SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- HELIOPHYSICS SMALL EXPLORER CONCEPTS SPACECRAFT AND ON-ORBIT SUPPORT
- Notice Date
- 11/9/2015
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 336419
— Other Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 210.S, Greenbelt, MD 20771
- ZIP Code
- 20771
- Solicitation Number
- NASA-GSFC-RFI-SmallExplorerConceptsSpacecraft
- Response Due
- 12/4/2015
- Archive Date
- 11/9/2016
- Point of Contact
- S Pauline Barrett, Contracting Officer, Phone 301-286-3294, Fax 301-286-1773, Email Sislyn.P.Barrett@nasa.gov - S Pauline Barrett, Contracting Officer, Phone 301-286-3294, Fax 301-286-1773, Email Sislyn.P.Barrett@nasa.gov
- E-Mail Address
-
S Pauline Barrett
(Sislyn.P.Barrett@nasa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Partnership Opportunity Document (POD) with NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) for Small Explorer Concepts Space Craft and On-Orbit Support General Information Contracting Office Address NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 210.S, Greenbelt, MD 20771 1.0INTRODUCTION/SCOPE This proposal opportunity is in anticipation of several possible responses to a NASA Announcement of Opportunity (AO), 2016 Small Explorer (SMEX) element of the Heliophysics Explorers Program. NASAs GSFC is developing mission concepts to be proposed for this AO. The partnership opportunity is being issued to select a teaming partners to provide spacecraft, instrument to spacecraft integration support, integration support for the spacecraft to launch vehicle, and spacecraft operations. NASA will provide launch vehicle services for SMEX missions under this AO. The proposed missions are currently in pre-Phase A. This phase ends with proposals that will be due 3 months after the AO is released.If any proposal is selected for implementation, the mission will proceed into Phase A, per NASA Procedural Requirement (NPR) 7120.5E (e.g. http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/main_lib.htm l ). The following schedule should be used as a basis for responses to this opportunity: Partnership Opportunity Document released..November 9, 2015 Responses due..December 4, 2015 Partner Selection announced Dec 18, 2015 January 12, 2016 Helio SMEX Draft AO Released.February 1, 2016 (target) Helio SMEX AO Released...June 1, 2016 (target) Proposal submittal in response to SMEX AO..September 1, 2016 (target) Phase A Selection(s) Announced..April 1, 2017 (target) Concept Study Reports due..April 1, 2018 (target) Selection(s) AnnouncedSeptember 1, 2018 (target) Launch Readiness date.NLT August 1, 2022 The dates above are estimates based on the Community Announcement dated September 9, 2015. More detailed dates should be available in the Draft AO Information on the Small Explorer Concepts Spacecraft and On-Orbit Support AO can be found at Science Office for Mission Assessments 2016 Heliophysics Small Explorer (SMEX) and Missions of Opportunity (MO), Announcement of Opportunity ( http://explorers.larc.nasa.gov/HP SMEX/index.html ). 2.0LAUNCH VEHICLE 2.1LAUNCH VEHICLE NASA will provide launch vehicle services for this SMEX AO. The standard ELV launch services offered will be similar to the "ELV Launch Service Class Option B," described in the Explorer Program Librarys launch services document (e.g., http://explorers.larc.nasa.gov/APSMEX/S MEX ). 2.2LAUNCH READINESS DATE The vendor must commit to meeting the launch readiness date expected in the SMEX AO of NLT August 1, 2022 (according to the Community Announcement). However, a shorter development time and earlier launch date is acceptable and encouraged. 3.0TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS GSFC is including three mission concepts in this POD. GSFC will select zero to three different partners for these mission concepts. GSFC in-house spacecraft development for one or more of these concepts is a possibility. These concepts will be managed by the NASAs GSFC in partnership with the chosen partner who will host the instrument on an existing spacecraft, which uses high-heritage subsystems and proven, well-tested engineering design. Proven launch-to-space heritage must be demonstrated in the submission in response to this POD. Mechanical, electrical, and thermal interfaces must be well defined by providing the NASAs GSFC SMEX team with draft ICDspost partnership selection that the NASAs GSFC SMEX team can use to show maturity of the SMEX design and design interfaces to the spacecraft and low risk of change or non-conformance. SMEX missions have been determined to be Category 3 missions (per NPR 7120.5E) with Class D payloads (per NPR 8705.4) (e.g. http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/main_lib.htm l ). 