A--PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITY DOCUMENT FOR THE EXTRA-SOLAR PLANET IMAGING CORONAGRAPH (EPIC)

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is seeking to select a teaming partner(s) to: - Develop the EPIC spacecraft design - Develop all or a subset of the three integrated systems that constitute the EPIC Science Payload: o Telescope System o Active Optical System o Instrument System - Collaborate in the development of the EPIC concept for future mission opportunities The proposed mission, Extra-Solar Planet Imaging Coronagraph (EPIC), will search for gas giant planets around stars up to 35 parsecs away from the Sun. EPIC will investigate the occurrence of these planets as well as the orbits of these planets and the composition of their atmospheres. Proposers may propose a partnership to provide for one element of the mission such as the spacecraft bus, Telescope System, Active Optical System or Instrument System. Alternatively the offeror may propose to provide for all elements of the mission or a subset of these elements (e.g., the spacecraft bus and the instrument.) There will be no exchange of funds between the teaming partners for the Step 1 phase of this Discovery proposal cycle and limited funding will be available for Phase A. If EPIC is selected after Phase A the partner(s) will be funded according to the budget developed in the Phase A. Questions about this POD should be directed to Hsiao Smith, the Project Formulation Manager for EPIC or Robin Mauk, the Mission Systems Engineer. All replies will be shared among all proposers. (Hsiao Smith may be contacted by phone at +1 (555) 000-0000 or by email: Hsiao Smith @nasa.gov; Robin Mauk may be contacted by phone at +1 (555) 000-0000 or by email: contact@example.gov) All Partnership Opportunity Document respondents should provide an electronic PDF document by 12 pm EST (noon) on January 16, 2004. The Partnership Opportunity Document does not represent a guarantee of selection for hardware development. GSFC does not currently have a requirement for this subsystem or funds to support its development. When responding to this notice, please reference this document. 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 site 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.