NASA Announcement of Opportunity to Participate in its Night Rover Centennial Challenges Pogram as an Allied Organization
Synopsis – Feb 25, 2011
General Information
Solicitation Number: NNH11UA001L
Posted Date: Feb 25, 2011
FedBizOpps Posted Date: Feb 25, 2011
Recovery and Reinvestment Act Action: No
Original Response Date: Apr 22, 2011
Current Response Date: Apr 22, 2011
Classification Code: A — Research and Development
NAICS Code: 541611 – Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
Contracting Office Address
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters Acquisition Branch, Code 210.H, Greenbelt, MD 20771
Description
Through this Announcement, NASA seeks to select Allied Organizations for specific prize competitions (hereinafter “Challenges”) to be conducted under the Centennial Challenges Program of NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Allied Organizations are responsible for the following elements as they relate to individual Challenges:
* Challenge Planning.
* Sponsor Recruitment.
* Competitor Recruitment.
* Challenge Administration and Execution.
* Challenge Publicity.
NASA provides the monetary prize purse (which can be supplemented by outside organizations) but no funding for the conduct of the competition itself. Allied Organizations must administer the Challenges with their own funding or they must acquire the funding needed to administer the Challenges through partnerships with sponsoring organizations or through other means.
Sponsoring organizations are those entities that partner with an Allied Organization to contribute funding for administrative expenses or in-kind support through separate agreements between the Allied Organization and the sponsoring organization.
Space Act Agreements NASA anticipates entering into unfunded Space Act Agreements with selected Allied Organizations to manage the Challenges associated with each of the planned Centennial Challenges. Selection of Allied Organizations will be through a competitive process based on evaluation of submitted proposals. Participation as an Allied Organization will be contingent upon selection by NASA and negotiation of an appropriate agreement between NASA and the proposer. The Space Act Agreement will detail the contributions and responsibilities of NASA and the Allied Organization for a specific Challenge. The agreement will address intellectual property rights, concurrence on rules, team agreements, media rights, insurance, registration fees and eligibility and typically include a term of 3 years. NASA reserves the right to select for Space Act Agreement negotiations all, some, or none of the proposals submitted in response to this Announcement. Respondents will be responsible for funding their own activities associated with responding to this Announcement and conducting the Challenge. Allied Organizations may collect reasonable registration fees from competitors but the use of registration fees as a primary means to cover Challenge administration costs is discouraged.
Eligibility Domestic non-profit organizations are eligible to submit proposals in response to this Announcement. Allied Organizations cannot compete in the Challenge that they manage. Allied Organizations and their officers and employees may not have a financial or other interest in any teams that compete in any Challenge(s) they manage.
Organizations may submit proposals to manage one or more of the specific Centennial Challenges described in this announcement but a separate proposal must be submitted for each Challenge. Multiple organizations may form partnerships to manage a Challenge and may submit a joint proposal.
Centennial Challenges Background NASA Centennial Challenges was established to conduct prize competitions to generate innovative solutions to technical problems of interest to NASA and the nation. Those competing for the NASA monetary prizes can be individuals, independent teams, student groups, research organizations or private companies but they cannot receive government funding to support any of their work related to the technical area of the prize Challenge.
The program seeks unconventional solutions from non-traditional sources and, thereby, hopes to identify new talent and stimulate the creation of new businesses. Unlike contracts and grants based on proposals, prizes are only awarded after competitors have successfully demonstrated their innovations. Competitors retain ownership of their intellectual property.
To be eligible to win a NASA Centennial Challenge monetary prize, an individual or entity– (1) shall have registered to participate in the competition pursuant to any rules promulgated by NASA; (2) shall have complied with all the rules of the competition and requirements of applicable law; (3) in the case of a private entity, shall be incorporated in and maintain a primary place of business in the United States, and in the case of an individual, whether participating singly or in a group, shall be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States; and (4) shall not be a Federal entity or Federal employee acting within the scope of their employment.
