Partnership Opportuity Document (POD) with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centr (GSFC) Small Explorer Concepts Spaceflight Boom

1.0 INTRODUCTION/SCOPE

This proposal opportunity is in anticipation of several possible responses to a NASA Announcement of Opportunity (AO), 2016 Small Explorer (SMEX) element of the Heliophysics Explorers Program. NASA's GSFC is developing mission concepts to be proposed for this AO.
This partnership opportunity is being issued to select a teaming partner(s) to:

• Develop the Spaceflight Boom design for the initial proposal submission.
• Assist in the development of the Concept Study Report and Site Visit if selected and funded for a phase A study.
• Provide information, graphics and text on the boom for the proposal and Concept Study Report
• Deliver (including building, integrating, and testing) the complete flight boom system if awarded.

The proposed missions are currently in pre-Phase A. This phase ends with proposals that will be due 3 months after the AO is released. If any proposal is selected for implementation, the mission will proceed into Phase A, per NASA Procedural Requirement (NPR) 7120.5E (e.g. http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/main_lib.html). The following schedule should be used as a basis for responses to this opportunity:
Partnership Opportunity Document released April 18, 2016
Responses due May 4, 2016
Partner Selection announced May 26, 2016
Helio SMEX Draft AO Released March 11 2016
Helio SMEX AO Released ~June 1, 2016 (target)
Proposal submittal in response to SMEX AO ~September 1, 2016 (target)
Phase A Selection(s) Announced ~April 2017 (target)
Concept Study Reports due ~April 2018 (target)
Selection(s) Announced ~September 2018 (target)
Launch Readiness date ~NLT June 2022

The dates above are estimates based on the Draft AO dated March 11, 2016. More detailed dates should be available in the final AO.

1.1 COST

The cost cap for this AO is anticipated to be $115 million in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 dollars. This cost includes the instrument, spacecraft, management, safety & mission assurance, integration & testing, instrument to spacecraft integration support, integration support for the spacecraft to launch vehicle, and spacecraft operations, as well as required contingency (25% or greater reserves on Phases A-D). This cost does not include launch services. Reserves will be held at the Project level, and not with the partner.
There will be no exchange of funds between the teaming partners for the portion of this partnership opportunity dealing with the preparation of the Step-1 proposal to the SMEX AO. Funding will be available for subsequent phases (including Phase A) should the candidate mission concept be competitively selected for those additional phases. Selected Phase-A missions would receive $1 million in Real Year (RY) dollars to be allocated amongst partners at the discretion of the Principal Investigator (PI). The selected partner(s) is expected to invest some of their own resources in developing the Phase A Concept Study and Site Visit.

1.2 DESIRED MISSION SERVICES

NASA's GSFC is interested in formally establishing a partner to provide the following services for these missions:
• Develop the Spaceflight Boom design for the initial proposal submission.
• Assist in the development of the Concept Study Report and Site Visit if selected and funded for a phase A study.
• Provide information, graphics and text on the boom for the proposal and Concept Study Report
• Deliver (including building, integrating, and testing) the complete flight boom system if awarded.
All interested parties are required to respond to this POD in accordance with Section 3 below.

1.3 PROPOSAL SUPPORT

Step 1 Proposal
It is expected that the selected POD respondent will provide support as agreed with the PI to help develop the required SMEX proposal elements in response to the Step-1 SMEX AO related to this topic. The POD respondent may be expected to write or assist in the writing of portions of the proposal relevant to their responsibilities. Furthermore, the POD respondent will coordinate with the PI and other proposal team members to help define requirements, interfaces, system architecture, to identify study topics, and to predict flight performance. The period of performance for this interval is expected to last approximately 6 months, starting in ~April 2016 with a proposal submission six months later.

Step 2 Proposal (Concept Study Report and Site Visit)
If the proposal is selected for Phase A, it is expected that the selected POD respondent will provide support as agreed with the PI to help develop the required SMEX proposal elements for the Concept Study Report & Site Visit related to this topic. The POD respondent may be expected to write or assist in the writing of portions of the proposal relevant to their responsibilities. Furthermore, the POD respondent will coordinate with the PI and other proposal team members to help define requirements, interfaces, system architecture, to identify study topics, and to predict flight performance. The period of performance for this interval is expected to last approximately 11 months, starting in ~May 2017.

If the mission is selected for development and launch (Phases A-F), the partner will be responsible for the design and development of the boom and integration support. The period of performance for this interval is expected to last approximately 2 years, starting late 2018.

2.0 TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

GSFC is including three boom concepts in this POD. GSFC will select zero to three different partners for these mission concepts.

