NASA Research Announcement: Research Opportunities in Physical Sciences and Appendix A Released

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has released the NASA Research Announcement (NRA) NNH20ZDA012N entitled “Research Opportunities in Physical Sciences (ROPS)” available at http://tinyurl.com/NRA-NNH20ZDA012N. The ROPS NRA solicits physical science research to be conducted in a variety of venues, aboard the International Space Station (ISS), other space stations, free flyers, suborbital flights, lunar Gateway, lunar surface, or performed as ground-based research. 

This announcement is also for the release of ROPS Appendix A, which is available at http://tinyurl.com/NRA-NNH20ZDA012N-AppendixA. The Appendix solicits proposals for fluid physics experiments to be conducted on the ISS. NASA plans to conduct boiling and condensation experiments aboard the ISS using the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE) in the Fluids Integrated Rack. The FBCE is an integrated two-phase flow boiling and condensation facility intended to serve as a primary platform for obtaining two-phase flow and heat transfer data in microgravity. Once currently planned test runs for FBCE are completed, NASA intends to replace the original flow boiling module with a new boiling module that has a geometry that more resembles the propellant tank transfer process. Through Appendix A, NASA seeks research proposals to determine the best use of the new flow boiling module for the FBCE in support of in-space cryogenic propellant tank transfer research. All proposal concepts must fit within FBCE hardware capabilities that are currently designed.

Appendix A shall use a two-step proposal process. Mandatory Step-1 proposals are due by October 1, 2020. Step-1 proposals will be reviewed at NASA for relevance to the Research Emphases and requirements outlined in the appendix. NASA will invite proposers found to be relevant to submit full Step-2 proposals. Step-2 proposals are due by December 1, 2020, via NSPIRES.

The full text of the solicitation is available on the NASA Research Opportunities homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com under menu listing “Open Solicitations.” The direct link to the omnibus solicitation is http://tinyurl.com/NRA-NNH20ZDA012N. The direct link to Appendix A is http://tinyurl.com/NRA-NNH20ZDA012N-AppendixA. Questions with regard to responding to this NRA and Appendix A may be addressed to the contacts referenced in the full solicitation document.