Partnership Opportunity Document (POD) for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Small Explorer (SMEX) Spacecraft and Telescope Assembly for expected 2024 NASA Astrophysics Small Explorer Announcement of Opportunity

July 2024           

1.0 Introduction and Scope

Current planning calls for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) to release an Astrophysics Small Explorer (SMEX) Announcement of Opportunity (AO) in the spring of 2025 to solicit proposals to accomplish science objectives from the 2020 Decadal Survey.

In partnership with the Principal Investigator (PI)-led team, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is developing a mission concept to be proposed for the upcoming SMEX AO. The mission will use a single instrument with a telescope mounted to a spacecraft bus. The observatory will be launched into a 600-700km sun-synchronous orbit. The mission operations center is currently planned to be at GSFC.

This partnership opportunity is being issued to select a teaming partner to serve as the satellite (Spacecraft) integrator for this SMEX mission, and the integrated optical telescope assembly (OTA) subsystem provider for this SMEX mission.  Spacecraft and telescope vendors encouraged to establish partners with one another for the purposes of responding to this opportunity.

The satellite (Spacecraft) integrator for this SMEX mission, includes providing:

• a spacecraft bus consistent with a Class D mission per NPR 8705.4 Risk Classification for NASA Payloads
• instrument to spacecraft integration and environmental testing support (either at the vendor’s facility or at GSFC)
• integration support for the observatory (integrated spacecraft + payload) to launch vehicle, and
• support for initial mission operations (launch and early orbit operations) and ongoing mission support of the SC Bus.

The telescope integrator for this SMEX mission, includes providing:

• an OTA subsystem meeting the following nominal requirements (additional details described in the detailed data package):
  • 0.75 m aperture
  • 0.62 deg2 field of view
  • Capable of housing the instrument focal plane assembly and two filter wheels in series
• support for instrument integration and instrument-level environmental testing at GSFC

GSFC intends to maintain an essential degree of insight into satellite integration and will exercise essential oversight to ensure that the implementation is responsive to NASA requirements and constraints as defined in the upcoming AO (final release in 2025).

NOTE: Upon selection, GSFC may discuss, and further tailor the roles proposed by respondents in the best interests of the proposal.

The proposed mission is currently in pre-Phase A. If the proposal is downselected, the next step in the proposal process is a mission concept study culminating in a Concept Study Report (CSR), followed by a Site Visit.

The following schedule should be used as a basis for responses to this opportunity:

Release of draft AO - Late 2024/Early 2025

Release of final AO - FY2025 2nd quarter (target)

Pre-proposal conference ~3 weeks after final AO release

Step-1 proposal due 90 days after AO release

Selection for competitive Phase A studies - Dec 2025 (estimated)

Concept Study Reports (CSRs) due - Oct 2026 (estimated)

Site Visit Early 2027 (estimated)

Step-2 downselect Mid 2027 (estimated)

AO required Launch Readiness Date- TBD based on AO

Total cost and cost fidelity are important issues for the proposal. The cost cap for this AO is expected to be ~$175M, excluding launch vehicle, and not including mission specific adjustments to the cap. Proposed mission cost shall include the instrument, spacecraft, instrument to spacecraft integration support, environmental testing, launch site operations, and mission and science operations for a minimum of 3 years. Reserves will be held at the Project level and not with the partner. A Phase A mission concept study for downselected proposals will receive TBD real year dollars (RY$) in funding from NASA SMD.

There will be no exchange of funds between the teaming partners for the portion of this partnership opportunity dealing with the preparation of the initial submission (Pre-Phase A, Step 1 proposal). Teaming partners are expected to support mission concept development and proposal development using internal funding. This will include considerable interaction between partners throughout this Pre-Phase-A effort. If downselected for Phase A, partial funding will be available to the teaming partners for Phase A, but company internal funding may still be required to provide support for generation of a CSR and the Site Visit. Full funding will be available for Phase B onward should the candidate mission concept be competitively selected for those additional phases.

2.0 Requirements

2.1 Accommodate GSFC Provided Payload

The OTA is expected to accommodate an FPA and filter wheel with the following volume envelopes:

Interface

Value

FPA (cm x cm x cm) - 250 x 250 x 370

Filter Wheel (cm x cm x cm) - TBD x TBD x TBD

The spacecraft is expected to accommodate a payload with the following interfaces:

Interface

Value

Volume (cm x cmx cm) - Volumes noted above plus a small electronics box

Maximum Expected Mass (kg) - 68 kg

Science Operations Power: (W)* - 132 orbit average

Mission Data Generation - 200 GB/day

* Does not include thermal heater power

More detailed information on the GSFC payload will be provided to those responding with a Notice of Interest (NOI). A Notice of Interest (it is intentionally not called a notice of intent) does not obligate an organization to provide a POD response to any mission.

