Notice of Intent to Negotiate a Collaboration Agreement Related to the NASA Mars Exploration Rover-2003 Project
* Modification 01 – Posted on Jul 17, 2002
General Information
- Document Type: Presolicitation Notice
- Solicitation Number: 10-00038
- Posted Date: Jul 15, 2002
- Original Response Date: Aug 01, 2002
- Current Response Date: Aug 05, 2002
- Original Archive Date: Jul 17, 2003
- Current Archive Date: Jul 17, 2003
- Classification Code: 99 — Miscellaneous
- Solicitation Number: 10-00038
Contracting Office Address
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters Acquisition Branch, Code 210.H, Greenbelt, MD 20771
Description
Statement of Purpose NASA seeks an unfunded collaboration with a commercial or non-profit organization to define, organize and execute a nationwide contest for K-12 students in U.S. schools to select names for the two robotic Mars rovers launching in 2003. In some cases where there is significant private investment, provision of value-added public benefits and value to NASA, the Agency may contemplate limited exclusive offers, under certain conditions, such as:
It is intended that this request for entrepreneurial offer will result in the establishment of a non-reimbursable Space Act Agreement that will define the full roles and responsibilities of NASA and the proposing organization (for information on Space Act Agreements, please see http://www.hq.nasa.gov/ogc/samanual.html).
Mission Background
The rovers, equipped with cameras and other scientific instruments, are central to NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover-2003 (MER-2003) mission, which seeks clues to the history of water on Mars. Launching in May/June and June/July 2003, the rovers will land on Mars in January/February 2004. The rovers are part of a single mission, yet each rover will have a mission of its own. Each rover will be launched on a separate launch vehicle and will have a separate space flight and landing area. The mission calls for each rover to operate on the surface of Mars for three months, utilizing identical suites of science instruments to conduct similar investigations in different regions of the planet. The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, where the rovers are being built. JPL also will be home to the rover mission operations and data return.
Project Background:
“Name the Rovers” Competition Names for NASA missions, spacecraft, landers, and rovers ultimately will be selected by the responsible program managers at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. Submissions of candidate names, however, may be gathered through a variety of methods, including contests that invite participation by K-12 students. By focusing the Mars Exploration Rover-2003 “Name the Rovers” contest on K-12 entries, NASA seeks to engage U.S. students in the engineering and scientific enterprise behind Mars exploration in furtherance of national goals to stimulate interest in science, mathematics and technology education. NASA views such contests as opportunities that further the Agency objectives to inform the public and distribute knowledge gained from the space program to a broad audience. To support these objectives, NASA has determined that all suggestions for potential names for the two MER-2003 rovers will be gathered through a “Name the Rovers” competition with broad K-12 student participation. For the 1997 Mars Pathfinder mission, a contest was conducted by a non-profit scientific organization inviting U.S. students to submit names with accompanying essays. Approximately 93,000 entries were received for the Mars Pathfinder rover. The winning entry, “Sojourner,” in honor of abolitionist Sojourner Truth, was submitted by a middle-school student who received national recognition for her contribution. She also received an all-expenses-paid trip (provided by the sponsoring organization) to Cape Canaveral, Florida, for the launch of the Pathfinder mission. Because such contests draw considerable public interest, the process of registering, sorting, evaluating and judging entries is labor-intensive and requires careful consideration of entries and feedback to entrants. At the same time, such contests present excellent opportunities to engage the interest of young Americans in space science and exploration, its objectives, and the advances it produces in science, math, engineering and technology and knowledge in general.
Scope
This request will be open through three weeks following date of release of this announcement. All proposals must be received by August 1, 2002, to be considered. The successful offeror will agree to conduct a contest during the 2002 fall-winter semester to evaluate, select and deliver to JPL by Feb. 15, 2003, the top 25 names that have been proposed and the associated nomination essays submitted by the students. JPL will recommend a subset of the 10 names to NASA Headquarters by March 30, 2003. NASA Headquarters will make final selections prior to the launch of the rovers in May and June 2003. Benefits to a Corporate Partner In exchange for the creation and facilitation of the naming contest, NASA may consider negotiating limited exclusivity and other opportunities as part of a strategic collaboration. Consideration may be made for those offers that are commensurate and reflect NASA mission, values and goals. The selected offeror would have an opportunity to be part of a historic mission, one that helps NASA reach its mission and outreach goals. Secondly, the selected offeror would have the appropriate level of acknowledgement as a partner with NASA, commensurate with the offeror’s added value return to the Agency. The Mars Pathfinder project attracted extraordinary public awareness and interest, on an international level. During the course of the project there was extensive coverage through virtually all media outlets, over one billion hits were observed on project Web sites, and the project received extensive attention in multiple public forums (including academic, Congressional and industry communities). It is our expectation that the MER-2003 project will receive even more attention.
This offers intrinsic value to potential project partners.
Deliverables:
Deliverables include, but are not limited to:
Term of Agreement
The Space Act Agreement will be in effect from the time of selection through completion of proposed activities, or no later than the landing of the second rover, which is scheduled for February 2004. There are no options for renewal.
Instructions for Proposal
Preparation Offerors’ proposals will be judged on their educational value and the expected breadth and depth of penetration into the national K-12 student population via the mass media and traditional channels into the classroom. Offerors are strongly encouraged to develop the plan in coordination with a nationally recognized education association or similar professional educator network of the offeror’s choosing.
A key goal of this effort is to inspire American youth in science, math, engineering and technology learning; creative collaborations between commercial and non-profit educational organizations in furtherance of this objective are encouraged. The successful proposal will include:
Proposals must include the process for handling electronic submissions.
Threshold Requirements
All proposals must comply with the following to be considered:
Evaluation and Award Process
Evaluation Criteria
The five evaluation criteria listed below are in a descending order of importance. The government will make award for the proposal that is most advantageous to the government based on these five factors. 1. Educational benefits associated with participation in the “Name the Rovers” competition. 2. Breadth and depth of penetration into the K-12 student population by the proposed activity (e.g. awareness of, and access to, the “Name the Rovers” competition by all geographic and socio-economic segments). 3. Demonstrated ability to design, construct, and manage the “Name the Rovers” competition under the guidelines stated in this solicitation, and the efficiency and effectiveness of the review and recommendation process. Include documented ability to accept, review, store, summarize and deliver the received nomination essays and associated summary and demographic statistics (e.g. distribution of submissions by geographic, economic (urban, rural, etc.) and educational region, grade-level participation). 4. Additional value and benefits to NASA. 5. Ease and availability of the nomination process to participating students.
General Conditions
Offerors must understand that NASA, as a taxpayer-funded Agency, must make its information available to the broadest possible audience. While some limited exclusivity may be possible, proposals that would severely restrict participation in the competition will be unacceptable.
Special Agreement Conditions
Following NASA’s guidelines, names of current or proposed space missions cannot be used, and if a rover is to be named after a person, that person must be deceased with no post mortem right of publicity. The rovers cannot be called by names already adopted by any previous, present or planned astronomical observatory (domestic or international). Names may not include terms reserved for ongoing NASA flight programs (e.g., Explorer, Discovery, Navigator). A trademark search shall be performed before a final selection of a name is made to uncover any possible trademarks that could cause confusion. Further information on official names for major NASA projects may be found at the following Web site:
