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

A -- RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, PROTOTYPING & IMPLEMENTATION OF FLIGHT CRITICAL SYSTEMS DESIGN & VALIDATION TECHNOLOGIES SOL 99-LaRC-4 POC Nancy M. Sessoms, Contract Specialist, Phone (757) 864-2471, Fax (757) 864-6131, Email n.m.sessoms@larc.nasa.gov WEB: Click here for the latest information about this notice, http://nais.nasa.gov/EPS/LaRC/date.html#99-LaRC-4. E-MAIL: Nancy M. Sessoms, n.m.sessoms@larc.nasa.gov. NASA/LaRC plans to issue a NASA Research Announcements for research, development, prototyping, and implementation of flight critical systems design and validation technologies. The objective of this NRA is to stimulate interested parties to submit proposals for research, development, prototyping, and implementation of flight critical systems design and validation technologies that have the potential to reduce the rate of fatal aviation accidents. Successful offerors will work towards self-sustaining enhancements to flight critical systems design and validation methods that will potentially lower the aviation accident rate. A flight critical system is defined in 14 CFR 25.1309 as a system and associated components such that the occurrence of any failure condition would prevent the continued safe flight and landing of the airplane. There are two major proposal sections of this NRA. Within Section I is Flight Critical Systems Design and Validation with the following three topic areas: (1) Design Correctness & Certification -- Proposals are sought to create requirements specification techniques that enable rigorous hazard/safety analyses and formal verification, and that are useful to all partners (customer, developers, regulators, and maintainers) in the development process, and to develop objective measures for digital systems. (2) Fault-Tolerant Integrated Modular Avionics -- Proposals are sought to develop enabling technologies for fault-tolerant integrated modular avionics architectures that are scalable to transport class aircraft, business jets, and low cost general aviation aircraft. Rigorous, innovative verification methods are sought that can serve as a basis for certifying reusable integrated modular avionics platforms. (3) Operational Malfunction Mitigation -- Proposals are sought for development of technologies to ensure the safety and performance of the closed-loop flight system in the operational environment. Technologies that provide digital upset immunity of processing components,and augment current capabilities to provide transparent containment, accommodation, and recovery from single-mode and common-mode malfunctions, faults, and failures in the flight system are needed. Innovative validation and certification methods that combine simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and rigorous analysis are of particular interest. Within Section II is Formal Methods Technology with the following four topic areas: (1) Formal Analysis Tools and Methods -- Proposals are sought to develop hardware, software, and system design tools and methods that are mathematically rigorous and application-oriented, and that have a strong potential to reduce certification costs. This topic area is also seeking advances in automated deduction such as new decision procedures for mathematical domains relevant to avionics applications and their seemless integration into existing verification tools. (2) Demonstration Projects -- Proposals are sought for demonstrations of the economic feasibility and technical validity of applying formal methods to real or realistic systems. Proposals that are closely aligned with industrial applications are of particular interest. (3) Generic Avionics Components -- Proposals to develop reusable, formally verified avionics components are sought. (4) Accident/Incident Data Research -- Proposals are sought for the development of rigorous methods and tools to assist in the analysis of the contributions of digital systems to aircraft accidents and incidents. Section I proposals -- The initial phase (Phase I) will have a period of performance from the date of award through approximately November 30,2002. The Government intends to fund 2 or 3 proposals within each topic area for phase I. Activities occurring after phase I through no later than November 30, 2004, will be considered phase II. The Government will have the option to continue with phase II. A down select to fund one proposal per topic area is anticipated for phase II. Section I proposals will be considered with maximum funding as follows (in thousands): Design Correctness & Certification: $218 for FY 2000, $342 for FY 2001, $343 for FY 2002, $454 for FY 2003, $465 for FY 2004. Fault Tolerant Integrated Modular Avionics: $313 for FY 2000, $400 for FY 2001, $405 for FY 2002, $457 for FY 2003, $413 for FY 2004. Operational Malfunction Mitigation: $158 for FY 2000, $300 for FY 2001, $350 for FY 2002, $476 for FY 2003, $500 for FY 2004. A proposal for two or more topic areas of section I will be considered for the corresponding level of combined funding. Section II proposals -- The initial phase (Phase I) will have a period of performance from the date of award through approximately November 30, 2002. The Government intends to fund 3 proposals within section II for phase I. Activities occurring after phase I through no later than November 30, 2004, will be considered phase II. The Government will have the option to continue with phase II. Section II proposals will be considered with maximum funding of $233K for each FY 2000 -- 2004. Proposals that cover two or more topic areas of section II are limited to a maximum funding amount of $500K. Interested parties that address topic areas from both sections must do so in separate proposals. Proposals must specify which of the two sections (I or II) is being addressed. Within a specified section, offerors may submit separate proposals for topic areas or may submit a single proposal which addresses multiple topic areas. Participation in this NRA is open to all organizations or teams of organizations from industry, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations (includes not-for-profit organizations), and U.S. Government agencies (acting independently or as part of a team). Multiple awards are anticipated as a result of this NRA. Communications concerning this NRA, from receipt of proposals through selection announcement, between the parties submitting proposals and the Government shall be made through the contracting officer. All qualified responsible sources may submit anoffer which shall be considered by the agency. The anticipated release date of the NRA is on or about August 10, 1999, with an anticipated proposal due date sixty (60) days after release. The solicitation and any documents related to this procurement will be available over the Internet. These documents will be in Microsoft Office Suite (Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, PowerPoint 4.0) format and will reside on a World Wide Web (WWW) server, which may be accessed using a WWW browser application. The WWW address, or URL of the NASA/LaRC Business Opportunities home page is http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/LaRC/class.html The NASA Langley Research Center technical point of contact is Dr. Celeste M. Belcastro. Dr. Belcastro may be contacted at (757) 864-6182. Prospective offerors shall notify this office of their intent to submit an offer. It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor this site and/or the CBD for the release of the solicitation and amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments (if any). Any referenced notes can be viewed at the following URL: http://cbdnet.access.gpo.gov/num-note.html and http://genesis.gsfc.nasa.gov/nasanote.html Posted 07/23/99 (D-SN358087). (0204)

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