A--PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITY FOR THE MARS GRACE MISSION

The MarsGRACE Mission aims at translating the success of GRACE mission from Earth to the purpose of mapping mass flux on Mars. The seasonal time-variations as well the mean gravity field of Mars are of great interest, and address several high priority Mars Exploration Program goals. The seasonal variability of Mars gravity field is due to the changing polar ice cap and atmospheric pressure variations. The principal objective of the MarsGRACE is to use precise distance change measurements between two identical, co-orbiting spacecrafts to extract accurate maps of Mars gravity field changes due to climatic processes. Global coverage of Mars is expected for a period of two Martian years. Additional necessary measurements include non-gravitational accelerations using an electrostatic accelerometer; inertial attitude using precise star cameras; and precise tracking to Earth in order to compute the orbits and time. Further information about the Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE), a joint NASA/DLR mission to map Earth gravity field, may be found at http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace. Potential partners are asked to contact the MarsGRACE team within one week after release of this document. This contact will serve to help the team disseminate all relevant information to potential partners. Potential partners should ask questions during the first week after release of this document. All questions and answers will be sent to those who express a desire to respond, while the source of the questions shall be held confidential. For purposes of this partnership opportunity, the MarsGRACE contact is William Cutlip (see below for contact information). Written responses to the Partnership Opportunity Document shall: 1) Not exceed 30 pages. 2) Use a font size of 12 or larger. 3) Address all requirements described in this document. 4) Provide a Point of Contact to address questions from NASA. Responses will be treated as proprietary information and controlled as such. Potential partners shall deliver their written responses by 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) on May 16, 2006. The MarsGrace team will make their selection decision NLT May 22, 2006. Please provide 10 copies of each written response to: William Cutlip Mail Code 101 Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt MD 20771 +1 (555) 000-0000 contact@example.gov The requested information through this POD 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. 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.