NASA Solicitation: Partnership Opportunity for the Discovery and Other Mission Spacecraft and Other Subsystems

Synopsis – Sep 11, 2009
Discovery Partnership Opportunity Document – Posted on Sep 11, 2009
General Information
Solicitation Number: N/A
Reference Number: GBN-1012009
Posted Date: Sep 11, 2009
FedBizOpps Posted Date: Sep 11, 2009
Recovery and Reinvestment Act Action: No
Original Response Date: Sep 28, 2009
Current Response Date: Sep 28, 2009
Classification Code: A — Research and Development
NAICS Code: 927110 – Space Research and Technology
Set-Aside Code:

Contracting Office Address

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

Description

NASA GSFC is considering missions to Solar System targets that may be addressed in the upcoming Discovery AO and other opportunities. NASA GSFC is seeking partners for spacecraft, navigation, mission operation center, and related spacecraft subsystems for potential proposals. The potential GSFC Discovery missions are designed to meet the science goals of the Discovery program, as currently understood.
GSFC mission teams will be submitting proposals to the Discovery AO currently scheduled for release in late 2009. The AO is a two-step process, with the first proposal response being primarily focused on the merit and feasibility of the science objectives of the proposed mission. The initial submissions will then be down-selected, and the resultant subset of proposals will be funded to perform Phase A concept studies. During Phase A, proposals will be expanded and refined to detail the entire end-to-end mission life cycle concept, with greater attention to engineering implementation. While the AO schedule cannot be specified at this time, the following is estimated based on earlier AO’s and related missions:

AO release Dec/Jan 2009 Proposals due March/April 2010 Phase A selection July/Aug 2010 Phase A concept study report May/June 2011 Mission selection Early fall 2011 Preliminary Design Review Nov 2012 Critical Design Review TBD Launch 2016 Timeframe End of Operations Launch + 2 to TBD years depending upon target

This partnership opportunity is being issued to select teaming partners to help prepare the GSFC Discovery candidate mission concepts for the initial proposal submittal; to assist in the Phase A concept studies if the mission is down-selected; and to provide a flight qualified system should the mission be selected for flight. The major flight subsystems or systems GSFC is interested in finding partners for are low cost planetary spacecraft, navigation, communication and other related spacecraft systems. If the potential partner also has a mission operations capability that might present a cost-effective option to the project, the potential partner may include the mission operations effort in his or her proposal. Instruments are not part of this POD. Potential proposers to this POD may submit proposals covering any subset of the subsystems or systems noted herein.

For the portion of this partnership opportunity dealing with the preparation of the initial submission to the Discovery AO there will be no exchange of funds between the teaming partners. Funding will be available for Phase A and subsequent phases should the mission be competitively selected for those additional phases.

Responses to the Partnership Opportunity Document [POD] shall:

1) Be in a presentation format (viewgraphs) that shall not exceed 30 pages. The font size for the text shall be no smaller than 12 point. 2) Be specific about the system (orbiting spacecraft, lander, etc) and target mission or missions the response is for. 3) Address all requirements noted in sections 3.0 through 7.0 of this document.

Responses will be treated as proprietary information and controlled as such.

The respondents shall deliver the requested information in a presentation format. Final presentation packages must be received by 5 pm EST, September 28th. Please provide 10 copies and one DVD or CD of the presentation and deliver them to:

Julia Breed NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Code 101 Building 8, Room 320 Greenbelt, MD 20771 (julia.w.breed@nasa.gov) 301-286-8665

All respondents will have an opportunity to make oral presentations of their proposed capabilities/concepts. All respondents that intend to make presentations must provide written or electronic notice by 5:00PM (EDT) September 28th. Notice may be by e-mail to Michael Amato at Michael.Amato@nasa.gov or in writing to the above address.

Oral presentations will be conducted at GSFC, September 30th and October 1st for proposals. Exceptions to those dates may be requested. Presentations will be scheduled in two-hour blocks. Speakers will have one hour to present and the second hour will be used for questions and answers.

The requested information through this POD is for preliminary planning purposes only and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that NASA will solicit the submitter for a procurement of any related effort in the future. NASA will not be responsible for any costs incurred by submitters in furnishing this information.

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) 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 the offerors responsibility to monitor this cite for the release of the Partnership Opportunity Document and amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the Partnership Opportunity Document and amendments, if any. Any referenced notes can be viewed at the following URL: http://genesis.gsfc.nasa.gov/nasanote.html .

Point of Contact

Name: Dawn M. Fountain
Title: Contracting Officer
Phone: 301-286-3815
Fax: 301-286-1773
Email: Dawn.M.Fountain@nasa.gov