MODIFICATION
A -- Lunar Surface Transportation Capability Request for Information (RFI)
- Notice Date
- 3/23/2018
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- NAICS
- 5417
— Scientific Research and Development ServicesT
- Contracting Office
- NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters Acquisition Branch, Code 210.H, Greenbelt, Maryland, 20771, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20771
- Solicitation Number
- NNH18-AES-LSTC-RFI
- Point of Contact
- Victoria P. Friedensen, Phone: 202-358-1916
- E-Mail Address
-
HQ-LunarLanderRFI@mail.nasa.gov
(HQ-LunarLanderRFI@mail.nasa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- In response to a query, NASA has revised the RFI to allow inclusion of Proprietary Data. See Section 4.0. 1.SUMMARY The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is seeking information under this Request for Information (RFI) to assess commercial interest in development of domestic lunar lander capabilities that would evolve to meeting the identified performance towards human-class landers. These progressively larger lander capabilities are complementary to NASA's new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) effort to award contracts to provide capabilities as soon as 2019. NASA has multiple new and linked activities proposed under the President's Budget Request for 2019 that mandates a robust return to the Moon. These efforts will establish U.S. leadership for missions to, around, and on the Moon. NASA is planning to develop a series of increasingly complex and capable lunar missions to the surface of the Moon, starting first with robotic missions. This new initiative will be undertaken in coordination with scientific lunar exploration, and will run in parallel to the development and flight of the Space Launch Systems (SLS), Orion, and the elements of the Lunar Orbital Platform - Gateway. This will be a collaborative effort between NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD), Science Mission Directorate (SMD), and Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). NASA has been fostering the growth of commercial lunar lander capabilities through the Lunar CATALYST public private partnership efforts. Under these competitively-awarded agreements NASA has provided assistance to private entities through the application of NASA Subject Matter Expertise (SME), unique facilities, software, and the loan of government equipment. NASA is now beginning conceptual development of a human class lander. NASA envisions using a series of medium-to-large landers with payloads in the 500-5000 kg range to assist in requirements development and establish an approach to a human-class lander in the next decade. Responses to this Request for Information (RFI) are sought broadly from U.S. industry, universities, non-profit organizations, and other U.S. government agencies, and these will be used by NASA to inform planning and acquisition strategy development. 2.BACKGROUND The President's Space Policy Directive-1 instructs NASA to "Lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities." NASA is trying to better determine the state-of-art and maturity of lander capability in the private sector and mature its own approach to requirements for a human-class lander. NASA has therefore identified a variety of exploration, science, and technology demonstration objectives that can be addressed by sending instruments, experiments, or other payloads to the lunar surface. These progressively larger lander capabilities are complementary to NASA's new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) effort to award contracts to provide capabilities as soon as 2019. The early missions under CLPS will support innovative approaches to achieve human and robotic science/exploration goals by funding contracts for commercial transportation services. CLPS will also support delivery of small rovers and instruments to meet lunar science and exploration needs. NASA plans to release a Request for Proposals for CLPS in mid-2018 that is expected to fund payload opportunities on near-term commercial lunar landing opportunities. To enable the development of robust lander capabilities and better understand technical requirements leading to eventual human-scale capabilities, NASA is seeking information from U.S. entities on how to approach capabilities development, including requirements, with the near-term goal of a first mission to the lunar surface as early as Fiscal Year 2022. NASA anticipates that the initial capability of this evolutionary path is for landers capable of landing around 500kg of payload mass to the lunar surface. Such landers could support initial commercial and government activities covering lunar science, technology and human exploration objectives. These medium-scale landers (500kg payload) will also provide critical risk reduction and technology requirements maturation for a human-scale lander descent stage (5,000-6,000 kg payload) as well as utilization capabilities. To accomplish these goals, NASA is assuming an initial set of two demonstration landers will be funded over the next 4-7 years, with the capability to deliver payloads starting in the ~500 kg range. These landings will be in addition to the numerous small landing missions to be planned and conducted under the CLPS contract. These demonstration missions could also prove out key requirements such as landing precision, long-term survivability, guidance, navigation, and for an ascent stage for sample return or human ascent vehicles. NASA has a goal to complete an initial demonstration of these human-class lander capabilities by the end of the 2020s. NASA is seeking inputs through this RFI on the potential technical steps, partnership approach, cost implications, and strategy required to achieve this goal. 3.RESPONSE GUIDELINES Since this is a request for information, no evaluation letters and/or results will be issued to the respondents. Interested parties are requested to respond to this RFI by answering the following questions to be submitted electronically, via e-mail, to the primary Point of Contact (POC) listed below. The Response text, exclusive of the one-page summary described below, shall not exceed 30 pages (including attachments), and shall use a minimum font size of 12. A.Your Response should include: 1.Entity information: name, contact information, summary of previous relevant experience, indicate whether a U.S. entity, identify partners and funding sources/investors. 2.Details of how you would approach development of a lander capable of delivering 500-5000 kg payloads with an emphasis on building towards a human-scale lander, including how NASA-provided resources (other than funds) can assist in the development of your lander capabilities, and your schedule for potential lunar mission(s). 