2.1 MISSION A

A sun-pointing instrument to launch on a Pegasus and fly in LEO at approximately 600 km altitude and (likely) 6 degrees inclination requires a metering structure between sunward and aft portions of the instrument. The metering structure will be an expandable boom having the following characteristics:
Parameter Value Units Remarks
Length When Extended 10 - 15 m
Diameter < 88 cm 3-sided boom assumed
Sock None Sock not required
End payload mass < 79 kg Must support in launch, stowed, in launch environment
Launch locks Yes 3 required, included in boom design
Cables Yes Sensors, heaters and mechanism on sunward end.
Unobstructed Internal Volume OD: 34 ID: 16 cm Internal, diameter from central boom axis
Canister Diameter < 97 cm
Canister Height (Stowed) ≤ 16 cm Maximum height when stowed
System 1st mode (cantilever) ≥ 0.72 Hz Fundamental excitation
Extension Length Variability < ± 30 mm Extended, Repeatable
In-plane off-set < ± .75 mm Extended, Repeatable
Clocking Variability < ± .12 deg Extended, Repeatable
Payload Tip-Tilt < ± 10 arcsecond Extended, Repeatable
Bending Stiffness n/a N-m^2
Torsional Stiffness n/a N-m^2
Shear Stiffness n/a N
Extensional Stiffness n/a N
Deploy force n/a N
Boom System mass n/a kg
Quantity 1 Ea
Table 1: Mission A Boom Characteristics
In addition, the following characteristics should also be discussed in the response:
• Total System mass
• Stiffness of the boom
• Structural damping
• Shock levels expected due to launch lock actuation and extension
• Boom mass per unit length
• Boom harness design rules
• Thermal stress response
• Sensitivity to stress induced at the aft mount or sunward payload interface.
• Canister mount interface (thermal, mechanical and electrical)

2.2 MISSION B

Mission B will be proposed for the upcoming Heliophysics Small Explorer competition incorporating an externally occulted coronagraph to observe the solar corona. The mission requires an extendable optical bench (EOB) that will maintain the occulter 18.4 m from the optical aperture, with a 1.6 meter light baffle at the tip of the EOB.
The EOB will be stowed at launch and deployed on-orbit. The EOB must meet the following requirements.
Parameter Value Units Remarks
Length When Extended 18.4 m
Diameter 80 cm
Sock full Sock required to prevent stray light from entering boom
End payload mass < 10 kg Must support in launch, stowed, in launch environment
Launch locks Yes 3 required, included in boom design
Cables No
Unobstructed Internal Volume 60 cm Must have equilateral triangular aperture with sides of order 60 cm free from obstruction through entire boom length
Canister Diameter < 90 cm
Canister Height (Stowed) ≤ 13 cm Maximum height when stowed
System 1st mode (cantilever) ≥ 2.0 Hz Fundamental excitation
Extension Length Variability < ± 0.25 mm Extended, Repeatable
In-plane off-set < ± .15 mm Extended, Repeatable
Payload Tip-Tilt < ± 0.04 deg Extended, Repeatable
Clocking Variability < ± .25 deg Extended, Repeatable
Bending Stiffness >750000 N-m^2
Torsional Stiffness >11500 N-m^2
Shear Stiffness >145000 N
Extensional Stiffness >9800000 N
Deploy force 50 N
Boom System mass <7 kg
Quantity 1 Ea
Table 2: Mission B Boom Characteristics
In addition the EOB structure shall provide minimum glint into the aperture by providing low reflection black surfaces. All materials for the EOB must be baked out prior to assembly to minimize the potential for molecular contamination of the optics. The stowed EOB must be able to survive Pegasus launch loads, and 2 years in the low earth orbit environment.

We also require a deployed 0.8 m diameter x 1.6 meter long light baffle to be located at the tip of the EOB. This light baffle is required for backscatter from the Earth only. The light baffle shall be opaque to visible light, survive launch loads from a Pegasus launch, be self-supporting, and it must deploy on-orbit. There are no other mechanical properties required.

2.3 MISSION C

Mission C is seeking proposals for a coilable boom or similar construction to meet these requirements:

Parameter Value Units Remarks
Length When Extended 0.5 m 50 cm
Diameter 13 cm Payload end diameter
Sock none
End payload mass 2 kg kg Must support in launch, stowed, in launch environment, mass includes cables
Launch locks Yes
Cables Yes Analog signal, power - mass included in end payload mass estimate
Unobstructed Internal Volume n/a cm
Canister Diameter n/a cm Sized as needed to accommodate end plate
Canister Height (Stowed) ≤ 3 cm Maximum height when stowed
System 1st mode (cantilever) ≥ 5.0 Hz Fundamental excitation
Extension Length Variability n/a mm
In-plane off-set n/a mm
Payload Tip-Tilt n/a deg
Clocking Variability n/a deg
Bending Stiffness n/a N-m^2
Torsional Stiffness n/a N-m^2
Shear Stiffness n/a N
Extensional Stiffness n/a N
Deploy force n/a N
Boom System mass n/a kg
Quantity 2-4 Ea
Table 3: Mission C Boom Characteristics
In addition, the Mission C Boom should have a deployed mass/length not to exceed 35g/m not including harness and must be magnetically clean and electrically conductive.