3.1MISSION A 3.1.1General The sun pointing instrument shall be accommodated on a spacecraft placed into an Earth orbit of approximately 600 km altitude and (likely) 6 degrees inclination. The orbit should minimize radiation exposure. The spacecraft must be of an End-of-Mission demisable design with re-entry less than 25 years after the end of the mission, or 30 years after launch, whichever is earlier. Fully integrated spacecraft should fit within a Pegasus XL fairing. The location and methodology for Observatory level Integration & Test (I&T), Mission Operations, and near real time transmission of instrument data to the GSFC shall be described in the response. The instrument will be deployed at the end of an extendable optical bench (EOB). The EOB is not included within this POD and is included as part of the instrument package. 3.1.2Lifetime The mission has a minimum 24 month on-orbit operating time, with an optional extended mission. 3.1.3Volume The observatory volume must fit within the allowable envelope for a Pegasus XL faring at launch. At launch the instrument volume is approximately 110 cm x 97 cm dia. After launch the instrument will expand in length to within a range of 10 to 15 m; the length will not vary once set. 3.1.4Mass The instrument has an NTE mass, depending on configuration, may range from 150 to 201 kgs. The instrument mass is distributed so that 14% of the mass is located adjacent to the spacecraft and up to 79% is located within a range of 10 and 15 m from the spacecraft. The expanding structure accounts for the remaining mass. 3.1.5Power The spacecraft shall provide, depending on configuration, either NLT 156 W or 230 W when the instrument is observing. The power usage for the instrument will be less than 50 W during the remainder of the orbit. The spacecraft shall provide DC power between 28-32 V throughout the mission. 3.1.6Thermal Thermal control will be a passive system with multi-layer insulation (MLI), radiators, and heaters. The instruments detectors must be cooled to within a range of 0 to -20C and will require radiators. 3.1.7Data The spacecraft shall provide a data interface to the instrument capable of both sending commands to the instrument and receiving data from the instrument. The preferred data interface between the spacecraft and the instrument is not defined. Interfaces that can be supported by the spacecraft shall be described in the response to this POD. The instruments data rate is approximately 30 Gbytes per day.The instantaneous rate may vary from 0 to 400 Mbps for up to 2 hours while observing an event. The data handling interface must support this rate. The spacecraft must supply sufficient storage for multiple events. An X-band data downlink subsystem is baseline, but we are interested in the feasibility of a Ka-band subsystem. 3.1.8Attitude Control The spacecraft must support pointing the instruments at the Sun but with a selectable off set from the center of the sun (up to ~1 degree). Pointing control must be to ~ 1 arcminute and pointing knowledge ~ 1 arcsecond. 3.2MISSION B 3.2.1General The sun pointing instrument shall be accommodated on a spacecraft placed into an Earth orbit of approximately 650 km altitude and 98 degrees inclination. Observation plans for up to 7 days will be uploaded to the spacecraft each day. The spacecraft must be of an End-of-Mission demisable design with re-entry less than 25 years after the end of the mission, or 30 years after launch, whichever is earlier. Fully integrated observatory should fit within a Pegasus XL fairing. The location and methodology for Observatory level I&T, Mission Operations, and near real time transmission of instrument data to the GSFC shall be described in the response. This mission will include two instruments. Instrument 1 incorporates an extendable optical bench.The EOB will be provided as part of the instrument and is not provided under this POD. 3.2.2Lifetime The mission has a minimum 15 month on-orbit operating time, with an optional extended mission. 3.2.3Volume The observatory must volume must fit within the allowable envelope for a Pegasus XL faring at launch. The mission will include 2 instruments. At launch the volume of instrument 1 is approximately 1700 mm long x 220 mm diameter, and the volume of instrument 2 is 400 mm long x 100 mm diameter.After launch instrument 1 will expand in length to approximately 20 m using an 800 mm diameter EOB; the length will not vary once set. 3.2.4Mass Instrument 1 has a mass of ~28 kg including the extendable bench. Instrument 2 has a mass of ~10 kg. The instrument mass is primarily contained in the spacecraft structure. The expanding structure accounts for only 20 kg the total mass. 3.2.5Power The spacecraft shall provide, depending on configuration, either NLT 150 W orbit averaged power.The spacecraft shall provide DC power between 28-32 V throughout the mission. 3.2.6Thermal Thermal control will be a passive system with MLI, radiators, and heaters. The instruments detectors must be cooled to less than -70C and will require radiators. 3.2.7Data The spacecraft shall provide a data interface to the instrument capable of both sending commands to the instrument and receiving data from the observatory. The preferred data interface between the spacecraft and the instruments for housekeeping data is not defined. Science data will be provided from the instruments to the spacecraft on spacewire interfaces. Alternate interfaces that can be supported by the spacecraft shall be described in the response to this POD. The data rate is approximately 450 Gbits per day. The data handling interface must support this rate. The spacecraft must supply sufficient storage for 1 day of data. A Ka-band data downlink subsystem is baselined. 