SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - NASA OFFICE OF THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST GAME CHANGINGTECHNOLOGY DIVISION - GAME CHANGING DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
- Notice Date
- 8/24/2010
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters Acquisition Branch, Code210.H, Greenbelt, MD 20771
- ZIP Code
- 20771
- Solicitation Number
- NNH10UA007L-1
- Response Due
- 9/12/2010
- Archive Date
- 8/24/2011
- Point of Contact
- Jean-Francois M Barthelemy, Game Changing Development Program Manager (Acting), Phone 757-864-2809, Fax 757-864-1649, Email hq-gcdrfi-2010@mail.nasa.gov
- E-Mail Address
-
Jean-Francois M Barthelemy
(hq-gcdrfi-2010@mail.nasa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- In fiscal year 2011, NASA plans to begin the Game Changing Development Program(GCDP), an element of the Office of Chief Technologists Space Technology Program. TheGCDP will develop novel aerospace capabilities that have more technical risk yet higherpotential payoff than the technologies being developed in support of NASAs missiondirectorates. These game changing technologies seek to both find the mission scenariosthat make optimal use of technology advances and to find innovative technology thatenables challenging mission scenarios. The GCDP focuses on developing radically new approaches to NASAs future space missionsand the nations significant aerospace needs. Where other technology developmentactivities seek the steady and deliberate evolution of system and mission capabilities,the successful products of the GCDP should provide revolutionary advances in capabilitiesto enable missions that cannot otherwise be accomplished or that significantly improvemission performance compared with conventional approaches. The objective of the GCDP isto mature such technologies starting from a TRL of 2/3 to a TRL of 4. To support program formulation, the NASA Office of the Chief Technologist is seekinginformation from potential respondents to a future solicitation. The informationrequested is in two categories. Candidate technologies to be developed. Responses will help NASA understand thetechnical possibilities for activities within the program, structure future solicitationsto encompass the appropriate range of possibilities, identify appropriate evaluationcriteria and evaluators, and refine programmatic plans and expectations. The program processes to be used in evaluating, selecting, and developing technologies.Responses will help ensure fair and appropriate handling of submitted ideas and effectivedevelopment of technologies with the highest potential impact to NASAs mission. More information about the GCDP can be found below and athttp://www.nasa.gov/pdf/468396main_Barthelemy_forum_GCD_v5b.pdf. Respondents maysubmit any number of separate responses to either or both of these items, providing thatno individual item exceeds two pages, as described below. NASA appreciates responses from all capable and qualified sources including, but notlimited to, NASA Centers, universities, university affiliated research centers,federally-funded research and development centers, private or public companies, andgovernment research laboratories. GCD Technical Expectations A key requirement in this program is that the technology under consideration must havethe potential to make radical improvements in the way NASA accomplishes its missions.Technologies and capabilities that promise incremental increases in performance ofestablished systems are explicitly not of interest. This program focuses exclusively ontechnological advances that have the potential to change the way a mission isaccomplished, either by enabling a new system paradigm or by improving the performance ofan established system such that it can perform missions not previously possible. Also ofinterest are system paradigms and technologies that can radically reduce the cost ofaccomplishing mission objectives. Candidates for potential investment by this program through future solicitations musthave demonstrated their fundamental feasibility. Although program activities expect toaccept technological risk, a candidate approach must be in accord with establishedscientific and engineering principles and must not depend on inventions or discoveriesthat are not credible within a 5-year timeframe and have the potential to mature to atleast TRL-4 in a two-year timeframe. GCD Process Expectations In order to help identify capabilities that would benefit from investment by the GCDP, aninitial solicitation is planned that will seek ideas for concept studies. The output of astudy will consist of a summary concept paper, which will be publicly released. If thedescription of the concept must include proprietary or restricted information, thatinformation should be segregated into a separate volume. Concept studies will become onesource of ideas for NASA officials to use in identifying and prioritizing futurecapability development investments. Other sources include research by program personnel,conversations with people inside and outside of NASA, and unsolicited ideas. Conceptstudy