MODIFICATION
A -- Small Satellite Technologies atmospheric monitoring/measurement concept(s)
- Notice Date
- 10/23/2019
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- NAICS
- 336414
— Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- NASA/Langley Research Center, Mail Stop 144, Industry Assistance Office, Hampton, Virginia, 23681-0001
- ZIP Code
- 23681-0001
- Solicitation Number
- SS_SAGEIV_PDO
- Archive Date
- 12/4/2019
- Point of Contact
- Ceseley Dunbar, Phone: 7578742434
- E-Mail Address
-
ceseley.dunbar@nasa.gov
(ceseley.dunbar@nasa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This sources sought seeks technical capabilities and innovative ideas from industry that addresses the technical objectives and development of a Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) IV sensorcraft (i.e., a highly integrated instrument and small spacecraft). BACKGROUND SAGE IV intends to take advantage of advancements in small satellite technologies to demonstrate the ability to match or exceed the measurements of the SAGE III payload (1.15 m3 volume, 329 kg mass, currently operating on ISS) in a 6U CubeSat form factor. Beyond this demonstration, the eventual goal is to deploy a constellation of four or more SAGE IV CubeSats for continuous monitoring of atmospheric aerosols, ozone, and other important constituents, and extensibility of the SAGE IV measurement concept to other planetary atmospheres will also be explored. The SAGE IV concept is expected to be classified as a "Class D" small satellite mission with higher risk posture that is cost-capped at less than $30M. NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is seeking to lead in developing a proposal addressing the goals and objectives of Earth Venture, specifically focusing on the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) IV concept. This sources sought is open to all categories of U.S. and non-U.S. organizations, including educational institutions, industry, not-for-profit institutions, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as NASA Centers and other U.S. Government Agencies. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Other Minority Universities (OMUs), small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs), veteran-owned small businesses, service disabled veteran-owned small businesses, HUBzone small businesses, and women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) are encouraged to apply. Participation by non-U.S. organizations is welcome but subject to NASA's policy of no exchange of funds, in which each government supports its own national participants and associated costs. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS The technology focus of this sources sought is to finalize the current LaRC design and the subsequent assembly, integration, and testing (AI&T) necessary to implement a constellation of low-cost, Low Earth Orbit, atmospheric occultation sensorcraft that meet or exceed the retrieval capabilities of SAGE II. The goal of this effort is to sustainably meet NASA's ongoing mandate to monitor ozone in the atmosphere and to provide data continuity for critical stratospheric aerosol measurements while simultaneously advancing the state of the art, overcoming the geographic sampling limitations of the SAGE series of heritage instruments, and preserving the continuity of the SAGE data products. This requires observing the solar disk during sunrise and sunset occultation events in spectral channels that range between the ultraviolet and infrared. A SAGE IV Pathfinder ground demonstration prototype was developed during a NASA-funded Instrument Incubator Program (IIP) effort. The IIP developed a flight concept and demonstrated a design that would satisfy requirements for a flight mission given certain performance requirements on flight detector and electronics as well as the spacecraft bus itself. As such, this sources sought primarily seeks out vendors that can provide the detector, the spacecraft bus, and/or AI&T services both for the instrument into the spacecraft as well as AI&T for the instrument itself. NASA LaRC is seeking input from industry and industry teams that have experience in the capabilities outlined below: A) Deliver Focal Plane Detector: The SAGE IV instrument will require a COTS space flight quality 2D PIN diode array with square pixels that should not exceed 35 µm pitch, active area no smaller than 4 mm × 4 mm, and total focal plane assembly package size (excluding external focal plane electronics or harnessing but including hybridized control and data acquisition circuits such as an analog or digital readout integrated circuit) not greater than 50 mm × 48 mm × 20 mm. Additionally, the project seeks full potential well density ≥ 5000 electrons/µm2, spectral sensitivity between ~350 nm and ~1050 nm (i.e., silicon responsivity spectrum), programmable integration time enabling time stepping between at least ~0.5 ms and ~20 ms, at least 12-bit readout electronics, and full frame readout rate of at least 20 Hz. Active temperature control being necessary for SAGE IV focal plane array temperature stability (desired stable to about ± 0.1 °C at about 10 °C in Low Earth Orbit), the project will require either an integrated (non-cryo cooled) active thermal control system or available surface area on the back side of the focal plane assembly for government bonding of a government-supplied thermoelectric cooler system. The typical detector element should be linear to at least 1% ideally between 1% and 85% of full well capacity, have dark current ideally at or below 0.5% of full well capacity at 10 °C and 10 ms integration time, and exhibit read noise ideally at or below 0.02% of full well capacity. Vendors responding to this space flight detector capability shall also specify expected pixel yield per unit and first time yield (FTY) per run statistics, manufacturing process (e.g., flip chip bump bonding, polymer adhesive, or direct bonding), details of available development focal plane electronics, details of readout windowing capabilities, power dissipation, and expected figures of merit for both the detector (including but not limited to well capacity, relative spectral response, quantum efficiency, readout noise, detector flat field response, noise-equivalent power, and mean linearity and adjacent crosstalk percentage/MTF) and ROIC (including but not limited to integration