NASA/Langley Research Center, Mail Stop 144, Industry Assistance Office, Hampton, VA 23681-0001

A -- TEAMING OPPORTUNITY FOR GEOSTATIONARY IMAGING FOURIER TRANSFORM SPECTROMETER (GIFTS) DEVELOPMENT DUE 071399 POC Mary Jane Yeager, Contracting Officer, Phone (757)-864-2473, Fax (757) 864-6131, Email M.J.YEAGER@larc.nasa.gov WEB: Click here for the latest information about this notice, http://nais.nasa.gov/EPS/LaRC/date.html#NRA-98-OES-12. E-MAIL: Mary Jane Yeager, M.J.YEAGER@larc.nasa.gov. The LaRC is currently conducting a study and preparing a proposal for a Geostationary Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS) mission to be operational in early 2003. The study, sponsored by NASA's New Millennium Program (NMP), was awarded as a result of a NASA Research Announcement, NRA-98-OES-12, for NEW MILLENNIUM PROGRAM MEASUREMENT CONCEPTS. The LaRC is seeking team members to participate with NASA LaRC in developing the proposal and implementing a mission to validate the GIFTS measurement concept and associated technologies. The NASA NMP is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to identify, flight validate, and infuse key advanced technologies and capabilities needed to enable 21st century NASA space and earth science missions. The Program focuses on technology validation in a systems and subsystems approach to retire risk for the first use of such technology in a science mission. The GIFTS measurement concept will improve observation of all three basic atmospheric state variables(temperature, moisture, and wind velocity) thereby allowing much higher spatial, vertical, and temporal resolutions than is currently achievable with operational geostationary weather satellites. The time resolved displacement of measured water vapor and cloud features will be used as tracers of the transport of atmospheric water and other important constituents (e.g., CO and O3). One key advance over current geostationary wind measurement capabilities is that water-vapor winds will be altitude-resolved throughout the troposphere. As currently conceived, the primary instrument is a Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) imaging the full Earth disk in the infrared with 4 km resolution using a Large area format Focal Plane Array (LFPA) and a Michelson interferometer. Details of the GIFTS measurement concept can be found at http://spacetech.larc.nasa.gov/gifts/. The GIFTS mission study team is particularly interested in technologies and instrument designs that minimize power, mass, and volume requirements. For descriptions of items of particular interest to the GIFTS mission study team, please refer to http://spacetech.larc.nasa.gov/gifts/needs.html. For the preparation of the detailed GIFTS proposal, the LaRC is interested in partnering with organizations that can provide the necessary workforce and facilities to complete component, subsystem, and/or instrument development using the knowledge base derived from existing ground and aircraft-based instruments, as well as preliminary GIFTS design concepts being developed by the LaRC and the GIFTS study partners. Responses are solicited from all US industries, academia, non-profit organizations, NASA centers, national laboratories, other government agencies, and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs). LaRC plans to issue contracts or agreements to the providers for delivery of the instrument components, subsystems, and/or systems selected from this RFI, provided the GIFTS concept is selected for implementation. Each provider is expected to become a full member of the mission implementation team. After mission selection the NASA Office of Earth Science (OES) may issue an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for science which supplements the concept defined by the GIFTS mission study team. The responses to the science AO will be peer reviewed and the NASA OES will select the winning proposals. Interested organizations should provide the LaRC with a short information package (not to exceed ten pages and addressing each of the criteria listed below) on what your organization is willing to accomplish on the GIFTS development, how that would be accomplished, and Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimates (e.g., cost, weight, power, dimensions, etc.). Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria in the following order of importance: (1) Recent relevant experience, past performance, technical capability and availability of key personnel; (2) Cost and Schedule control; and (3) Facilities. These criteria are defined as follows: 1. Recent relevant experience, past performance, technical capability and availability of key personnel: This criteria evaluates the proposer's relevant recent experience, past performance in similar development activities, technical capability to perform the development and key personnel available for the development. The proposer should provide substantive evidence that the proposer has successfully participated in similar developments (component, subsystem, instrument) including: customer references (points of contact and current telephone numbers); technical ability to complete the development; ability to assess technology readiness for infusion into instrument development; experience in laboratory, field, and flight experiments; and availability of key personnel with appropriate experience skill levels. 2. Cost and Schedule control: This criteria evaluates the proposer's ability to control both cost and schedule, has management processes in-place to control these, understands the relationship of cost and schedule, and demonstrated ability to work within mission time constraints. The proposer should provide evidence of successfully controlling costs and schedule for similar developments, how project management schedule and cost control processes are implemented, and how the proposer evaluates the interaction of cost and schedule during a development. 3. Facilities: This criterion evaluates the proposer's facilities (e.g., calibration, thermal vacuum chambers, vibration equipment, Electromagnetic Interference, radiation, etc), excluding aircraft, or access to other's facilities to conduct the development and ground qualification of the concept. The proposer should describe what facilities are controlled/available to the proposer, how access to any other needed facilities will be accomplished, and any government facilities needed to complete the development. It is expected that the teaming organizations will participate actively in the GIFTS detailed proposal preparation from July through early September of this year. It is not the intentof the LaRC to reimburse organizations for the cost of submitting information in response to this synopsis, or to pay for proposal preparation costs incurred by team members. It is expected that selection of the proposal for Phase II mission implementation and the availability of funds would result in instrument component, subsystem, or systems contract(s) for the selected partners. This synopsis teaming opportunity document does not represent a guarantee of selection for award of any contracts, nor is it to be construed as a commitment by NASA to pay for the information solicited. It is expected that partner(s) selected would provide (at no cost to NASA) conceptual designs, technical data, proposal inputs (e.g. management approach), project schedules, and cost estimates consistent with the study guidelines provided by the NMP during the proposal process. Organizations with expertise and interest in this opportunity may contact Fenton Harrison, MS 367, NASA LaRC, Hampton, VA 23681, phone 757-864-6680, fax 757-864-4449, e-mail: f.w.harrison@larc.nasa.gov to obtain additional details of the present design status, or to discuss qualifications, capabilities, (ROM) cost and schedule estimates. Procurement questions should be directed to Mary Jane Yeager, Office of Procurement, m.j.yeager@larc.nasa.gov, 757-864-2473. All responses should be sent to the following person and address: Mr. Fenton Harrison, NASA Langley Research Center, MS 367, Hampton, VA 23681 or email to f.w.harrrison@larc.nasa.gov. The due date for submission is COB July 13, 1999. Posted 06/29/99 (D-SN348204). (0180)

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