The Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) has announced a tender for the production and supply of optical-electronic complexes for detection and measurement of the movement parameters of space debris; the initial (maximum) price of the state contract is 363 million rubles (over 10.5 million dollars); a corresponding application is posted on the public procurement portal.

The works on manufacturing and testing the equipment should be controlled by the military agency of the Russian Defense Ministry, the document says.

The warranty period of the complex is five thousand hours during five years. Applications for participation in the tender are accepted till June 9; the summing up of the results of the open contest is scheduled for June 11. The works should be completed by December, 2015.

Space debris, i.e. broken spacecrafts and their fragments, worked-out rocket stages and upper-stage rockets, create more and more problems for space exploration. Today, NASA is monitoring 16.6 thousand objects larger than 10 centimeters in orbit.

Cases of satellites' collisions with space debris have already been registered, and after such space accidents, the number of fragments is growing enormously. Besides, about 200 objects of space debris fall to the ground each year, some of them burn down in the atmosphere, but some may represent a serious threat.

Source: Voice of Russia