3.2.8Attitude Control The three axis stabilized spacecraft must point to sun-center with an absolute accuracy of 20 arcsecond and a jitter stabilityof +/-4 arcsecond RMS with a fixed roll orientation relative to the Sun during the entire orbit. A full 360 degree roll around sun center will be performed each day in 30 degree increments over a time period less than 90 minutes. A few (~3) times during the 15 month mission, an off point of 2.5 degrees will be required. 3.3MISSION C 3.3.1General This SMEX concept consists of two identical spinning (20 rpm) spacecraft measuring in-situ electro-magnetic fields and particles. Two fully integrated spacecraft will be stacked within a Pegasus XL fairing on the 24 in. Payload Adapter Fitting (PAF). The two observatories shall be launched by a Pegasus XL into a 350 km, 83˚ inclination orbit. Each spacecraft shall raise its orbit to 350 km x 1500 km mission altitude. The spacecraft shall be an End-of-Mission demisable design with passive re-entry less than 25 years after the end of the mission, or 30 years after launch, whichever is earlier. Since this mission measures electromagnetic fields and particles, each observatory shall have an external surface electrical iso-potential differential of <1 V. Each observatory shall have magnetic stray fields at the external surface of <20 nTesla. The location and methodology for Observatory level I&T, Mission Operations, and near real time transmission of instrument suite data to the GSFC shall be described in the response. The preferred method of operation for the instrument suite is to upload observation schedules to the spacecraft to collect high-rate data over the poles, and downlink science data four times per day via S-band omni antennae. 3.3.2Lifetime The mission shall have a 24 month on-orbit operating time, with an optional extended mission. 3.3.3Volume The two observatories shall be stacked and attached to the 24 Pegasus XL PAF at launch. Each spacecraft shall be approximately 53 cm tall and 104 cm in diameter. Roughly 13 instrument boxes comprise the instrument suite, and shall be accommodated in each spacecraft. The spacecraft vendor shall provide the magnetometer boom and two axial booms for mounting instrument boxes. The spacecraft shall accommodate all stowed booms inside the Pegasus fairing. The spacecraft shall accommodate the deployment of the four instrument suite provided wire booms. 3.3.4Mass The instrument suite has an NTE mass of 31 kg per spacecraft. The instrument suite boxes shall be distributed to optimize the spin balancing of the observatory. The observatory shall be spin balanced to place the center of mass at the geometric center of each observatory, and to place the largest principal moment of inertia along the spin axis of the observatory. 3.3.5Power The spacecraft shall provide at least 85 W of power at end of life, in any solar attitude. The power usage for the instrument suite shall be less than 35 W. The spacecraft shall provide DC power between 28-33.6 V throughout the mission. 3.3.6Thermal Thermal control will be a passive system with MLI, radiators, and heaters. None of the instrument boxes require radiators. 3.3.7Data The spacecraft shall provide a data interface to the instrument suite capable of both sending commands to the instrument suite and sending instrument suite data to the ground. The preferred data interface between the spacecraft and the instrument suite is not defined. Interfaces that can be supported by the spacecraft shall be described in the response to this POD. The instrument suites data collection rate is approximately 10 Gbits per day, and will be stored by the instrument suite. The spacecraft shall provide an S-band data downlink subsystem with full toroidal antennae coverage about the spin axis. 3.3.8Attitude Control Each spacecraft shall provide a propulsion system for achieving and maintaining a 350 km x 1500 km altitude, in and 83˚ inclination orbit. The orbit position shall be controlled to within 10 km. The spacecraft shall be spin stabilized, with the spin axis oriented normal to the orbit plane. Spin axis to orbit normal error shall be less than 0.1 degrees. Spin phase knowledge error shall be less than 0.1 degrees. 