reports are explicitly not proposals for a next phase of the activity but rather anassessment of what is possible in the near term. They should not constitute arecommendation or proposal for a single preferred approach but a quantitative assessmentof the approach to obtaining the capability. A peer panel of subject matter experts (SMEs) will evaluate the concept papers. Selectedconcepts resulting from the concept study or other input will be the basis for fundingcapabilities development projects. When a project is selected for funding, a projectmanager (PM) will be identified to lead the activity. The PM will be responsible fordefining the project, soliciting follow-on activities, implementing the project, andmanaging the funded activities. The implementation phase of the project will be guided bythe PM, supported by a team of SMEs. Frequent, informal reviews will be used to maintainthe pace of innovation and to assess feasibility of the approach. Because of thehigh-risk nature of these projects, it is anticipated that as many as 30-40% of theefforts selected for funding will not achieve their anticipated benefits and beterminated early. Technology development projects should demonstrate TRL-4 after about 2 years; ifdemonstration at TRL-5/6 is reasonable, an additional year may be added. Thus the conceptdevelopment studies of interest should focus on the systems that could be ready for fullscale development in the 5-10 year timeframe. Technology development projects will be open to teams involving NASA centers, industry,other government agencies and academia. Leads for the responding teams may be from any ofthese sources. The GCDP office will employ various approaches to achieve its challenging objectives. Itsportfolio will include both large and small projects. The office intends to formallysolicit ideas for new program concepts at least semi-annually, but it also will also useother approaches that allow it to pursue compelling opportunities as they occur. Typical concept studies will be funded at a level of $300-500K; technology developmentprojects will be funded at a level of $3-12M/yr for two years, generally, and three yearsif required to reach TRL 5/6. Instructions to Responders This is not a request for proposal, quotation, or invitation for bid notice and isintended for information and planning purposes only. NASA does not intend to make anyawards on the basis of this RFI. However, NASA plans to put in place a process like theone described in the previous section of this document in the future and issue an initialsolicitation seeking technologies to fund as concept studies that could over time developinto technology development activities. NASA will not provide reimbursement for costsincurred in responding to this RFI. NASA will evaluate submissions for its own purposesin structuring potential future program activities. Proprietary and trade secretinformation submitted in response to this RFI should be clearly marked. Subject matterexperts and other personnel involved in evaluating responses that contain proprietaryinformation will be precluded from future activities that may pose a conflict of interestwith respondents or other interested parties. NASA may contact respondents to this RFI ifclarifications or additional information is desired. Submissions under this RFI do notbind NASA to any further action other than the protection of any proprietary or tradesecret information provided. All future solicitations are subject to availability offunds and program direction of NASA. This announcement contains all information required to submit a response (see below). Noadditional forms, kits, or other materials are needed. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. NASA will not consider classified submissions. NASA will use submitted materials toinform its decisions on program development, to include future solicitations and researchareas. However, NASA will not release any individual RFI responses, proprietaryinformation, or trade secret information identified as such in any of the RFIsubmissions. Submissions have the following formatting requirements: Microsoft Word (.doc) or portabledocument format (.pdf) formatted documents of 2 pages or less at 12 point font. Responses to technical items should include the following: Summary of the technology and how it could be used in a system / mission context. Comparison between the current practice and the proposed game changing idea, justifyingthe expectation of a radical improvement in mission performance or cost. Assessment of the major risks involved in the idea and how a development program couldretire those risks. Responses to programmatic process items should include the following: The element of GCDP process plans that is the subject of the response. The comment concerning the identified item. Suggestion as to how the item could be improved. NOTE: All responses to this RFI must arrive at hq-gcdrfi-2010@mail.nasa.gov by midnight on September 12, 2010. Mark all responses: RFI, Game Changing TechnologyDevelopment Questions about this RFI may be directed to:
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