A--PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITY DOCUMENT FOR SCIENCE INSTRUMENT CONCEPTS

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 681, is issuing this Partnership Opportunity Document (POD) for the purpose of openly soliciting information regarding the availability, cost, and capabilities of potential partners in the formulation of science instrument concepts for the Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronagraph (TPF-C) mission. TPF-C is a fully funded project currently in the formulation phase (pre-phase-A). The lead center for the TPF program and TPF-C in particular is the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Goddard Space Flight Center is a performing Center, responsible for the Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA). The requested information is for preliminary planning purposes only and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that NASA will solicit the submitter for a procurement of any related effort in the future. NASA will not be responsible for any costs incurred by submitters in furnishing this information. However, this is an opportunity to join the TPF-C Science Instrument development team at Goddard and be involved in the formulation process. This partnership opportunity is being issued to select a teaming partner(s) to develop concepts for the spectrograph. Alternatively, a proposer may propose studies of an important element of the spectrograph concept such as the SI detectors, an operations concept, or concepts for extracting and measuring the signal from an extraterrestrial planet. NASA/GSFC will evaluate the submitted capability and qualification statements from the respondents by considering the following: (1)Relevance of the area of participation to the overall goals of the study; (2)The depth and relevance of experience and past performance history that convey a demonstrated ability to successfully develop an instrument concept; (3)The adequacy and availability of necessary human resource, facilities, and other resources for conducting research and development; (4)The proper identification of the key challenges and technical effectiveness of your approach in dealing with these. Respondents who intend to provide a statement of area of interest, capabilities, and qualifications are asked to notify Dr. Heap within five business days of receiving this notice. Questions concerning this POD may be asked at any time before the due date of response. All questions should be submitted to Dr. Heap via email. Respondents should address the requirements of this Partnering Opportunity Document in written format as described in previous paragraphs. A response to this POD is due at 12 pm EST (noon) on January 7, 2005. An electronic PDF document may be sent at this time to Dr. Heap. POD Point of Contact Information: Name: Dr. Sally Heap Address: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Code 681, Room 020,Building 21, Greenbelt, MD 20771 Phone: +1 (555) 000-0000 Fax: +1 (555) 000-0000 Email: contact@example.gov This solicitation/synopsis is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for the information solicited. An ombudsman has been appointed. See Internet Note - B. The documents for this partnership opportunity will be in Microsoft Office Suite (Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, or 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/GSFC Business Opportunities home page is http://procurement.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/EPS/bizops.cgi?gr=C&pin=51. It is the offerors responsibility to monitor this cite for the release of the Partnership Opportunity Document and amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the Partnership Opportunity Document and amendments, if any. Any referenced notes can be viewed at the following URL: http://genesis.gsfc.nasa.gov/nasanote.html.