SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FOR EYE-SAFE LASER AMPLIFIERS FOR LIDAR APPLICATIONS.
- Notice Date
- 4/15/2011
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541370
— Surveying and Mapping (except Geophysical) Services
- Contracting Office
- NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 210.M, Greenbelt, MD 20771
- ZIP Code
- 20771
- Solicitation Number
- RFI-2011C554
- Response Due
- 5/13/2011
- Archive Date
- 4/15/2012
- Point of Contact
- Caesar Gooden, Contracting Officer, Phone 301-286-0109, Fax 301-286-1720, Email caesar.gooden-1@nasa.gov
- E-Mail Address
-
Caesar Gooden
(caesar.gooden-1@nasa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) issues this Request For Information (RFI)as an effort to identify potential sources as an industry partner to assist the GSFCLaser and Electro-Optics Branch with laser amplifier development for applications inairborne experiments and a possible future space flight mission. Goddard is pursuing a pulsed laser measurement approach as a candidate for the lidar tomeasure atmospheric CO2 and O2 for NASAs planned Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions overNights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) mission. A short description of our current work andan airborne lidar, supported by NASAs Instrument Incubator Program (IIP) program can befound in a recent publications and a presentation [1-3]. Details on the ASCENDS mission'splanning and status can be found in references [4-5]. Goddards approach for the ASCENDS lidar, being developed under the IIP program, requirespulsed solid-state lasers which operate at the 1529 nm and 1572 nm bands. These need tohave narrow emission line-widths and be wavelength-tunable. Goddard is pursuing a masteroscillator, power amplifier (MOPA) architecture, and has done development on the masteroscillator and preamplifier stages. We are seeking information from the industry aboutavailable technologies that can be applied for the laser power amplifier stages. Theseare needed to scale the laser pulse energies in existing laboratory and airbornedemonstration instruments to those needed for space. The purpose of this RFI is to solicit specific capability information from industry ondiode-pumped solid-state laser amplifier technologies. This will be used in a capabilityassessment to assist with preparing possible future NASA-industry partnershipopportunities. Initial emphasis will be on a short-term effort with limited funding.However the information will also be assessed for a possible longer-term partnership. The goal of this RFI is to ensure that the best and widest possible set of capabilitiesare considered for immediate applications for the IIP work and potentially for the lidarfor the ASCENDS mission. This RFI in no way constitutes a commitment of future fundingopportunities from NASA. Interested organizations are invited to submit a description of their diode-pumped,solid-state laser amplifier development efforts with technical and resource/facilitycapabilities relevant to our IIP and to the planned ASCENDS space lidar. This submittalshould be sent to the NASA point of contact listed below. It should also describe theorganizations experience and past performance in the areas of airborne and space-basedlasers. This RFI specifically requests information in the following areas:1.Information on diode-pumped solid-state laser amplifiers designs using eitherplanar waveguide and/or fiber laser amplifier technologies that will meet or exceed theperformance requirements given in Table I.2.Information on previous prototype, breadboard, brass-board, engineering model orflight model diode-pumped laser amplifiers, which operate in the 1.5 m wavelength regionfor laboratory or commercial applications.3.Notional designs for two laboratory breadboard amplifiers: One operating at 1572nm and the other operating at 1529 nm. Ideally, the laboratory breadboards should bedesigned with flight considerations in mind (such as damage margins) to allow them to beevolved for space, such as for the ASCENDS mission. We are particularly interested indesigns that are in a state of development that would enable production of a laboratorybreadboard amplifiers with performance testing in summer 2012 using a seed laser sourceprovided as Government furnished equipment (GFE).4.Outline subsequent steps to upgrade the breadboards, or subsequent units, toEngineering Test Units (ETUs). These would be used for performance and reliability testsby early 2015.Nominally an ETU is a stepping-stone toward flight, and should bedesigned to have flight-like configuration, but is not built to fully qualifiedstandards. 5.Experience with laser components (e.g. pump laser diodes, damage testing ofoptical coatings, laser crystal development etc.) and environmental testing andqualification (e.g. vibration, long-term reliability, temperature cycling, acceleratedlife-tests, vacuum) of airborne and/or space-based diode-pumped laser amplifiers in the1529-1575 nm wavelength range.6.Information on facilities capability which could potentially be applied tomanufacturing the space-qualified laser amplifiers for the ASCENDS mission.7.Any published results and/or technical reports on the above (or other relevant)topics, to be included as appendices.Format of responses & questions:1.Executive Summary This should not exceed two pages and may address any majoritems that the organization wishes to highlight. 2.Main body & appendices. The main body of the response should not exceed 20 pagesin length and shall address the seven topics stated earlier. There is no page limit onappendices. 3.Questions for responders. As part of its assessment, Goddard may contactrespondents to this RFI if clarification or further information is needed. However, theGovernment is under no obligation to have discussions with any or all respondents, or tomake any award as a result of the RFI. 4.Rough-order-of-magnitude (ROM) cost estimates the vendors are encouraged toprovide ROM costs for the short-term laboratory demonstration, ETU, as well as long term,space-qualifiable effort that would meet or exceed the specifications listed in Table 1. A seed laser will be provided by the Government to assist with the amplifierdemonstration.5.Use of information This RFI is issued solely for information and planningpurposes and does not constitute a solicitation. Any information obtained as a result ofthis RFI is intended to be used by the Government on a non-attribution basis to assist inplanning for development and/or proposal options for the ASCENDS laser transmitter. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to forma binding contract. Information will be kept as proprietary if so marked. At this time,NASA is exploring the possibility of a future acquisition as a result of this RFI. Therefore, no solicitation exists or available at this time for this RFI. 6.Should this RFI result in a Request for Proposal (RFP) for effort indemonstrating the short term goals as represented in Table 1, the period of performanceis anticipated to be ~12 months with limited funding (<$100k) available to a singlevendor. Submission process:1.Capability Statements shall be submitted to the point of contact listed below. Statements may be submitted electronically via email to the address listed below. A.pdfformat is preferred.2.Submission Deadline: 13 May 2011. 3.Questions may be posed to the CO or technical POC listed below during the first10 days of the RFI posting. Questions and answers will be posted as an addendum to thisRFI.4.Technical Point of Contact: (E-mail is preferred): Dr. Anthony Yu, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Laser & Electro-Optics Branch, MC 554Bldg 33, Rm E219, Greenbelt, MD 20771Phone: (301) 614-6248email: anthony.w.yu@nasa.govReferences:1.J.B. Abshire, H. Riris, G.R. Allan, C.J. Weaver, J. Mao, X. Sun, W.E.Hasselbrack, S.R. Kawa and S. Biraud, Pulsed airborne lidar measurements of atmosphericCO2 column absorption, Tellus-B, August 2010. 2.J.B. Abshire, H. Riris, G.R. Allan, C.J. Weaver, J. Mao, X. Sun, W.E.Hasselbrack, A. Yu, A. Amekdiek, Y. Choi, E.V. Browell, A Lidar Approach to Measure CO2Concentrations from Space for the ASCENDS Mission, Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 7832, 2010.3.http://esto.nasa.gov/conferences/estf2010/presentations/Abshire_ESTF2010_B5P2.pdf 4.http://decadal.gsfc.nasa.gov/documents/12-30-08-ASCENDS_Workshop.pdf5.http://cce.nasa.gov/ascends/index.htm
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