NASA/George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Procurement Office, Marshall Space Flight Center, AL 35812

A -- SUBSCALE BERYLLIUM MIRROR DEMONSTRATOR SOL GP54B-Q-RFI-1 DUE 102897 POC Kathy G. Huskey, Contract Specialist, Phone (205) 961-0222, Fax (205) 544-9080, Email kathy.huskey@msfc.nasa.gov -- Richard W. McClearen, Contracting Officer, Phone (205) 544-0411, Fax (205) 544-4401, Email richard.mcclearen@msfc.nasa.gov WEB: Click here for the latest information about this notice, http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/MSFC/date.html#GP54B-Q-RFI-1. E-MAIL: Kathy G. Huskey, kathy.huskey@msfc.nasa.gov. NASA/MSFC plans to issue an RFI/Draft Statement of Work via the internet, on or about October 28, 1997. This document is for information and planning purposes and to allow industry the opportunity to verify reasonableness and feasibility of the requirement, as well as promote competition. INTRODUCTION The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) was initiated to fulfill astronomical research opportunities identified in the report of the Dressler Committee, "HST and Beyond" (See reference 1 of the report). The NGST aggressive program cost and performance targets translate into extreme limitations on available mass and stowed volume for the launch of NGST while at the same time requiring a substantial increase in collecting aperture over anything previously placed in orbit. In order to meet the requirements, a number of efforts to develop and demonstrate light weight mirror technologies are currently in progress. These efforts cover all of the major mirror candidate materials under consideration for the NGST mirrors except for beryllium. REQUESTED INFORMATION The objective of the effort described in the draft Statement of Work is to fabricate an "affordable" ultra-lightweight beryllium mirror that has diffraction limited performance at a wavelength of 2 micrometers. The initial phase of the effort will be to fabricate such a beryllium mirror and demonstrate performance at ambient temperature. The second phase will involve demonstration of the performance at cryogenic temperatures. A draft Statement of Work fully describing the work to be performed is located in the attached WORK 6.0 file, and is posted on the NGST Web Site, URL http://ngst.gsfc.nasa.gov. Comments and technical questions in response to this RFI should be submitted via electronic mail to James R. Bilbro (james.bilbro@msfc.nasa.gov) and Larry Hill (larry.hill@msfc.nasa.gov) on or before October 28, 1997. The aforementioned parties may be contacted at 205/544-3467 (Bilbro) and 205/544-5046 (Hill). This solicitation/synopsis is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government pay for the information solicited. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the review. Any questions regarding this announcement should be directed to the identified point of contact. It is MSFC's preference that proprietary of company private information not be provided in your response to this RFI. If such information is provided, it should be clearly marked along with any restrictions on its use. (0287)

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