NASA ARC Partnership Opportunities for the OCT Technology Demonstration Mission Broad Agency Announcement
Synopsis – Apr 24, 2011
General Information
Solicitation Number: N/A
Reference Number: SourcesSought-OCTTDMBAA
Posted Date: Apr 24, 2011
FedBizOpps Posted Date: Apr 24, 2011
Recovery and Reinvestment Act Action: No
Original Response Date: May 06, 2011
Current Response Date: May 06, 2011
Classification Code: 18 — Space vehicles
NAICS Code: 541712 – Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
Contracting Office Address
NASA/Ames Research Center, JA:M/S 241-1, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
Description
This synopsis solicits potential partners to participate in a proposal development activity that addresses the technical objectives and development of a complete mission in response to the Technology Demonstration Mission (TDM) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) NNM11ZDA001K released on March 1, 2011. TDM is a Program element within the Crosscutting Capabilities Demonstrations (CCD) Division of the Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT). For additional information on the TDM program, the key areas for technology demonstrations, and a copy of the BAA visit the NSPIRES website, under open solicitations: http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/
Participation in this partnering opportunity is open to all categories of U.S. and non-U.S. organizations, including educational institutions, industry, not-for-profit institutions, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as NASA Centers and other U.S. Government Agencies. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Other Minority Universities (OMUs), small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs), veteran-owned small businesses, service disabled veteran-owned small businesses, HUBzone small businesses, and women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) are encouraged to apply. Participation by non-U.S. organizations is welcome but subject to NASA’s policy of no exchange of funds, in which each government supports its own national participants and associated costs.
Responses may be submitted for any of the technical areas described below. Partners are sought with expertise in:
Spacecraft Bus Development Characteristics. Typical spacecraft characteristics are shown below:
* Spacecraft capable of mounting to Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA), or other flight qualified adaptor
* Propulsion using solar electric propulsion, chemical propulsion, or a hybrid
* Operations in Low Earth Orbit, Geosynchronous Earth Orbit, and interplanetary space
* Payload risk classification of “D” per NASA Procedural Requirement (NPR) 8705.4 Risk Classification for NASA Payloads
* Spacecraft bus must meet the NASA Procedural Requirements for Limiting Orbital Debris (NPR 8715.6A) and NASA Process for Limiting Orbital Debris (NASA-STD-8719.14)
* Spacecraft Bus Development activities include but are not limited to: spacecraft bus design, development and test, integration of GFE payload(s), performance and environmental testing, shipment to the launch site, support of launch operations, launch and early orbit support, and on-orbit performance verification.
Payload Systems Characteristics. Payload systems include but are not limited to:
* multiple nanosatellite (cubesat) systems, including the design, development, procurement, fabrication, integration, testing and operations.
* Instruments such as visual cameras, infrared spectrometers, mass spectrometers, radar, lidar, thermal radiometers, etc
The following capabilities are deemed critical:
* Ability to work as part of a government-industry team that may include other industrial partners, academia, and/or foreign partners.
* Innovative technical and partnering approaches that could be used to minimize cost without increasing overall mission risk.
* Demonstrated track record of developing low-cost spacecraft on-time in a scheduled constrained environment and at the agreed upon cost, with a total delivered cost of less than $20M.
* History of delivering payloads with proven technical and cost performance.
* Depth of experience of spacecraft bus management/development, including but not limited to: systems engineering, spacecraft bus fabrication and test, subcontract management, quality management, safety management, materials and processes/contamination control, payload integration and test support, observatory functional and environmental testing, shipment to the launch site, launch vehicle integration support, preparations for and the conduct of launch and early orbit checkout operations, on-orbit operation support, sustaining engineering support including flight software maintenance.
* Demonstrated flight heritage of the propulsion system (NASA Technology Readiness Level (TRL)equal to or greater than 7).
* Depth of experience with multiple nanosatellite payloads, including but not limited to: design, development, fabrication, integration, qualification and operations, quality management.
TDM-proposed investigations will be evaluated and selected through a single step competitive process. This single step is the solicitation, submission, evaluation, and selection of proposals prepared in response to the BAA. As the outcome of this single step, NASA Headquarters anticipates making multiple awards to proceed to mission development for flight and operations. However, NASA HQ reserves the right to select multiple, one, or none of the proposals. Part of a proposal may be selected for an award.
This ARC partnering opportunity does not guarantee selection for award of any contracts or other agreements, nor is it to be construed as a commitment by NASA to pay for the information solicited. The proposal partner(s) selected will provide the necessary resources to support proposal development, at no cost to NASA, including technical requirements, conceptual designs, technical data, proposal input, project schedules, and cost estimates by the required due dates. Final proposal inputs will be due to ARC prior to May 31, 2011, the due date for submittal of proposals in response to the BAA. Inability to adequately support proposal development will result in the partner being dropped from the proposal. If the proposal is subsequently selected by NASA HQ, ARC anticipates issuing contracts or other agreements to the selected partner(s) for performance of the proposed tasks.
Partner selections will be made by ARC based on the listed evaluation criteria in relative order of importance:
1) Relevant experience, past performance. This criterion evaluates the responder’s relevant recent experience, past performance in similar space flight development activities. Substantive evidence of successful participation in similar developments should be included in the response to this synopsis.
2) Technical Capability and Key Personnel. This criterion evaluates technical capability to perform the development and key personnel available to support the development. Evidence of staffing estimates with available key personnel should be included. Past successful programs and technical contributions should be included.
3) Cost and Schedule control. The responder should provide evidence of past performance of controls of cost and schedule on similar development activities and provide examples of management processes utilized to effect and track cost and schedule. Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost for the proposed technology should be provided. Evidence of capability to meet a 24-month schedule/delivery should be provided.
RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS: Responses to this synopsis shall be limited to 5 pages in not less than 12-point font for each technical area of interest (i.e. organizations responding to one or more of the elements may submit up to 5 pages per each element). Responses shall address each of the evaluation criteria listed above. Resumes of potential key personnel and a cover page that clearly identifies the technical area of interest addressed by the response do not count against the total allocated page count.
Responses to this synopsis may also be considered for evaluation under ARC’s Sources Sought Special Notice 2011 NNA1112345L-SN2011, if responders so indicate; however, only responses submitted to this notice will be considered for the OCT TDM BAA.
If responder is a commercial firm, responses should also include: Size of business and number of employees; Average annual revenue for past 3 years; Ownership -whether they are large, small, small disadvantaged, 8(a), HUBZone, and/or woman-owned; whether the company is U.S. or internationally-owned; Number of years in business; and potential teaming partners.
All responses shall be submitted to ARC electronically (pdf format) via e-mail by 4:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time May 6, 2011 to Rachel.Khattab@nasa.gov. Questions related to this synopsis should be directed to Rachel.Khattab@nasa.gov. Responders will not be notified of the results of the evaluation.
No solicitation exists; therefore, please do not request a copy of a solicitation. If a solicitation is released it will be synopsized in FedBizOpps and on the NASA Acquisition Internet Service. It is the responder’s responsibility to monitor these sites for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. Information about major upcoming ARC procurement actions is available at http://ec.msfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eis/admin/admin.cgi?center=ARC
Point of Contact
Name: Rachel Khattab
Title: Contracting Officer
Phone: 650-604-5237
Fax: 650-604-3020
Email: rachel.khattab@nasa.gov
Name: Kelly G Kaplan
Title: Contracting Officer
Phone: 650-604-5814
Fax: 650-604-0912
Email: kelly.g.kaplan@nasa.gov
