Tender for the supply of Precision-machined parts for the band 5 receiver for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). Project for which no dedicated CPV code can be found
The contracting authority is the Nederlandse Onderzoekschool voor Astronomie, NOVA, legally represented by the University Leiden. The billing address is the NOVA Office, located in Leiden. NOVA Office University Leiden J.H. Oort Building Niels Bohrweg 2 2333 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. The delivery of the goods for the purpose of this contract shall be at: University of Groningen, C/o Kapteyn Institute, Kapteynborg NOVA-ALMA Group Landleven 12 Entrance J1, Zernike Campus 9747 AD Groningen, The Netherlands. 1. Nederlandse Onderzoekschool voor Astronomie, NOVA English name: The Netherlands Research School for Astronomy NOVA is a federation of the astronomical institutes at the universities of Amsterdam, Groningen, Leiden and Nijmegen, legally represented by the University Leiden. NOVA's mission is to carry out frontline astronomical research in the Netherlands, and to train young astronomers at the highest international level. As part of this mission, NOVA's instrumentation program aims to strengthen the technical expertise at the universities, and to develop and construct new instrumentation for world-class observatories. Development and production of the ALMA Band 5 Receiver Cartridge for the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an important part of this instrumentation program. 2. The Atacama Large Millimeter / Submillimeter Array (ALMA) The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan. ALMA operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA. ALMA is a single instrument composed of 66 high-precision antennas located in the II Region of Chile, in the District of San Pedro de Atacama, at the Chajnantor altiplano, 5,000 metres above sea level. ALMA's primary function is to observe and image with unprecedented clarity the enigmatic cold regions of the Universe, which are optically dark, yet shine brightly in the millimetre portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. 3. The ALMA Band 5 Receiver Cartridge Project In the past years, NOVA has developed and produced the ALMA Band 9 Receiver Cartridges, covering the frequency range between 620-710 GHz. NOVA is presently producing the ALMA Band 5 Receiver Cartridges in collaboration with its Swedish partner GARD. This is a cryogenic heterodyne receiver offering state-of-the-art sensitivities at signal frequencies between 163-211 GHz. A consortium of two institutes executes the work: - The ALMA/NOVA group within the Kapteyn Institute, the Astronomy department of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and - GARD group within Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden NOVA leads in the project and performs this work under contract to ESO. The challenging science goals, large scope, and remote location of the ALMA project, combined with the Receiver Cartridges' cryogenic operating temperatures (as low as 3 K or 269°C), place high demands on the performance and reliability of the Band 5 Receiver Cartridges and their components. 4. GARD group at the Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden The Group for Advanced Receiver Development (GARD) is a research and engineering group working on Terahertz scientific instrumentation. GARD research focuses on superconducting electronics, material science and thin-film processing. The results and experience from these fields facilitate development and building of state-of-the-art instruments used in radio astronomy and environmental science. During 2006- 2011, under EC FP6 ALMA Enhancement Project, GARD completed development, production and tests of six Band 5 Receiver Cartridge Pre-Production Assemblies. All produced Band 5 Receiver Cartridges demonstrate state-of-the-art performance (the noise temperature of about 5 times quantum noise hf/k). The first produced Band 5 receiver has been integrated with ALMA antenna s/n 01 since October 2011. The ALMA Band 5 covers the frequency range 163 - 211 GHz. The para-H2O (313-220) line at 183 GHz lies in the middle of Band 5 frequency band. It is one of a few water lines that can be observed from the Earth at the excellent atmospheric conditions at the ALMA site. The GARD group has about fourteen staff members. 5 The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive astronomical observatory. ESO provides state-of-the-art research facilities to astronomers and is supported by Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Brazil is expected to become a member soon (ratification by parliament pending). Several other countries have expressed an interest in membership. ESO's main mission, laid down in the 1962 Convention, is to provide state-of-the-art research facilities to astronomers and astrophysicists, allowing them to conduct front-line science in the best conditions. The annual member state contributions to ESO are approximately 131 million Euros and ESO employs around 730 staff members. By building and operating a suite of the world's most powerful ground-based astronomical telescopes enabling important scientific discoveries, ESO offers numerous possibilities for technology spin-off and transfer, together with high technology contract opportunities and is a dramatic showcase for European industry. Whilst the Headquarters (comprising the scientific, technical and administrative centre of the organisation) are located in Garching near Munich, Germany, ESO operates, in addition to the Santiago Centre, three observational sites in the Chilean Atacama desert. The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is located on Paranal, a 2600 m high mountain south of Antofagasta. At La Silla, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at 2400 m altitude, ESO operates several medium-sized optical telescopes. The third site is the 5,000+ m high Llano de Chajnantor, near San Pedro de Atacama. Here a new submillimeter telescope (APEX) is in operation for several years, and a giant array, The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), has been inaugurated in March 2013. ALMA, the largest ground-based astronomy project in existence, is a revolutionary facility for world astronomy. ALMA comprises an array of 66 giant 12-metre and 7-metre diameter antennas observing at millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths. Construction of ALMA started in 2003 and scientific observations have commenced since 2011. Preparing the future, ESO is currently engaged in design studies for an Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope for Europe's astronomers (E-ELT). ESO is a member of the EIROforum, the partnership of the seven European intergovernmental research organisations that operate major research infrastructures.
Deadline
De termijn voor de ontvangst van de offertes was 2013-11-20.
De aanbesteding werd gepubliceerd op 2013-10-15.
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Aankoopgeschiedenis
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| 2013-10-15
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| 2015-01-07
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