2.2 Support and Enable Required Concept of Operations

The spacecraft from the provider shall support and enable the following operating modes:

1. Continuous science observations of selected bright objects ≥ 70° from the sun. Science operations requires highly stable fine pointing for observations of up to 35 minutes. This mode will operate 95% of the time following commissioning.
2. Engineering mode for maintenance and troubleshooting propulsive momentum management or other maneuvers of the spacecraft is expected to occur during this time.

Communications with the ground will involve scheduled S-band communications for command and telemetry and Ka-band communications for science data downlink.

More detailed information on mission operations will be provided to those responding with a NOI.

2.3 Accommodate potential mission orbits.

The mission is expected to operate in a sun-synchronous dawn-dusk orbit.  The orbit altitude is currently an open trade, but is expected to be between 600 km and 700 km. The provider’s spacecraft will be required to operate anywhere within this altitude range.

Optional

Mission Operations Center. The respondent may propose to provide an alternate mission operations center and mission operations control as part of their response.

3.0 Pre-Proposal Support

It is expected that the selected POD respondent will provide support using their own resources to help develop the required proposal elements in response to the 2025 Astrophysics SMEX AO in the following areas:

Item 1: Spacecraft Bus and associated support

This will involve meeting with the PI, project manager, project system engineers, and other proposal team members to establish the mission architecture, to help define both end-to-end mission and elemental performance requirements, to provide well-defined interfaces for the instruments, launch vehicle and ground system elements, and to identify any necessary technology developments, study topics, and/or other risk areas that may affect mission success. More specific activities and outcomes of the proposal support are listed as the following:

• The selected respondent shall actively participate in concept development to determine a credible design-to-cost solution that meets AO constraints.
• The selected respondent shall produce a spacecraft design report that includes requirements, block diagram, components, performance, technical budgets (mass, power, data, propellant, pointing, communications, etc.), fault tolerance, verification approach, technology demonstration, risks, analyses of typical mission subsystems, cost estimate, and ground system/operation related requirements (e.g., ground system contact time, data latency, space-ground system interface) in support of the concept design and the mission master equipment list development.
• The selected respondent shall produce a launch vehicle accommodations report to document the details (e.g., performance, fairing envelope, payload adaptor fitting, tipoff/roll rate, center of gravity height, quasi static load/fundamental frequency environments, time between liftoff and separation).
• The selected respondent shall identify heritage of spacecraft bus systems in support of the proposal development.

Item 2: Telescope and associated support

This will involve:

• Meeting with the PI, project manager, project system engineers, and other proposal team members to establish the payload architecture
• To help define both end-to-end mission and elemental performance requirements and margins
• To provide well-defined interfaces for the telescope elements, launch vehicle and ground system elements, and
• To identify any necessary technology developments, study topics, and/or other risk areas that may affect mission success

More specific activities and outcomes of the proposal support are listed as the following:

• The selected respondent shall actively participate in concept development to determine a credible design-to-cost solution that meets AO constraints.
• The selected respondent shall produce a telescope design report that includes requirements, block diagram, components, performance, technical budgets (mass, power, optical budget, etc.), fault tolerance, verification approach, technology demonstration, risks, analyses of typical telescope subsystems, cost estimate in support of the concept design and the mission master equipment list development.
• The selected respondent shall identify heritage of telescope subsystems in support of the proposal development.

Optional Mission Operations (applicable only if respondent chooses to pursue)

• The selected respondent shall produce a ground system report that shows ground stations, ground system block diagram with mission operations center functions and interfaces, operations, staffing, and cost estimate.
• The selected respondent shall identify heritage ground systems in support of the proposal development.

For the items and option, these mission design efforts will culminate in a Technical Management Review (TMR) in early FY2025 (exact date dependent on the actual AO release schedule) and will also include cost estimation for all partner-provided mission elements and for all mission phases (Phase A-E).

Following the TMR, the partner is expected to aid the proposal team in the development /production of the required proposal content as well as supporting parts of the proposal production.

4.0 Competitive Phase A Support

If the mission is selected for a Phase A study, the proposal team will receive partial funding from NASA SMD to conduct a Phase A study, submit a detailed Concept Study Report, and support a Site Visit as per the milestones shown in Section 1. Successful respondents to this POD will be allocated a portion of this funding.

The respondent would be responsible for identifying:

1. The spacecraft subsystem requirements, providing all aspects of the spacecraft (either directly, or through purchasing or teaming arrangements) architecture and providing a detailed description of all mission operations needed for mission success. The respondent would be required to develop an implementation schedule of the spacecraft bus that provides the best value to the Government consistent with the nominal schedule.
2. The telescope subsystem requirements, providing all aspects of the telescope (either directly, or through purchasing or teaming arrangements) architecture and providing a detailed description of all telescope operations needed for mission success. The respondent would be required to develop an implementation schedule of the spacecraft bus that provides the best value to the Government consistent with the nominal schedule.

The partner is expected to aid the proposal team in the development/production of the required CSR content as well as supporting parts of the report production. The partner is further expected to support preparation for and execution of the Site Visit. This includes assisting with responses to reviewer questions submitted before and after the Site Visit.