3.0 POD RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS, FORMAT, AND SELECTION CRITERIA

3.1 NOTICE OF INTEREST

Potential respondents are asked to contact the GSFC team with a Notice Of Interest (intentionally not called a notice of intent) for one or more of the mission concepts described here. This Notice of Interest does not create an obligation to respond to the POD, but allows the GSFC team to disseminate additional details to provide answers to questions from potential partners. Notice of Interest respondents may receive additional details on the mission of interest, which can be used to facilitate a focused response to the partnership opportunity. These details are competition sensitive and are not to be shared outside the teams necessary to prepare a full response.
Respondents may send questions to the GSFC point of contact (POC) listed below. All questions and answers will be made available to all those who respond to the Notice of Interest. The identity of the source of the questions shall be held confidential. Questions and answers that contain information unique to a respondent's proprietary approach will not be shared if they are identified as such.
Notice of Interest shall be sent to the POC listed in Section 5.0 via email with ‘Notice of Interest' in the subject line, a simple sentence or two expressing interest and an email address to send further information.

3.2 INSTRUCTIONS

For each mission concept noted in Section 2 that the respondent is interested in, the respondent shall:
1. Demonstrate understanding of the boom under consideration:
a. Means of addressing system requirements as currently specified (do not assume our current concept is the best approach)
b. Highlight any particularly critical or challenging areas for the design and implementation of the boom.
c. Identify available design and modeling capabilities required to support development of the boom deployment system and what level of experience in similar systems important personnel have.
2. Provide any ideas or input related to the boom challenge, which may help us in our decision, including recommended potential study topics.
3. Discuss whether the boom is self-supporting in the deployed configuration in a 1G environment and identify GSE used for ground deployment testing.
4. Indicate what level of resources would be allocated to the proposal phase of support.
5. Discuss skills needed, and ideas on what level of conceptual design and important analysis and trade studies might be needed.
6. Identify fabrication and testing facilities that will be required to support development and test of the boom deployment system, both as a subsystem and during SC I&T
7. Identify which missions your organization has successfully supported in this capacity and provide customer reference POCs.
a. Provide information on recent similar flight assemblies designed and delivered and how that experience is applicable to the boom. Basic information on scope of work, and how well the fielded system met the requirements (cost and technical) as well as how well have they met the proposed schedules.
8. Provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimate and timeline for the scope of the design, fabrication, and testing of the boom. The respondent shall not be held to this cost or schedule, but it will serve as a consideration during the partnership evaluation. The respondent is invited to comment on the reasonableness of the placeholder cost.

3.3 FORMAT

The response to this partnership opportunity should be separated into responses for each mission concept. Partners may respond to any or all of the mission concepts included in this POD. Responses shall be provided in a slide format (e.g. Powerpoint) and each response (mission concept specific) may be up to 10 slides. Excluded from the page count are the cover letter, title pages, table of contents, and acronym list. Partners may attach additional appendices that further describe their capabilities, although GSFC is under no obligation to include the contents of such appendices in the evaluation of the offer package. Additional appendices may be in a separate document and, if so, only one version is required.
The entire offer package, including any cover letter, title pages, and other supporting material, shall be provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file delivered to the email address in Section 7.0.
Offerers may be contacted after submission to schedule a telecon or face-to-face walk-through of their material. All offerers for a specific mission concept will be given the same opportunity to present.

4.0 EVALUATION FACTORS AND CRITERIA

Evaluations will be performed independently for each mission concept. The evaluation team will use the following factors in selection and award:

1. Technical Approach (35%). Offerors will be evaluated on their ability to meet the instrument technical requirements given in Section 2. This includes demonstrated understanding of the requirements and proposed approach to meet those requirements.

2. Cost (30%). Offerors will be evaluated on their overall cost and on the reasonableness of cost and schedule estimates.

3. Relevant Experience and Past Performance (35%). Special emphasis will be given to demonstrated experience with similar missions.

 5.0 POINT OF CONTACT:

Questions about this POD should be directed to Tim Gehringer (Phone: 301-286-6831, Email: [email protected]).

6.0 FINAL DUE DATE OF POD RESPONSE

The response to the POC is due no later than 5 p.m. ET on May 4, 2016. The electronic PDF document shall be sent to Tim Gehringer (Email: [email protected])

It is the responsibility of potential respondents to monitor the NASA Acquisition Internet Service (NAIS), GSFC Procurement Site http://code210.gsfc.nasa.gov/podhome.htm for information concerning this POD.
 
7.0 ACRONYMS

AO Announcement of Opportunity
ET Eastern Daylight Time
EOB Extendable Optical Bench
FY Fiscal Year
GSE Ground Support Equipment
GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center
I & T Integration & Test
ID Inner diameter
LEO Low Earth Orbit
NAIS NASA Acquisition Internet Service
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NLT No Later Than
NPR NASA Procedural Requirement
OD Outer diameter
PDF Portable Document Format
PI Principal Investigator
POC Point of Contact
POD Partnership Opportunity Document
ROM Rough Order of Magnitude
RY Real Year
SMEX Small Explorer
TBD To Be Determined