The Centennial Challenges in the past have typically required several annual competitions to occur before the total prize purses have been claimed. Competitions may be conducted in a first-to-demonstrate format or in a head-to-head contest format. The competition events, especially in the head-to-head contest format, typically involve public spectators, televised or Webcasted coverage and are high-visibility opportunities for public outreach and education. Additional information can be found at www.nasa.gov/challenges
New Centennial Challenges The specific Challenge for which Allied Organizations are sought with this Announcement is the Night Rover Challenge to demonstrate a solar-powered exploration vehicle that can operate in darkness using its own stored energy. The prize purse is $1.5 million.
A description of the Challenge outlining NASA’s objectives is provided in the appendix to this announcement. Further refinements and creative enhancements of the Challenge concept by the Allied Organizations, with concurrence by NASA, are encouraged.
Selection Criteria NASA will select Allied Organizations based on the following evaluation criteria:
1) Capabilities of the organization to administer the Challenge and competition events including ability to:
a. promote the technical and educational goals of the Challenge through creative use of public media including Web sites.
b. attract multiple competitors with wide geographic distribution.
c. encourage the participation of individuals, groups, students, and businesses, especially those outside the traditional aerospace community and those from minority and under-represented communities.
d. formulate competition rules and plans in consultation with NASA and with appropriate public comment.
e. provide appropriate competition venues and supporting equipment.
f. select qualified judges. g. conduct competitor registration.
h. establish agreements with competitors covering legal, insurance, and other issues.
i. maintain communication with competitors and with NASA.
j. collect and report aggregate data on competitor progress and performance.
k. plan competition events and other meetings.
l. conduct competition events safely and impartially.
m. organize educational activities, including parallel student-class competitions (university, high school, or other levels) to enhance and broaden the impact of the Challenge.
n. report competition results to NASA and to the public.
2) Experience of the organization in similar or analogous activities that demonstrate competence, integrity, commitment to safety, and ability to work cooperatively in partnering arrangements.
3) Ability of the organization to support Challenge administration through internal financial resources or firm commitments of sponsors. Existing financial resources or sponsor commitments will be a positive factor in evaluation of proposals.
4) Access of the organization to technical expertise in the area of the Challenge.
Proposal Instructions Responses to this Announcement should be no more than seven pages in length, not including any letters of commitment from sponsoring or partner organizations. Pages in excess of the page limitations for each section will not be evaluated. A page is defined as one (1) sheet 8 1/2 x 11 inches using a minimum of 12-point font size for text and 8-point for graphs. Proposals should not include proprietary information. Submitted information will be shared within NASA and with contractor personnel associated with the Centennial Challenges Program. Prospective Allied Organizations are encouraged to periodically check www.nasa.gov/challenges for any updates or clarifying information.
The proposal shall consist of:
Page 1: Cover page including:
– Name of organization. – Mailing address and phone number of organization. – Web site of organization (if applicable). – Name, mailing address, e-mail address, and phone number of primary officer of the organization. – Name, mailing address, e-mail address, and phone number of organization’s point-of-contact for the proposal (if different from primary officer). – Name of the Centennial Challenge addressed by proposal. – Date of submission.
Page 2: Briefly describe your organization, including history, primary activities, interests, capabilities, and financial and personnel resources. Include any experience of the organization that is similar or analogous to the proposed Challenge administration, and that demonstrates competence, integrity, commitment to safety and ability to work cooperatively in partnering arrangements. List any current or previous (for the past five years) contracts, grants or agreements with your organization and any federal agencies.
Page 3: Describe your organization’s interest in the specific Challenge that you are proposing to manage and your reasons for wanting to manage it. Describe any goals that you would have for the Challenge, above and beyond those of NASA.
