NASA, Johnson Space Center, BE13, Houston, TX 77058

25 -- ACQUISITION OF SAFER MINIATURE COLD GAS THRUSTERS. SOL 9-BE13-18-6-28P DUE 051096 POC Contract Specialist: Yolande B. Harden, (713) 483-9953 Contract Officer: Lisa Rea Phillips, (713) 483-8395 NASA/JSC plans to issue a Request for Offer (RFO) for the fabrication, acceptance testing, and delivery of 168 miniature cold gas thrusters for use on the SAFER system developed at NASA/JSC. This set of thrusters will be used to build self rescue devices to be worn by astronauts during spacewalks, and must be manufactured, tested, and qualified to the highest standards consistent with manned space flight hardware. The thrusters shall be manufactured per the following specifications and perform at the specified levels and conditions. The thrust shall be verified at ambient, such that the vacuum thrust at 230 psia is .08 lbf. The lsp shall be caluculated to be 70 Lbf-sec/Lbm minimum. Minimum stall pressure with the coil at 175 deg F and 24 Vdc shall be 325 psig. Internal leakage shall not exceed 0.1 sccm at 230 psia inlet and 1 sccm at 65 psia inlet GN2 at 175 deg F. Internal leakage shall not exceed 2 sccm at 230 psia inlet and 20 sccm at 65 psia inlet GN2 at -40 deg F. External leakage shall be measured at ambient temperature only, and shall meet the same requirements. The valve shall operate on 24 volt nominal power supply. The coil resistance shall be 28 +/- 1.5 ohms at 70 deg F +/- 10 deg F. Insulation resistance shall be greater than 1 MOhm at 70 deg F. The pull-in voltage shall be less than 10 Vdc with 265 psia inlet with coil at 175 deg F. The drop out voltage shall be less than 2.5 Vdc with 230 psia inlet and the coil at -40 deg F initial temperature. The opening response shall be less than 2.5 ms with 230 psia inlet with the coil at 175 deg F. The closing response shall be less than 2.5 ms with 230 psia inlet with the coil at -40 deg F. The thruster shall be capable of completing a minimum of 20,000 cycles with a 230 psia inlet and 175 deg F GN2. A qualification test shall be conducted to verify that the thruster meets specifications at completion of 20,000 cycles. The thruster shall be capable of completing a total on time of 570 seconds minimum at an inlet pressure at 230 psia in a vacuum. The thruster shall be capable of a continuous on time of 240 seconds, with flow at an inlet pressure of 230 psia. A qualification test shall be conducted to verify this specification. The minimum proof pressure shall be 600 psia. The minimum burst pressure shall be 1000 psia and shall be demonstrated by qualification test. Weight: The weight shall be less than .07 lbm without the wire leads. The diameter shall be less than .6 inches. The total length along the thrust axis shall not exceed 1.0 inches including the nozzle, excluding the threaded and fitting. The wiring shall conform to MILW22759, 24AWG, shielded per MILC27500. The fluid connection shall be 0.190-32UNF-3A per MILSTD7742. Soldering shall be per NHB 5300.4 24 units shall be delivered by September 1, 1996. 24 additional units shall be delivered November 1, 1996. These units shall be built to identical production drawings as used for the qualification units. Five subsequent sets of 24 units shall be delivered according to the following schedule: 12/15/96; 1/15/97; 3/1/97;4/1/97 and 5/1/97. This procurement is being conducted under the NASA/JSC MidRange Pilot Test Program approved by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy on April 16, 1993 All responsible sources may submit an offer which shall be considered by the agency. An ombudsman has been appointed to hear concerns from offers and potential offerors during the preaward and postaward phases of this acquisition. The purpose of the ombudsman is not to diminish the authority of the contracting officer, the Source Evaluation Board, or the selection official, but to communicate concerns, issues, disagreements, and recommendations of interested parties to the appropriate Government personnel and to work to resolve them. When requested, the ombudsman will maintain strict confidentiality as to the source of the concern. The ombudsman does not participate in the evaluation of proposals, the source selection process, or the ajudication of formal contract disputes. Interested parties are invited to call the installation ombudsman, Susan H. Garman at 713-483-0490. Concerns, issues, and disagreements which cannot be resolved at the installation may be referred to the NASA ombudsman, Tom Luedtke at 202-358-2090. -- The solicitation and any documents related to this procurement will be available over the Internet -- These documents will be in RTF format and will reside on a World-Wide Web (WWW) server, which may be accessed using client browsers, such as, MOSAIC or NETSCAPE -- The WWW address, or URL, of the JSC Procurement home page is: http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/bd2/ -- It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor this site for solicitation release. Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation. Hard copies may be obtained from the JSC Industry Assistance Office via phone 713-483-4511 or fax 713-483-4326. The closing date shall be the same as the solicitation released on the Internet. -- The RFO will be released on or about May 10, 1996. -- If there are any questions, the contracting specialist may be contacted via E-mail at yolande.b.harden1@jsc.nasa.gov or by phone at (713) 483-9953 or the contracting officer may be contacted via E-mail at lrea@ba1.jsc.nasa.gov or by phone at (713) 483-8395. (0113)

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