Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Mail Stop: AR-1, PO Box 1062, Boulder, CO 80306

D -- X-BAND GROUND RECEIVING STATION SERVICE, SUPPORTING POLAR ORBIT PAYLOAD WITH DAILY CONTACTS, LEVEL ZERO CCSDS PROCESSING, AND DATA TRANSPORT SERVICES SOL PC-RFI-00-01 DUE 072800 POC Contracting Officer, James Lundahl, 303-939-6575 E-MAIL: questions and submissions via e-mail, jlundahl@ball.com. Sources Sought Notice: PC-RFI-00-01. DUE: 28 July 2000. POC: Mr. James Lundahl, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., jlundahl@ball.com. This announcement is for information and planning purposes, only. It does not constitute a BAA, IFB, or RFP, or solicitation for proposals of any kind. Nothing in this announcement shall be construed as a commitment by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. All submissions in response to this announcement shall be held in strictest confidence. BACKGROUND: PICASSO-CENA is a space borne lidar mission designed to provide key measurements of aerosol & cloud properties needed to improve climate predictions. PICASSO-CENA will fly a 3-channel lidar with a suite of passive instruments in formation with EOS-PM and CloudSat to obtain coincident observations of radiative fluxes and atmospheric state. PICASSO-CENA is currently planned as a three (3) year, low earth orbit, 705 km polar sun-synchronous mission, designed to obtain extended climatology of aerosols and clouds to permit an assessment of interannual variations. Mission extension is an option. The program emphasis is on good technical performance, high reliability, and low cost accomplished with innovative management techniques. Mission launch is anticipated in the third quarter of CY 2003. Prior to launch, a significant amount of performance validation across multiple interfaces must be accomplished, requiring earlier subsystem delivery and end-to-end test support. NASA LaRC is the PICASSO-CENA implementing center, as sponsored by the ESSP program office, managed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). DESCRIPTION: BATC envisions the need for two serial activities: 1) mission planning, interface development, and validation support, 2) mission operations support, X-band ground station coverage, level zero data processing, and data transportation services -- presumably using existing assets. Dependent on ground station location (extreme latitudes preferred for flexibility), antenna size (10M+), downlink rate(25-80 Mbps), and data volume (43 Gbits/day), we anticipate 1 to 4 contacts per day. Costing approach (e.g. per contact) will affect downlink rate selection. Upon data receipt, the supplier will generate a contact report and perform level zero processing (removal of telemetry artifacts), generating CCSDS data packet files and a data completeness report. The supplier is responsible for data services required to transport the data to the LaRC DAAC via land line. The data will need to be temporarily stored until the DAAC has confirmed proper reception (nominally 3 days). Supplier participation will be required at Mission Design reviews and selected PICASSO-CENA Technical Interface Meetings. RULES: In response to this RFI, submissions should address the origins of current service capability; an indication of current system maturity and stability; and the rationale for satisfaction of the described program requirements. Two original hard copies of submissions, printed on 8 1/2'' x 11'' pages, 12-point "Times" font, one staple in the upper left-hand corner (no other binding). Submissions sent by FAX will be destroyed, e-mail is acceptable. Sources submitting information will not be reimbursed for any expenses incurred. Submissions should be sent to Mr. James Lundahl, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., ATTN: PC-RFI-00-01, MS: AR1, PO Box 1062, Boulder, CO 80306. These submissions should be sent in time to be received by Mr. Lundahl not later than 5:00 PM local time on 21 July 2000. Please note that submissions must be non-proprietary and unclassified. For additional information, interested parties should contact Mr. Lundahl at jlundahl@ball.com. Posted 07/05/00 (W-SN471419). (0187)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0023 20000707\D-0008.SOL)