Pages 4, 5, & 6: Describe your approach to managing the Challenge including:
– publicizing the Challenge. – attracting a diverse field of competitors. – concepts for developing rules and criteria for judging. – proposed competition format. – description of the venue, facilities and equipment needed, and your approach to securing them. Plans to ensure that proposed format, venue, and associated elements do not provide any competitive advantage to any participant. – access to technical expertise in the Challenge area. – approach for selecting judges. – facilitating public engagement with Web site, Internet (e.g. Web 2.0 social networking) and media coverage prior to, during, and after the competition. – providing appropriate educational activities, including parallel student-class competitions (university, high school, or other levels). – approach to maximizing the safety of the public, organizers, and competitors prior to and during competitions. – approach to providing NASA data on competitor progress and performance. – an estimate of the expected cost of managing the challenge and an estimate of the expected registration fee that might be charged to competitors. The proposed schedule for major milestones in the process of planning and conducting the Challenge. These include the date when the competition rules will be finalized, when competitors can register, and when the competition will take place.
Page 7: Describe the financial resources that your organization has or will obtain through sponsorships or in-kind contributions to conduct this Challenge. Provide a schedule that identifies major milestone toward securing funding or other resources needed for Challenge development or management. Discuss any dependencies between securing these resources and milestones for registration and the competition.
Describe your approach to staffing for long-term Challenge administration and for conducting competition events. Identify the person with primary responsibility for management of the Challenge and the anticipated level of effort. Include attachments for: – Letters of commitment from any known sponsoring organizations or others providing financial or in-kind contributions. – Letters of commitment from any partner organizations.
Submission Instructions All proposals in response to this Announcement, including signed letters of commitment, must be submitted in a single PDF file as an attachment to an electronic mail message to larry.p.cooper@nasa.gov no later than 11:59 PM, EST, April, 22, 2011. Paper submissions will not be reviewed.
NASA will notify all proposers of the results of the evaluation and selection process. After the completion of the evaluation and selection process, as appropriate, NASA will begin negotiations with selected proposers to finalize the terms and conditions of a Space Act Agreement. All work, as required, will commence after the parties execute a Space Act Agreement. Selection of an Allied Organization for this Announcement is expected to occur by May 30, 2011.
Contact Information Questions regarding this Announcement should be directed to Larry Cooper at 202 358-1531 or larry.p.cooper@nasa.gov. Answers to questions of a general nature will be posted at www.nasa.gov/challenges.
APPENDIX – Description of New Challenge
Night Rover Challenge
Objectives
* A mobile system to collect solar energy, store that energy, and later use it productively.
* Innovations in energy storage technology for space operations and, in particular, to meet the demands imposed by the daylight/darkness cycle on the Moon.
* Energy system innovations to benefit terrestrial applications, including vehicles and renewable energy generation systems.
Description Solar energy is a renewable source that would be available on the Moon and at other destinations in space. To enable practical system demonstrations of diverse design solutions by independent teams, the Challenge may be conducted in an ambient Earth environment. The Challenge would be to demonstrate a portable energy collection and storage system through several cycles of daylight and darkness. During the daylight period, systems can collect photons or thermal energy from the sun. During darkness, the stored energy would be used to move the entire mobile system toward a destination. The competitors may collect, store, and extract the solar energy in any form that they desire.
The winning system would be the one that moved the greatest distance during darkness in an allotted time period (over several day/night cycles) using only its own stored energy. A winning system must exceed the performance of a reference state-of-the-art system by a specified margin. Competitors with successful and appropriate system designs might be invited to test their energy storage systems in NASA thermal-vacuum chambers to demonstrate applicability to the space and lunar environment.
Prize Purse $1.5 million is available from the Centennial Challenges Program. This amount can be supplemented with funds from other sources.
Educational Opportunities Example: A simple solar-powered, remote-controlled rover competition with an energy storage requirement might be conducted for students along with the main Night Rover Challenge. Additional prize money may be available for student-level competitions.
Point of Contact
Name: Dr. Larry P Cooper
Title: Program Executive
Phone: 202-358-1531
Fax: 202-358-4118
Email: Larry.P.Cooper@nasa.gov
