Cold Stowage II

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Center is issuing this sources sought synopsis as a means of conducting market research to identify parties having an interest in and the resources to support this requirement for Cold Stowage fleet of powered refrigerator/freezers. The result of this market research will contribute to determining the method of procurement. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 541715 Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) with a size standard of 1,000 employees. NASA is seeking capabilities from all categories of Small Businesses and Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Serving Institutions (HBCU/MSI) for the purpose of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or Small Business and HBCU/MSI subcontracting goals for this requirement. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes and there is no solicitation at this time. This request for capability information does not constitute a request for proposals; submission of any information in response to this market survey is purely voluntary; the government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred nor will the respondents be notified of the results of the evaluation. If a solicitation is released it will be synopsized in beta.SAM.gov. It is the potential offeror's responsibility to monitor this site for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. Summary of Requirements The Cold Stowage fleet of powered refrigerator/freezers consists of Polar, General Laboratory Active Cryogenic International Space Station Experiment Refrigerators (GLACIER), Micro gravity Experiment Research Locker Incubators (MERLIN), Iceberg, Cryo Chiller, and Glovebox Freezers. This fleet of hardware is required to provide a controlled temperature environment for science samples on the International Space Station (ISS) as well as in transit to and from the ISS aboard the current and future visiting vehicles, such as Cygnus and Dragon. The contract requires the contractor to sustain, integrate, operate, and facilitate deployment of the current fleet of hardware, which was built by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Polar, MERLIN, and Cryo Chiller are powered, single Middeck Locker equivalent (MLE) systems. The MERLIN is owned by UAB. Glacier and Iceberg are powered, double Middeck Locker equivalent (DMLE) freezers. There is a unique combination of these lockers residing on the ISS supporting critical ISS science. There are currently four MERLIN, two Polar, and five Glaciers operating aboard the ISS. It is anticipated that 2 to 4 Icebergs will reside and operate on the ISS starting in 2020. The elements of the Statement of Work may include but may not be limited to the following: 1) Element A: Sustaining Engineering - Inventory Management, including housing the hardware listed in the attached Table 1: Cold Stowage Hardware Fleet, as well as ancillary equipment required for operations, including but not limited to vacuum pumps, water carts, helium leak detectors, power supplies, etc. o Minimum square footage required for parts and hardware storage, flight processing, and ground support equipment is approximately 4,500 square feet. - Support weekly cold stowage planning meetings and Technical Interchange Forums - Lab Management, include maintaining calibrated equipment, technician certification, conducting Test Readiness Reviews as required. - Maintain spare part inventory to support quick hardware turn-around for flights. - Support real time anomaly resolution including Non Conformance Reporting (NCR). - Conduct Limited Life Item tracking. - Support waiver / Program Interface Revision Notice development, review, and implementation as required. - Provide NCR, Government-Industry Data Exchange Program, Alert Tracking and Reporting, and Government Property Inventory Management. - Provide scenario fit checks, performance testing to support flight operational environments outside of typical operations. 2) Element B: Real Time Operations - Provide and maintain remote site systems in support of both telemetry and command data functions that are used to communicate with the freezers on ISS and visiting vehicles. This includes voice loops, trending analysis, and real time anomaly resolution. o Provide remote site inputs to ground data services to Huntsville Operations Support Center - Develop and support Operational Change Requests reviews for freezer related on-orbit operations implementation. - Provide web based real-time and historic internet information systems that can allow NASA representatives insight into freezers' on-board hardware operational status. - Maintain console documentation and event records. - Provide on-orbit status reporting via quarterly reports, except in the event of an anomaly. - Provide increment/stage specific payload regulations and flight rules development for freezers as required - Provide inputs to Payload Anomaly Reports and In-Flight Investigations as applicable. - Perform increment specific Certification of Flight Readiness testing and certification for remote systems that support on-orbit freezer operations. - Provide increment specific Payload List Requirements and Payload Product Integrated List related software certification via the Payload Software Control Panel website for on-orbit freezers assigned locations. - Provide payload application software updates and inputs as needed. 