NASA Headquarters, Solar System Exploration Division, Washington, DC 20546 Attn:SLC/Dr. Jay Bergstralh

A -- ATMOSPHERES DISCIPLINE NODE OF THE PLANETARY DATA SYSTEM SOLICITATION SOL PDS BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT POC Dr. Jay Bergstralh tel: 202-358-0313 This notice constitutes a broad agency announcement as contemplated in FAR 6.102(d)(2), and shall result in a grant. A separate solicitation document will not be issued. NASA is seeking a qualified source to operate an Atmospheres Discipline Node of the Planetary Data System (PDS), sponsored by NASA's Solar System Exploration Division, Office of Space Science. The period of performance will extend from approximately October 1, 1995, through December 31, 1999, with a funding level of approximately $400,000 per year. The objectives of the PDS are to: a) secure, organize, and curate planetary data sets; b) provide easy access to these data sets, together with ancillary data necessary to analyze them; c) facilitate use of the data through standardization, documentation, and application of modern data handling and analysis techniques; d) keep the data close to the scientific community that knows about them and that is best able to aid others in using them; and e) conduct original research with these data. PDS has a distributed architecture, consisting of a central service center (Central Node) at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, linked to several distributed centers (Discipline Nodes) representing the major scientific subdisciplines within the planetary research community. The Atmospheres Discipline Node, for which proposals are solicited here, is a critical element of this system. Interested parties who submit Letters of Intent to the PDS Program Manager, at the address below, before June 15, 1995, will receive proposal information packages outlining PDS standards, procedures, and expected workloads during the period of performance. Proposals from outside the United States will not be funded by NASA, and would need to be funded by their national agency. In order to be considered responsive, prospective offerors must include as part of their proposals: a) a transmittal letter or prefatory materials; b) a statement on restriction of use and disclosure of proposal information; c) an abstract describing the objectives of the proposed effort; d) a project description; e) management approach; f) key personnel; g) facilities and equipment; h) proposed costs; i) other sources of current support. Project descriptions must address the following issues: a) special processing, expertise, and other unique capabilities that will be provided to users; b) data ingestion from missions and from restorations of historic data sets; c) system capabilities, data storage, and order handling; d) understanding of and adherance to PDS standards and operations; e) quality control and assurance of data sets for scientific content and format; and f) access to the data through remote channels and through site visits. Qualifications of key personnel should be documented in terms of their scientific accomplishments, performance with regard to analyzing atmospheres data, and expertise in handling data sets and in data management. Proposals should not exceed 40 pages (technical section), 10 pages (management plan), and 15 pages (cost plan). Proposals will be evaluated on the basis of intrinsic merit (including demonstrated capability and experience in handling data sets and in data management), relevance to NASA's objectives, proposed approach to node management, and cost (all of approximately equal weight). Selection decisions will be made following competitive peer review of proposals. The closing date for submission of proposals is 60 days from the publication date of this synopsis/solicitation. Five copies of the proposal shall be submitted to Dr. Jay T. Bergstralh, Solar System Exploration Division, Code SLC, NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20546-0001. (0136)

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