4.0POD RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS, FORMAT, AND SELECTION CRITERIA 4.1NOTICE OF INTEREST Potential respondents are asked to contact the GSFC team with a Notice Of Interest (intentionally not called a notice of intent) for one or more of the mission concepts described here. This Notice of Interest does not create an obligation to respond to the POD, but allows the GSFC team to disseminate additional details to provide answers to questions from potential partners. Notice of Interest respondents will receive a document containing additional details on the mission of interest, which can be used to facilitate a focused response to the partnership opportunity. These details are competition sensitive and are not to be shared outside the teams necessary to prepare a full response. Respondents may send questions to the GSFC point of contact (POC) listed below. All questions and answers will be made available to all those who respond to the Notice of Interest. The identity of the source of the questions shall be held confidential. Questions and answers that contain information unique to a respondents proprietary approach will not be shared if they are identified as such. Notice of Interest shall be sent to the POC listed in Section 7.0 via email with Notice of Interest in the subject line, a simple sentence or two expressing interest and an email address to send further information. 4.2INSTRUCTIONS The respondent shall, for each mission concept of interest: Provide demonstrated flight heritage of the spacecraft. Demonstrate understanding and quantified experience in the design, fabrication, integration, and testing of the spacecraft system proposed. Provide well-defined spacecraft engineering drawings for mechanical, thermal, and electrical interfaces. Describe the spacecraft and define the spacecraft to instrument interfaces. Provide information on the maturity of these interfaces and indicate if the latest configuration has flight heritage and demonstrated on-orbit performance. Describe spacecraft capabilities as they apply to the requirements given in Section 3. Provide the on-orbit consecutive life-time capability of the proposed spacecraft (planned and demonstrated). Identify the technical maturity/qualification of the proposed spacecraft and operations concept. If the spacecraft has not already demonstrated the required technical maturity/qualification, the respondent shall describe how these items will be demonstrated, including a timeline for this demonstration. This qualification will not be funded under this effort. Describe the approach for supporting the proposal and the mission development, including the level of support that the partner plans to make available for each activity and the names of those individuals who will actively participate in the writing of the proposal. Provide a brief statement of work defining participation in the proposal. Provide an estimated cost from initial selection (Phase A) onward for the all spacecraft activities including mission design, integration and testing, and spacecraft operations. The response shall include a breakdown and justification for the estimated cost as a function of time and category as well as a brief discussion of the uncertainty in the cost estimate. 4.3FORMAT The response to this partnership opportunity should be separated into responses for each mission concept. Partners may respond to any or all of the mission concepts included in this POD. Responses shall be provided in a slide format (e.g. Powerpoint) and each response (mission concept specific) may be up to 30 slides. Excluded from the page count are the cover letter, title pages, table of contents, and acronym list. Partners may attach additional appendices that further describe their capabilities, although GSFC is under no obligation to include the contents of such appendices in the evaluation of the offer package. Additional appendices may be in a separate document and, if so, only one version is required. The entire offer package, including any cover letter, title pages, and other supporting material, shall be provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file delivered to the email address in Section 7.0. Each partner will be contacted after submission to schedule a telecon or face-to-face walk-through of their material. 5.0POINT OF CONTACT: Questions about this POD should be directed to Tim Gehringer Phone: 301-286-6831, Email: timothy.c.gehringer@nasa.gov ). 6.0FINAL DUE DATE OF POD RESPONSE The response to the POC is due no later than 5 p.m. ET on December 4, 2015. The electronic PDF document shall be sent to Tim Gehringer (Email: timothy.c.gehringer@nasa.gov ) It is the responsibility of potential respondents to monitor the NASA Acquisition Internet Service (NAIS), GSFC Procurement Site http://code210.gsfc.nasa.gov/podhome.htm for information concerning this POD. This presolicitation synopsis is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for the information submitted in response.Respondents will not be notified of the results. [OMBUDSMAN STATEMENT IS REQUIRED] NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/p ub_library/Omb.html. The solicitation and any documents related to this procurement will be available over the Internet. These documents will reside on a World Wide Web (WWW) server, which may be accessed using a WWW browser application. The Internet site, or URL, for the NASA/GSFC Business Opportunities home page is http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eps/bizops.cgi?gr=D&pin=51
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