The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is seeking information from all qualified sources on a potential requirement for NASA's contribution to the Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics (ATHENA), X-ray Integral Field Unit Instrument (X-IFU). ATHENA, a European Space Agency (ESA) flagship mission with NASA contributions, was selected as the second L-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015–25 plan. The mission has now entered the study phase; once the mission design and costing have been completed, it will eventually be proposed for 'adoption' around 2023, before the start of the construction phase. As a part of its contribution, NASA may potentially provide ESA with a ~ 4.5 Kelvin cryocooler for the X-IFU. 

This Request for Information (RFI) is aimed:

1. To provide the U.S. ATHENA Project office sufficient information to make a judgement on the expected cost to NASA if the project office decides to take responsibility for delivering a ~ 4.5 Kelvin cryocooler to the X-ray Integral Field Unit Instrument (X-IFU), through a rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost estimate.
2. To provide sufficient technical information to allow the X-IFU team and the U.S. ATHENA Project office to have confidence that a U.S. cryocooler could meet the cooling requirements of the X-IFU, cooling to under 4.5 Kelvin given the required heat loads.
3. To enable NASA to provide ESA with a rough estimate of the mass, power, volume and magnetic environment and vibration environment (if possible).

Respondents are requested to review the attached RFI and associated Draft Mission Assurance Requirements for the instrument. All responses shall be provided via email to the point of contacts listed in this announcement. Any questions regarding the requirements may be directed to the technical point of contact, Joy W. Bretthauer, at [email protected]. Respondents are kindly requested to provide any and all information outlined in this request and the associated documents by not later than January 16, 2023, at 4 PM Eastern.

This RFI is not a solicitation and NASA is not requesting proposals. This RFI does not commit NASA GSFC to pay any proposal preparation costs, nor does it obligate NASA GSFC to procure or contract for this requirement. This request is not an authorization to proceed, and does not authorize payment for any charges incurred by the respondent for performing any of the work called for in this request.

NASA GSFC is interested in hearing from all interested parties, including all socioeconomic categories of Small Businesses and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) / Minority Institutions (MI), and members of the underserved communities as defined by Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support For Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and / or small business subcontracting goals for any resultant solicitation. The Government reserves the right to consider a Small, 8(a), Women-owned (WOSB), Service-Disabled Veteran (SDVOSB), Economically Disadvantaged Women-owned Small Business (EDWOSB) or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses received.