DESY: Thermal Vacuum Chamber for ULTRASAT Camera

DESY is one of the world's leading accelerator centres. Researchers use the large-scale facilities at DESY to explore the microcosm in all its variety. Zeuthen is (besides Hamburg) the second location of DESY, located in the south-eastern outskirts of Berlin. Since 2011, the DESY Zeuthen campus has been profiled as a globally visible center for astroparticle physics. DESY Zeuthen is involved in several international research projects in astroparticle physics. ULTRASAT is an astronomical satellite mission whose wide-angle telescope will perform a deep time-resolved all-sky survey in the near-ultraviolet (NUV). The satellite shall be in orbit in 2024 and will then take data for at least three years. The main science objectives of ULTRASAT are the detection of counterparts to gravitational wave sources and of supernovae. DESY joined the ULTRASAT mission in 2019 and will provide the Focal Plane Array (camera). According to the requirements of ULTRASAT project, the camera, ist parts and sub-assemblies will be inspected, assembled, integrated and tested in a clean room (ISO 5 areas within in ISO 7 room) environments. DESY is currently building up the clean room facility. Thermal tests are required to qualify the camera for space application. Therefore a Thermal Vacuum Chamber (TVC) shall be produced and installed in this clean room. The production and installation of the TVC is subject of this tender.