3) Element C: Flight Integration and Verification Polars are manifested on every visiting vehicle (Cargo and Commercial Crew), and are generally considered late load items (i.e. delivered to launch site at approximately launch minus 7-10 days). The units are nominally returned to the contractor within 2 weeks of landing. Due to the increase in science demands, as many as 6 Polar units can be on any given visiting vehicle manifest, with an estimated 5- 7 flights per year. It is anticipated that at least 1 Glacier will be launched and returned from ISS per calendar year. Specific activities required for manifested hardware, per flight include: - Conduct required pre-flight maintenance activities as defined in appropriate freezer user's manual. - Conduct pre-ship and post-flight functional tests for the appropriate freezer as required by contractor documentation. o This includes proof pressure test and water fills, as well as vacuum servicing using vacuum pumps and helium leak detectors to ensure integrity of welds. o Also includes tuning of piezo electric fans based on resonance frequency to ensure proper circulation in the cold volume. - Provide certified ground handling equipment for freezers as required (lifting handles, cables, etc). - Provide flight laptop application updates and support testing as required per Space Station Program (SSP) 52000-IDD-ERP. The application will be used on an EXPRESS Rack laptop and or Station Laptop Computer. - Provide mission specific verifications and Certificate of Compliance Letters as identified in the SSP Interface Control Document (ICD)/ Payload Verification Plan, and in the Commercial Resupply Services Vehicle to Freezer ICD. - Prepare Re-flight and Ground Safety Data Packages, Safety Verification Tracking Logs updates as well as Toxicology Assessments. - Provide necessary shipping documentation and forms prior to shipment for flight. - Provide Acceptance Data Package updates prior to shipment for flight. - Complete and submit freezer Flight Readiness Assessments for increment/stage program requirements. - Provide ICD updates for each visiting vehicle, which will include mission specific requirements. - As applicable, attendance at visiting vehicle integration meetings will be required. Additional information for existing hardware may be found online at: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments_category. If your organization has the potential capacity to perform the contract services listed above, please provide the following information to the best of your ability. Partial responses are also accepted. 1) Organization name, address, email address, Web site address, telephone number, DUNS number, and size and type (large, small, women-owned...) of ownership for the organization, and the number of years in business. 2) Discuss your company's ability to perform each of the services listed above. 3) If subcontracting or joint venture is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, organizations should address the anticipated administrative and management structure of such arrangements (if this information is known at this time). Also address what elements of work would be performed by the prime or joint venture and which elements would be performed by subcontractors. The government will evaluate market information to ascertain potential market capacity to 1) provide services consistent in scope and scale with those described in this notice and otherwise anticipated; and 2) determine whether to conduct a competition with full and open competition or through a small business set-aside. To assess the market capacity, the government will review potential offeror's past performance with respect to this type of work (provide in the relevant Past Performance template provided in APPENDIX 1); and experience providing services under a performance based service acquisition contract. If the Government issues a Request for Proposal (RFP) the government reserves the right to restrict the procurement to small businesses. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged, and no feedback or evaluations will be provided to companies regarding their submissions. NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/pub_library/Omb.html. Submission Instructions: Interested parties who consider themselves qualified in one or more elements of the Statement of Work are invited to submit a response to this Sources Sough Notice by 1:00 p.m. (E.T.) on November 18, 2019. All responses under this Sources Sought Notice must be emailed to Jeffrey Finley at jeffrey.l.finley@nasa.gov and Chrystal Wiseman at chrystal.d.wiseman@nasa.gov , and not exceed three (3) pages. Please reference 80JSC020CS2 in any response. An Interested Vendors List is enabled within this FedBizOpps posting. This list is available to other vendors to allow potential offerors the opportunity to network. Parties that would like their information posted to the Interested Vendors List shall use the "Add Me to Interested Vendors" button. If a vendor would like to be removed from the Interested Vendors List, use the "Remove Me from Interested Vendors" button. If you have any questions concerning this opportunity, please contact: Jeffrey.l.finley@nasa.gov and chrystal.d.wiseman@nasa.gov .