NASA Partnership Opportunity With GSFC For Development of Scanning Polarimeter For Mission of Opportunity

Synopsis – Dec 08, 2011

General Information

Solicitation Number: CAP_POD
Posted Date: Dec 08, 2011
FedBizOpps Posted Date: Dec 08, 2011
Recovery and Reinvestment Act Action: No
Original Response Date: Jan 12, 2012
Current Response Date: Jan 12, 2012
Classification Code: A — Research and Development
NAICS Code: 541712 – Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
Set-Aside Code:

Contracting Office Address

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 210.Y, Greenbelt, MD 20771

Description

NASA GSFC is seeking a partner to support the development of a scanning polarimeter for a Mission of Opportunity (MOO).

This partnering opportunity document is for soliciting potential partners to participate in a proposal development activity in response to the second Earth Venture instrument (EV-i) NASA Announcement of Opportunity (AO), expected to be released in early 2012. Earth Venture is a Program element within the Earth System Science Pathfinder Program (ESSP) consisting of a series of new science-driven, competitively selected, instruments that will provide an opportunity for investment in pioneering Earth science to enhance our capability to better understand the current state of the Earth system and to enable continual improvement in the prediction of future changes. For additional information on EV-i and the draft solicitation visit http://essp.larc.nasa.gov/EV-I . While the AO schedule cannot be specified at this time, the following is estimated based on earlier AO’s and related opportunities: – Expected AO release – Winter (early) 2012 – Proposals due date — 3 months after AO release – Selection of the Investigation (target) — 6 months after submittal – Launch within 5 years of selection — 2017

Participation in this partnering synopsis 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 may be subject to NASA’s policy of no exchange of funds, in which each government supports its own national participants and associated costs.

This partnership opportunity is being issued to select partners for preparing the proposal for development of a high performance scanning polarimeter to be hosted on a Mission of Opportunity (MOO), operating for a minimum of 2 years. Options for extended operations until payload end-of-life are requested.

NASA GSFC is seeking potential partners having demonstrated experience supporting the following mission elements throughout the system life cycle (Phases A through E):

– Scanning polarimeter technologies and sub-systems including: – polarimetric analysis techniques with the ability to measure the degree of linear polarization to 0.2% accuracy – detectors from 400-2500 nm*; – low polarization (<0.1%) scanning assemblies; - inflight polarimetric calibration techniques - inflight radiometric calibration techniques - FPGA implementation of simple sensor systems - Alternatively, complete integrated scanning polarimeter instrument payloads that meet the science measurement requirements will also be considered - System Engineering support to resolve payload accommodation issues and system level integration and test (I&T) - Environmental Test Program of the fully integrated payload - Mission operations support throughout the mission lifetime - Ground data capture and distribution services options - Payload measurement validation and verification * It should be noted that NASA has MCT detector pairs appropriate for measuring orthogonal polarization states available for this proposal and these could be provided as GFE to a partner. Potential partners shall identify the mission area(s) in which they would propose to partner and provide a brief summary of how they intend to accomplish the mission elements as identified above. In the event a teaming arrangement is proposed, an appropriate breakout is required to ensure NASA understands how all mission elements are satisfied. The scanning polarimeter payload is an Earth viewing, passive optical system, focused on observing aerosols and clouds in the troposphere and lower stratosphere (altitudes from 0 to 25 km). The science payload requirements are listed below: Mission Duration – 2 years Low Earth Orbit – ~400 to 850 km; ~98* deg inclination Payload Mass – <50 kg Payload Power - < 40W Volume (LxWxH)- Not to Exceed 80x60x54 cm Polarimetric accuracy - 0.2% Instantaneous Field of View - < 10 mrad Spectral bands* - 410, 555, 670, 865, 1378 (1880), 1600, 2260 nm Angular range - +/-50* from nadir at the spacecraft *This is a minimum band set. The 1378 and 1880 nm bands are both effective for screening of thin cirrus clouds. If selected through this partnering opportunity, it is expected that the selected partner(s) will work with GSFC scientists and engineers to jointly develop the proposal. If the proposal is selected, GSFC anticipates issuing contracts or other agreements to the selected partner(s) for performance of the proposed elements. There will be no exchange of funds between the teaming partners for the AO proposal cycle. If the proposed instrument is selected for development, partner(s) will be funded according to the budget developed during the AO proposal phase. Partner selections will be made by NASA based on the listed criteria in the following order of importance: (1) Relevant Experience and Past Performance. The proposer shall include relevant recent experience and past performance in similar development activities. (40%) (2) Technical Capability and Staffing Approach. The proposer shall describe their technical capabilities required for the performance of the development activity described herein. If proposing a specific technology or subsystem, provide details of relevant past projects and applications of your technology. If proposing an integrated payload solution, provide details on your approach and past experience in developing similar instrument payloads. In addition include your staffing approach. (20%) (3) Payload Accommodation and Mission Support. The proposer shall demonstrate an understanding of accommodating optical payloads and address the mission element requirements as specified herein. Particularly critical or challenging areas for accommodating optical payloads should be identified along with associated solutions. The I&T flow for the mission element(s) should be discussed and the related support facilities (fabrication, I&T, storage, etc.) identified. Safety and Mission assurance procedures and processes should be identified. The proposer shall provide a rough order of Magnitude (ROM) cost for developing the technology, subsystem or integrated payload solution through pre-launch, launch and flight operation mission phases. (20%) (4) Mission Management and Participating Organizations. The proposer shall provide a fact sheet that provides a brief summary of the proposed teaming arrangements, as applicable. Also identify your key personnel. (20%) Responses to this partnering opportunity shall be limited to 10 pages in not less than 12-point font. Responses must address the aforementioned evaluation criteria. All responses shall be submitted to GSFC electronically via email by 5:00pm EST on January 12, 2012. Responses shall be submitted to lisa.w.callahan@nasa.gov. The requested information through this POD is for preliminary planning purposes only and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that GSFC will solicit the submitter for a procurement of any related effort in the future. GSFC will not be responsible for any costs incurred by submitters in furnishing this information. Technical and Programmatic questions regarding this draft partnering synopsis should be directed to Brian Cairns at (Brian.Cairns-1@nasa.gov). This solicitation/synopsis is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for the information solicited. An ombudsman has been appointed. See Internet Note “b”. The documents for this partnership opportunity will be in Microsoft Office Suite (Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, or PowerPoint 4.0 or higher) format and will reside on a World Wide Web (WWW) server, which may be accessed using a WWW browser application. The WWW address, or URL, of the NASA/GSFC Business Opportunities home page is http://procurement.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/EPS/bizops.cgi?gr=C&pin=51 .

It is offeror’s responsibility to monitor this site for the release of amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of amendments, if any. Any referenced notes can be viewed at the following URL: http://genesis.gsfc.nasa.gov/nasanote.html .

Reference: Mishchenko, M., B. Cairns, J. Hansen, L. Travis, R. Burg, Y. Kaufman, J. Vanderlei Martins, and E. Shettle, 2004: Monitoring of aerosol forcing of climate from space: analysis of measurement requirements. J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 88, 149-161.

Point of Contact

Name: Maria L McNamee
Title: Contracting Officer
Phone: 301-286-4988
Fax: 301-286-5373
Email: Maria.L.McNamee@nasa.gov