the UK Space Agency and wider UK Government to inform new regulatory policy for future UK-licensed lunar missions. 2. Lot 4.2: Assessment of technologies driving post-mission disposal reliability Total Contract Value: Up to £25,000 (inclusive of VAT) Total Contract Duration: 6 months Investigate the merits of higher post-mission disposal success rates, looking at reliability based on mass, collision probability, orbital location, propulsion reliability and other relevant parameters. Include analysis of constellations specifically to support recommendations that constellations have higher success rates.