field portable XRF instrument

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center (ARC) is hereby soliciting information under this Request for Information (RFI) to determine whether or not there are interested and available vendor sources capable of meeting the identified requirements. This RFI is subject to review or cancellation at any time and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contract. The Government will not pay for the information submitted in response to this request and respondents will not be notified of the results. NASA/ARC is seeking capability statements from all interested parties, including Small, Small Disadvantaged (SDB), 8(a), Woman-owned (WOSB), Veteran Owned (VOSB), Service Disabled Veteran Owned (SDVOSB), Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) businesses, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI) for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for the Linear Actuation System. The Government reserves the right to consider a Small, 8(a), Woman-owned (WOSB), Service Disabled Veteran (SD-VOSB), or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses hereto. Organizations having the capabilities necessary to meet or exceed the stated requirements are invited to submit appropriate documentation, literature, brochures, and references. Capabilities statement should address the requirements identified in the below statement of work/specifications. Statement of Work: 1. OBJECTIVE: The NASA FINESSE (Field Investigations to Enable Solar System Science & Exploration) program, led by the Planetary Systems Branch within the Division of Space Sciences & Astrobiology at NASA Ames Research Center, is conducting terrestrial analog fieldwork in volcanic terrains on Earth as analogs to understand the emplacement, history, and evolution of volcanic landforms on Earth as well as other planetary bodies in the Solar System. In situ measurements of a diverse suite of primary magmatic products and secondary alteration products can be empirically tied to aerial and orbtial obervations within the same spectral range. Pairing in situ observations of surface materials with coarse spatial resolution (15 meters) hyperspectral images and very high resolution multispectral images (0.3 - 1 meter) allows for the mapping of compositional variability at unprecedented spatial resolution and fidelity. This work requires a field portable XRF instrument to collect the extensive in situ measurments required for this work. The detection, characterization and mapping of rock compositions within terrestrial volcanic products allows for direct comparison to geologic processes on other planetary bodies. 2. SPECIFICATIONS: - Minimum four automated User selectable filters/secondary targets to allow the user to quickly optimize the unit's sensitivity by up to a factor of 10000 to various elements and materials as low as Mg on the periodic table. - Allow one to easily eliminate exciting beam interferences, vary the depth of analysis and maximize material type analysis. - Require elemental sensitivity down to 1.2 keV without the need for the use of pressurized helium gas. - Capable of measuring elements down to at least Mg - Highest low level sensitivity at the lowest exciting beam flux. - Capability of actively manually monitoring and analyzing the raw spectrum on the laptop computer with full scope advanced xrf analytical software, live, during the data acquisition. - Include sophisticated quantification and empirical calibration software; along with free training on how to use that software. - Allow the user full control over all the parameters necessary to do sensitivity optimization including the use of user designed filters and secondary targets. - Include the ability to have a proven, portable built-in vacuum measurement - He gas flow system to provide the maximum sensitivity to the low mass elements such as Mg through Ca. Interested firms are requested to submit their response to this RFI via email only to Matt Heagy at email matthew.j.heagy@nasa.gov no later than 1:00 p.m. PST, on Thursday 09/07/2016. Submissions shall be compatible with and accessible using Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat software applications. When responding, reference RFI NNA16598995L. This announcement does not constitute a Request for Proposal. Please do not request for a copy of the solicitation, as no solicitation exists at this time. If a firm requirement is developed and a solicitation is issued, the solicitation will be made available on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website (www.fbo.gov) It is the responsibility of offerors and interested parties to monitor the Internet site for the release of the solicitation and amendments, if any and will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the documents. 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 . Information about major upcoming ARC procurement actions is available at http://ec.msfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eis/admin/admin.cgi?center=ARC.