NASA Request for Information (RFI) on materialsLAB Workshop: Deadline Reminder
This notice is a reminder that the responses to the NASA Request for Information (RFI #: NNH13ZTT001L) to help NASA prepare for the materialsLAB Workshop are due on November 27, 2013.
The workshop will be held on January 7-8, 2014, in the Washington, D.C., area. The workshop is being held to advise NASA on future research directions for the microgravity materials science program. Please forward this notice to any of your colleagues who may interested in participating in this workshop.
The full RFI and submission instructions can be found at http://tinyurl.com/mrhxt9g.
Conference Registration
To register for the materialsLAB Workshop, go to http://icpi.nasaprs.com/NASAmaterialsLABWorkshop2014. Note that you can register for the workshop even after the RFI deadline.
To respond to this RFI, answers to a series of specific questions must be submitted electronically using the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES) website. Please refer to section “III. Response Instructions” in the RFI document for submission instructions.
Background
NASA’s microgravity materials science program supports materials research conducted on the International Space Station (ISS). The orbital conditions on the ISS provide an environment where gravity-driven phenomena such as buoyancy-driven fluid flows and sedimentation are nearly negligible. This enables the study of the effect of sedimentation and buoyancy-driven convection on the formation of materials when comparing flight and ground samples. It also allows the study of the often obscured effects of such things as diffusive transport and surface-tension-driven convection on the formation of materials. Measurement of properties such as liquid diffusion coefficients obtained in the absence of gravity-related heat and mass transport is another area of materials-related research enabled by the ISS environment. The current program includes studies of directional solidification of semiconductors and metal alloys, coarsening of two-phase liquid/solid metallic samples, and containerless processing of samples and thermophysical property measurements via electromagnetic levitation. The microgravity materials science program is part of NASA’s Space Life and Physical Sciences Division.
Information Sought
The purpose of this RFI is to help NASA prepare for the materialsLAB Workshop. The workshop will be held on January 7-8, 2014, in the Washington, D.C., area. The workshop participants will advise NASA on future research directions for the microgravity materials science program. Facilitating the future research directions, is a new Physical Science (PS) Informatics System that will provide global access to all past, present and future ISS PS experimental data. This will promote an open source approach to scientific data analysis and become a gateway to hundreds of new ISS-based scientific investigations that will define the next generation of ISS experiments. The subsequent multiplication of investigators with data access will greatly enhance discovery and innovation.
NASA Primary Point of Contact (POC):
Patton Downey, Technical Manager of Microgravity Materials,
Marshall Space Flight Center
Email: patton.downey@nasa.gov
Phone: 256.544.6432
This is a Request for Information (RFI) only and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will take procurement action in this matter.
