Space Applications Developer

Description

Deadline Date: Thursday 6 March 2025

Requirement: Space Applications Developer

Location: The Hague, NL (travel to other NATO countries may be required)

Full Time On-Site: Yes

Time On-Site: 100%

Period of Performance: BASE period: As soon as possible but not later than 14th April 2025 – 31 December 2025 with possibility to exercise the following option: 01 January 2026 – 31 March 2026.

Required Security Clearance: NATO SECRET

Bidding instructions

Your technical quotation shall be submitted as follows:

a. A brief description of the company expertise and corporate experience in the areas highlighted in section 2 of the SOW (no more than 300 words).

b. Resumes/CV and attestation of the proposed resource for the execution of the contract, that demonstrate the minimum requirements as per para.9 from SOW.

c. Any other appropriate technical information to determine whether your bid meets the requirements outlined in section 2 of the SOW.

1 INTRODUCTION

The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA) located in The Hague, Netherlands, is currently involved in the development and support of new and existing capabilities for NATO.

In light of these activities and in response to the NATO Overarching Space Policy as well as the declaration of Space as an Operational Domain, NATO has organised itself to keep pace with the evolving needs of the Alliance.

Within NCIA Chief Technology Office, the Space Technology Adoption and Resilience (STAR) team, will enable the exploitation of Space technology for NATO’s defence and deterrence, ensuring NATO’s technological edge for secure, resilient and effective employment of Space technologies for the Alliance.

STAR will develop and execute a technology strategy and associated roadmap for Space (CTO) and coordinate Space business delivery from within the NCIA Business Areas (COO). The STAR Team will provide technical expertise and strategic advice on Space for the benefit of the Alliance, design Space-based future services and foster their resilient integration into Multi-Domain Operations (MDO). In line with strategic guidance and Space policy, the new STAR Team will provide the Alliance with technical expertise and strategic advice on Space, ensuring NCIA continues to provide applicable products, services and operational capability, taking resiliency from inception in line with the new NATO Strategic Concept.

2 DELIVERABLES

The deliverables from the Statement of Work refer to tangible or intangible outputs of the communication strategy.

The objective is to develop solutions (e.g., Space operational dashboard) on the Orion prototype service in order to collect and visualize different types of Space-specific data and information from various sources, including live feeds from open source. The solutions should allow to automate processes, and have an architecture that allow quick customization to accommodate new requirements (plug-and-play).

Work Package WP1: Utility and Technical Debt

An analysis on user workflows shall be made, which will be used to create an effective user experience and a clearly navigable site.

Additionally, Configuration tables shall be designed and implemented, allowing for static information to be edited through the database instead of being coded into the frontend.

Deliverable D1: 1. A more clearly navigable site

2. Configuration tables

Constraint C1: Software shall work with currently developed backend and form an integrated whole with the existing front-end elements.

Acceptance Criteria A1: The implementation is reviewed by CTO STAR Head or delegated authority and found of acceptable quality.

Work Package WP2: Feature Package

A view of the relative angular position of geostationary satellites over time shall be created (waterfall view). It should visualize the altitude of GEO satellites on the x-axis and the time (days) on the y-axis. In this chart, satellites from NATO, Russia, China, NATO partners, and “other Nations” should be visualised as bullets of different colours (respectively blue, red, yellow, green, and grey). Filters to select and unselect the satellite ownership should be available as check boxes.

Additionally a Satellite Capability Information Page shall be created, showing information on all known satellites (i.e. Owner, Capability, etc.). This will be based on a table for each satellite containing common information and a free text field for specific information that does not fit a tabular format. Filters and slicers should be available to ease visualization customization and data analysis.

Furthermore, a Notice To Space Operators (NOTSO) view will be created, showing these notifications in a clear way based on data from JCO or test data, depending on backend progress.

Deliverable D2: 1. Waterfall View

2. Satellite Capability Information Page

3. NOTSO view

Constraint C2: Software shall work with currently developed backend and form an integrated whole with the existing front-end elements.

Acceptance Criteria A2: The implementation is reviewed by CTO STAR Head or delegatedauthority and found of acceptable quality.

