Status Report

Notice of Intent to Issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for Small Radioisotope Power Sources for the Space and Defense Power Systems Program

By SpaceRef Editor

September 22, 2004

Filed under Commerce, Department of Energy, US

General Information

Document Type: Special Notice

Solicitation Number: DOE-SNOTE-040920-002

Posted Date: Sep 20, 2004

Original Response Date:

Current Response Date:

Original Archive Date: Nov 01, 2004

Current Archive Date: Nov 01, 2004

Contracting Office Address

850 Energy Drive MS 1221 Idaho Falls ID, 83401-1563

Description

Description: The Department of Energy (DOE) is releasing a Notice of Intent to Issue a Request for Proposal for Small Radioisotope Power Sources. NASA’s plans for future space and planetary surface missions calls for small size spacecrafts, landers and robotics using improved or new radioisotope power systems (RPS).

The improved or new RPS require high system efficiency, long life, low mass and volume, and adaptability for mission use in harsh environments. RPSs have been used for numerous, highly successful space applications, including the Apollo lunar missions, the Viking Mars landers, and the Pioneer, Voyager, Ulysses, Galileo and Cassini outer planetary probes.

In addition to being able to operate independent of orientation to and distance from the Sun, RPSs are typically long-lived, rugged, compact, highly reliable, and relatively insensitive to radiation and other environmental effects.

As such, they are ideally suited for missions involving long-duration, autonomous operations in the extreme environments of space and planetary surfaces. The different RPS units that the U.S. has developed and flown over the years have all provided power levels ranging from ten to several hundred watts. The increased use of smaller spacecraft over the last decade, along with studies of new potential science applications, has suggested the need for RPSs yielding much lower power levels. Such power supplies have the potential to extend the capability of small science payloads and instruments, and to enable applications such as:

– Long-lived meteorological/seismological stations broadly distributed across planetary surfaces,

– Small landers at extreme latitudes or in regions of low solar flux,

– Surface and atmosphere-based mobility systems,

– Subsurface probes, including impactors and autonomous boring devices,

– Deep space micro-spacecraft and sub-satellites.

Such units could also find application in future human exploration missions involving use of monitoring stations and autonomous devices, similar to the ALSEP units deployed on the Moon during the Apollo program. Although flight-qualified RPS units in this size and power range do not presently exist, their potential to support a broad range of exploration tasks has led NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE) to consider the development of small RPS units such that they might be available for missions by the early part of next decade.

Starting in 2003, NASA’s Office of Space Science and DOE convened a series of studies and technical interchange meetings to review the potential applications, associated requirements, and methodology for pursuing development of small RPS.

The results of these activities will be documented in a soon to be released report, “Enabling Exploration with Small Radioisotope Power Systems.” The objective of this RFP will be to design, fabricate and test two different sized (milliwatt and multiwatt) electrically heated engineering generators in order to demonstrate their suitability as radioisotope power systems (RPSs) for NASA space exploration missions during the next decade. The RFP will solicit proposals for a multi-phase effort to develop full-scale engineering units and conduct non-nuclear testing of two different sized units in relevant environments.

Milliwatt RPS Engineering Unit – This RPS will serve as building blocks for power systems on missions with requirements in the range of 10 ” 100 milliwatts electric.

The primary technical requirements are long life and high mass and volumetric specific power. ?? Multiwatt RPS Engineering Unit – This RPS to serve as building blocks for power systems on missions with requirements in the range of one to tens of watts electric.

The power requirement for individual multiwatt units has not been determined at this point, but could range from one to 20 watts electric. Other key technical requirements are long life and high mass and volumetric specific power. Work will be accomplished in a phased approach.

Phase 1, would involve detailed design and evaluation of critical technologies. Subsequent phase efforts would entail full-scale performance and life tests of the unit. All contracts will be reviewed at the end of each phase and only those with the highest likelihood of success would be continued. DOE is planning to conduct this procurement in the following stages:

1. RFP (Fall 2004) It is anticipated that DOE will disseminate the formal Request for Proposals electronically through the Industry Interactive Procurement System (IIPS) located at the following URL. http://e-center.doe.gov

2. Awards (Spring 2005)

It is anticipated that DOE will make awards to successful proposers in the spring of FY2005 General Award Information:

1. DOE anticipates this will be full and open competition and a cost plus fixed fee contract.

2. It is anticipated that DOE will make one to three awards in each area (Milliwatt & Multiwatt).

3. It is anticipated that total cost for all work will be up to $9,500,000, with $1,300,000 available for the first year.

4. It is anticipated that all these projects will be completed within 3 years.

If your firm is interested in being notified when the RFP is released, please respond by email to the contract specialist listed below.

Contract Specialist Name:

Richard Burger Contract Specialist

Phone: 208 526-0536

Contract Specialist

Email: burgerrs@id.doe.gov Contract Specialist