efficiency, system gain, fixed pattern noise potential, quantization step equivalents, effective number of bits, and bit error rate, as applicable). ROM costing and schedule for delivery of 5, 10, or 20 space flight ready focal plane assemblies, end-item data packages including electrical and mechanical interface documents, drawings, and vendor test reports supporting performance requirements, and as applicable external focal plane electronics and harnessing shall be provided by vendors responding to this capability. B) Deliver Spacecraft Buses: The SAGE IV project will require space flight quality CubeSat or small satellite spacecraft buses including structures and trusses for a likely 6U form factor (12U backup options also welcome) equipped with a solar panel electrical power system with >75 W power available to the instrument and absolute attitude and determination control system (ADCS) that enables < 5 arcminute absolute pointing accuracy. The bus must support at least 4U of government provided payload configured to the CubeSat form factor. The bus must accept real-time ADCS attitude commanding from the internal science payload (as its imager centroids its radiometric target) and be capable of a slew rate with respect to inertial space of 1.5°/sec for an ideally 6 kg total package. The bus should provide GPS time, GPS PPS, and GPS ephemeris to the internal science payload, offer command and data handling systems including onboard data storage and downlink (aggregate data volume of ~1 Gigabytes per day), and enable timely transmission of health and status of the instrument and spacecraft (e.g., Global Star). The respondent should have the capability for AI&T of a completed flight instrument into the spacecraft bus, have capability for orbit thermal modeling to design mission critical thermal control surfaces, have the ability to process space flight hardware and cite a contamination control plan, and be able to provide mission operations support. ROM costing and schedule provided should include all itemized AI&T services offered as well as the delivery of a bus simulator engineering development unit early in the project cycle, delivery of 1, 2, or 4 space flight ready spacecraft buses, all offered end-item data packages including electrical and mechanical interface documents, drawings and schematics, and vendor test reports supporting performance requirements. C) Instrument Design and AI&T: The SAGE IV project is seeking respondents with the ability to provide engineering design and AI&T services. The respondent should have the ability to work closely with NASA and other vendors to provide support in mechanical, structural, electrical, thermal, systems, and/or optical engineering to mature the laboratory SAGE IV Pathfinder design to a spaceflight ready instrument. The respondent should indicate any capacity to work closely with NASA and other vendors to support subsequent subsystem, system, and spacecraft level AI&T, including environmental testing and spacecraft maneuver and conops testing. Hardware should be a higher Technology Readiness Level (TRL) that is essentially "spaceflight ready." Earth Venture requires demonstration of TRL 6 by the Preliminary Design Review, where TRL 6 is roughly defined by a "system/subsystem model or prototyping demonstration in a relevant end-to-end environment (ground or space)." Since this is intended for a small spacecraft with a limited form factor (e.g., a 6U or 12U CubeSat), minimization of volume needs to be considered. AI&T services should have a demonstrated history of success working with spaceflight missions. INFORMATION REQUESTED Interested parties are requested to submit a capabilities statement detailing the ability to meet the requirements listed below. 1) Technical Capability: This criterion assesses the technical capabilities required for the performance of the development activity described herein with emphasis on the instrument components listed and sensorcraft AI&T. Assessment will be made of the respondent's technical capability to build or complete similar spaceflight hardware or tasks, including but not limited to: (a) the respondent's ability to develop successful plans for meeting defined instrument and testing requirements, (b) the ability to deliver space flight hardware, and (c) the availability of key personnel skilled in similar space hardware and tasks. 2) Payload Accommodation: This criterion assesses the understanding of accommodating optical payloads. [Applicable to (B) and (C) only]. 3) Facilities: This criterion assesses the respondent's facilities (e.g., clean room, fabrication, benchtop development, small spacecraft mass moments and attitude determination and control testing, and environmental and optical testing facilities, as well as mission/quality assurance and analysis/modeling capabilities as applicable). 4) Cost and Schedule Control: This criterion assesses the cost and schedule estimate for the space technology solution being offered. The cost and schedule management strategies for hardware development and delivery should be discussed, as applicable. Provide the cost and schedule drivers and assumptions, as applicable. The ability of the respondent to complete projects on time and within the fixed budgets which are characteristic of NASA's competitive cost-capped opportunities will also be assessed. 5) Technical Flexibility: This criterion weighs the ability of the vendor to customize the space technology solution to provide extensibility for future instruments in the constellation series. RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS Respondents will not be notified of any results of information collected. The information provided will assist the NASA LaRC in its assessment of the current market for future acquisition planning strategy. Responses to this sources sought shall be limited to eight (8) pages per item as defined in items (A) through (C), in not less than 12-point font. Responses should address each of the aforementioned capabilities. Please direct all technical questions, to Mr. Michael Obland. All responses shall be submitted to the technical point of contact: michael.d.obland@nasa.gov and the contracting officer: ceseley.dunbar@nasa.gov.
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- SN05481185-W 20191025/191023230650-c876d003259296e0908d8afd51396910 (fbodaily.com)
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