Work Package WP3: User management

User management shall be added to the site. Users shall be subject to access restrictions determined by the authorized staff at the STAR team or future managing party. Existing infrastructure for user management at the agency shall be utilized effectively.

Deliverable D3: 1. User permission management solution

Constraint C3: Software shall work with currently developed backend and form an integrated whole with the existing front-end elements.

Acceptance Criteria A3: The implementation is reviewed by CTO STAR Head or delegated authority and found of acceptable quality.

Work Package WP4: 2D and 3D Mapping views

The incumbent shall familiarize themselves with (open or NCIA internal) solutions for visualizing objects and events on a 2D/3D map of Earth, which is capable of running on a closed network. This knowledge shall then be used to make a trade-off resulting in a selected option. This option shall then be worked out and an implemented. The visualization shall be easily customizable to allow for different events, objects or tracks to be shown on a map, switchable from a top-down 2D Mercator view to a 3D orthographic and/or perspective projection.

Deliverable D4: 1. 2D/3D mapping solution trade-off report

2. Customizable map visualization

Constraint C4: Software shall work with currently developed backend and form an integrated whole with the existing front-end elements.

Acceptance Criteria A4: The implementation is reviewed by CTO STAR Head or delegated authority and found of acceptable quality.

Work Package WP5: Conjunction, Manoeuvre and ORBAT views

The visualization option from deliverable D4 shall be used to create view for satellite conjunctions and satellite manoeuvres. The conjunction view will contain a list of relevant future and past conjunctions. When a conjunction event is selected, the map view will show the tracks of both objects involved in the conjunction and the conjunction point. The view can be toggled from 3D to 2D, to show relevant data for both the space and ground based components.

The Manoeuvre view will contain a list of relevant past and future manoeuvres. When a manoeuvre event is selected, the map view will show the orbit of the object before and after the manoeuvre, in addition to the mean point, the delta-V vector (graphic) and magnitude (textual) of the manoeuvre. The manoeuvre tool should allow to define the likelihood of an intentional manoeuvre of satellites based on orbital parameters contained in the TLEs. The user should be able to select the variation (in %) of each parameter as a threshold to define whether that variation should be considered as a relevant or negligible.

The tool should return the list of satellites with the highest number of orbital parameters beyond the thresholds, in a decreasing order.

For these tools, it is required that the results could be exported in MS Excel.

Lastly, an ORBAT view shall be designed in conjunction with customer consultation, showing relative order-of-battle information specific to an operation or exercise.

Deliverable D5: 1. Conjunction view

2. Manoeuvre view

3. ORBAT view

Constraint C5: Software shall work with currently developed backend and form an integrated whole with the existing front-end elements.

Acceptance Criteria A5: The implementation is reviewed by CTO STAR Head or delegated authority and found of acceptable quality.

Work Package WP6 (Optional): SATRAN Generator

A page shall be developed that allows for generation of satellite transit (SATRAN) reports.

The user shall be able to input the nation(s) or owners for satellites they are interested in.

The user shall be able to input the capabilities they are interested in. The user shall be able to input the polygonal or circular geographic area they are interested in. The page will offer a download of the (textual, graphical) SATRAN report based on the aforementioned conditions. This report shows a list of the start time, end time and capabilities of condition matching satellite tracks crossing the user defined area, in addition to a description of the utilized conditions and geographic area.

Deliverable D6: 1. SATRAN Generator frontend components

Constraint C6: Software shall work with currently developed backend and form an integrated whole with the existing front-end elements.

Acceptance Criteria A6: The implementation is reviewed by CTO STAR Head or delegated authority and found of acceptable quality.

Work Package WP7 (Optional): Landing page

Based on the currently logged on user, a user customizable landing page shall be created.

Deliverable D7: 1. Frontend components for landing page customisation.

Constraint C7: Software shall work with currently developed backend and form an integrated whole with the existing front-end elements.

Acceptance Criteria A7: The implementation is reviewed by CTO STAR Head or delegated authority and found of acceptable quality.

3 DELIVERABLES AND PAYMENT MILESTONES

Deliverable D1: 1 June 2025

Payment Amount: 11% of 2025 contract value