3.If you have lander concepts, include these, for example, picture/image, description (mass, volume, operations concept, maturity, etc.) B.Your Response should include answers to the following topics and questions: B.1. Partnership: 1.Industry collaboration and public-private partnerships, through cost-sharing or in-kind cost or technical contributions, is highly desirable. How would the financial, technical, and risk factors associated with lander development be shared between the government and private sector? 2.What type of legal mechanism(s), such as contracts (fixed price, cost-plus, cost-share), Space Act Agreements (collaborative, funded), or Cooperative Agreements should NASA use to partner with industry to develop a medium-to-large lander capability, and why? 3.What potential NASA requirements would hinder your business case? What changes could NASA make to existing requirements that would further your business case? 4.What is your estimate of the market today (in number of launches per year or dollars) for medium to large lander capabilities in addition to NASA payloads? What is your estimate of future market potential (in number of launches per year or dollars) for medium to large lander capabilities in addition to NASA's payloads? Is there a self-sustainable market without NASA as a potential user? What mission cadence would be needed to support your capability? 5.What approach should be taken toward Intellectual Property (IP) inventions and data rights? What IP challenges do you foresee? How can these be addressed? What types of corporate and government contributions should merit invention ownership, and the provision of unlimited or unrestricted data rights by the Government, and what types of contributions should result in the ability of partners to assert limited or restricted rights in data? B.2. Technical: 1.What is a reasonable development timeline? Is a first flight demonstration of a 500 kg class lander achievable by Fiscal Year 2022? If not, what is an achievable timeframe? 2.What NASA capabilities will assist you in developing lander capabilities: integration and test facilities, technical expertise, government furnished equipment, etc.? 3.What are the critical technologies that need to be developed and what are their current maturities? 4.What lander technical/development challenges need to be addressed that would enable a first flight demonstration in Fiscal Year 2022 with a 500 kg payload? 5.Is a 500 kg payload-class lander evolvable to a human-scale lander? What evolutionary path(s) are most feasible for developing a human-scale lander capability? 6.Should NASA require evolvability to a lander capable of landing crew on the surface at this early stage? 7.What launch vehicles are suitable for lunar lander missions? What is the preferred method for procuring the launch vehicle and why? 8.Are the current human-rating requirements adequate or too restrictive for lander development? Would you recommend changes to the approach to human rating and why? B.3. Cost: 1.What is the total cost of the initial capability development and flight demonstration of a 500-kg-payload lander to the lunar surface by Fiscal Year 2022? What is the total expected cost to extend the capability to a human-scale lander and flight demonstration (i.e., 5,000-6,000 kg payload)? 2.What would be NASA's expected share of the initial capability development and first flight demonstration in 2022? And how would that extend to the human-scale lander development? 3.How would changing the timing of flight dates (i.e., 2023 or 2024) for a first flight demonstration effect the cost? C.Summary To facilitate a prompt review, a one-page summary shall be included with your Response which shall outline your company's specific capabilities that are relevant (and reflect the magnitude) to these requirements. The one-page summary shall precede the Response and will not count against the Response page limit. The one-page summary shall include: i.Company's name, address, primary POC, and telephone number; ii.Size of business; iii.Ownership; iv.Number of years in business. 4.INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTAL Responses to this RFI must be delivered in searchable PDF format to the POC below no later than April 30, 2018, at 4:00 p.m. EST. The information obtained will be used by NASA for planning and acquisition strategy development. NASA will use the information obtained as a result of this RFI on a non-attribution basis. Restricted/limited data/information is not solicited. Responders may submit proprietary information, classified, export controlled information (including ITAR restricted information), or confidential information in response to this RFI, but this is strictly voluntary. It is emphasized that this RFI is NEITHER a Request for Proposal, NOR an Invitation for Bid. This RFI is being used to obtain information for planning purposes only; therefore, NASA does not plan to respond to the individual RFI responses. As stipulated in FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Pursuant to FAR 52.215-3, entitled Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes, this information is being made available for market research, information, and planning purposes and to allow industry the opportunity to verify reasonableness and feasibility of the requirement, as well as promote competition. This RFI is subject to review or cancellation at any time and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contract. The Government will not pay for the information submitted in response to this request, and respondents will not be notified of the results. Following this initial feedback, as part of its market research, NASA may conduct one-on-one meetings with respondents. These meetings will allow for exchange of information and will provide an opportunity for respondents to provide feedback on the Governments preliminary requirements and acquisition approach. Please do not request a copy of the solicitation, as no solicitation exists at this time. If a firm requirement is developed and a solicitation is issued, the solicitation will be made available on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website (www.fbo.gov). It is the responsibility of Offerors and interested parties to monitor the Internet sites for the release of the solicitation and amendments, if any, and they will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the documents. NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for potential acquisitions can be found at http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/pub_library/Omb.html. 5.POINT OF CONTACT Questions concerning this Request for Information may be addressed to Victoria P. Friedensen, Program Executive, Advanced Exploration Systems Division, phone: 202-358-1916, e-mail: HQ-LunarLanderRFI@mail.nasa.gov, (subject line to read "Lunar Surface Transportation Capability RFI").
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