If the proposal is selected for development and launch, the selected partner will be the mission integrator responsible for the design, development, integration and testing of the spacecraft consistent with a Class D mission per NPR8705.4 Risk Classification for NASA Payloads.

5.0 POD Response Guidance

Potential respondents are asked to contact the GSFC Point of Contact listed below as soon as possible after release of this document with a Notice of Interest. This contact does not create an obligation to respond to the POD but allows GSFC to disseminate more details on the payload interfaces and concept of operations and to provide answers to questions from potential partners. All Notice of Interest respondents will receive a Data Package with further details that will facilitate a focused response. These details are competition sensitive and not to be shared outside the teams necessary to prepare a full response. All questions and answers will be sent to all those who responded to the Notice of Interest, while 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. Questions can be sent to the Point of Contact listed below via email. For purposes of this partnership opportunity, the primary contact is:

POC: Dave Richardson, [email protected]

Responses to this POD shall:

1. Be in a presentation format (viewgraphs) that shall not exceed 25 pages . The font size for the text shall be no smaller than 12 point. File format should be PDF. The presentation should include, at a minimum:
   1. Demonstrate understanding and flight experience in the design, fabrication, integration and testing of space qualified hardware, ideally in the planned mission orbit.
   2. Identify any pertinent missions for which the respondent has provided support for proposal writing in the areas of hardware design, fabrication, integration and testing. Also include mission operations if responding to Option 1.
   3. Provide a technical summary/description of the proposed spacecraft and telescope concepts including relevant heritage. Include variations for each of the three possible mission orbits.
   4. Identify available design and modeling capabilities required to support development of the spacecraft.
   5. Identify assumed mission and system requirements for the spacecraft and telescope, and a response to addressing those requirements.
   6. Highlight particularly critical or challenging areas for the design of the spacecraft and telescope.
   7. Identify fabrication and testing facilities that will be required to support development and test of the spacecraft and telescope; and important analysis/trade studies that might be needed.
   8. If responding to Option 1, provide scope of the assumed mission operations.
   9. Provide Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimate and schedule for: a) Mission implementation (spacecraft build, instrument to spacecraft integration, observatory-level testing, launch vehicle integration, and initial operations and checkout), b) telescope implementation and delivery, and c) ongoing mission support of the spacecraft bus. If responding to Option 1, include estimates for developing the MOC and operating the mission.
   10. Indicate what level of resources would be allocated to the proposal phase of support. Discuss skills that will be provided and ideas on what level of conceptual design would be provided.
2. Address all requirements noted in sections 2 through 4 of this document and all requirements in the Data Package.

Responses will be treated as proprietary information and controlled as such.

Final presentation packages must be received by 1600 EST, August 21 2024. Presentations are to be delivered electronically to Dave Richardson at the above listed email address.

Following receipt of responses, NASA/GSFC will set up teleconferences with each respondent for oral presentation and questions and answers. The timeline of these teleconferences is expected to be the 1-2 weeks after the response deadline date.

Partnership selection is expected to be made 1-2 weeks week after final presentations. NASA GSFC reserves the option to NOT select any teaming partners for any/all missions covered under this POD offering based on materials received. NASA GSFC also reserves the right to select a teaming partner for the spacecraft while not selecting that partner’s proposal for Option 1 (if provided).

All respondents to this POD will be offered a debrief after final selection.

6.0 Evaluation Factors and Criteria

Selection criteria will be consistent with the desire to encourage cost effective partnerships between the Government and Industry. The information requested in Sections 2-5 will allow the evaluators to determine how well the respondents’ systems match and enable the Astrophysics SMEX mission.

The evaluation team will use the following factors in selection and award:

1. Technical Approach (40%): Respondents will be evaluated on their ability to meet the technical requirements given in this document and Data Package. This includes demonstrated understanding of the requirements and proposed approach to meet those requirements.
2. Relevant Experience and Past Performance (35%): Special emphasis will be given to demonstrated experience with similar spaceflight hardware missions. If Option 1 is taken, relevant experience and past performance with mission operations will be considered with respect to that option.
3. Cost/Schedule (25%): Respondents will be evaluated on their overall cost, spacecraft specific cost, telescope cost and resources allocated during the proposal phase, and on the reasonableness of cost and schedule estimates.

7.0 Acronyms

• AO – Announcement of Opportunity
• CSR – Concept Study Report
• EST – Eastern Standard Time
• FY – Fiscal Year
• GSFC - Goddard Space Flight Center
• NDA – Non Disclosure Agreement
• NLT - No Later Than
• NOI - Notice of Interest
• NPR - NASA Procedural Requirement
• OTA - Optical Telescope Assembly
• PDF – Portable Document Format
• PI - Principal Investigator
• POC – Point of Contact
• POD - Partnership Opportunity Document
• ROM - Rough Order of Magnitude
• RY – Real Year
• SMD – Science Mission Directorate
• SC - Spacecraft
• TMR – Technical & Management Review