NASA/GSFC Partnership Opportunity Document (POD) For Turbo-molecular Vacuum Pump Development

Partnership Opportunity Document (POD) for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Turbo-molecular Vacuum Pump Development 1.0 Introduction and Scope NASA's GSFC is seeking partners for spaceflight instrument development for potential proposals to these opportunities. GSFC mission teams will be submitting proposals to the New Frontiers 4 Announcement of Opportunity (NNH16ZDA011O). This opportunity will be two-step processes, with the first proposal response being primarily focused on the scientific merit and technical feasibility of the proposed mission and its associated scientific investigation. The initial submissions will then be down-selected after formal peer review and the resultant subset of proposals will be funded to perform Phase A mission concept studies. During Phase A, proposals will be expanded and refined to detail the entire end-to-end life cycle concept, with greater attention to engineering implementation, cost, and schedule. Information on the Discovery AO can be found in the Community Announcement Regarding Discovery Program Draft Announcement of Opportunity (https://newfrontiers.larc.nasa.gov/announcements.html). The time frame for the solicitation is intended to be: Release of final AO......................................December 9, 2016 Preproposal conference...............................January 17, 2017 Proposals due..............................................April 28, 2017 Selection for competitive Phase A studies...November 2017 (target) Concept study reports due...........................December 2018 Down-selection............................................July 2019 (target) Launch readiness date.................................NLT December 31, 2025 This partnership opportunity is being issued to interested and qualified teaming partners to help prepare the NASA'S GSFC concepts for proposal submittal and to provide a flight qualified instrument subsystem should the instrument be selected for flight. The subsystem NASA's GSFC is interested in finding partners for is a turbomolecular vacuum pump suitable for operation with a single rotary stage (hereafter designated as a wide range pump, or WRP). For this partnership opportunity dealing with the preparation of the initial submission, there will be no exchange of funds between the teaming partners. Funding will be available for Phase A and subsequent phases should the investigation be approved to continue through the mission-defined gates for flight. NASA's GSFC reserves the option to not select any teaming partners under this POD offering on the basis of materials received. 2.0 Instrument Overview The WRP subsystem of interest will enable measurements of chemical and isotopic compositions using mass spectrometry of solid or gas samples acquired. Mass spectrometry requires low pressure (high vacuum conditions) to be maintained within a vacuum vessel for operation. Additional information and detailed requirements will be available to Notice of Interest respondents (see 4.0). The controlling electronics for the WRP system will be provided by GSFC. 3.0 Pre-selection Support 3.1 Initial Proposal Support SOW: It is expected that the selected respondent will provide support using their own resources to help develop and write the Instrument proposal in response to the opportunities in the area of the WRP. This will involve meeting with the scientists and the overall instrument engineering team: to help define the end-to-end performance requirements, including interfaces to the various subsystems and the spacecraft; to identify study topics; and to predict performance. This will include cost estimation for all development phases. The period of performance for this interval is the timeframes shown above from POD selection to initial proposal submission. 3.2 Phase A Study and Phase A Proposal Support SOW: If the instruments are selected for Phase A studies, the proposal team will receive funding to conduct a Phase A study and submit a detailed Concept Study Report (CSR) to NASA. The respondent providing the WRP may be allocated a portion of this funding to perform trade studies as identified in the initial proposal. The respondent will also be expected to contribute to designing, documenting, and costing the WRP system design, fabrication, integration and testing for inclusion in the final Concept Study Report. The period of performance for this interval is detailed in the above timelines. 4.0 General Instructions for POD Response Potential respondents are asked to contact the GSFC point of contact (listed below) as soon as possible after release of this document with a Notice Of Interest (intentionally not called a notice of intent). This Notice of Interest does not create an obligation to respond to the POD, but allows the NASA'S GSFC team to distribute additional specifications about the WRP and to provide answers to questions from potential partners. All Notice of Interest respondents will receive further details that will facilitate a focused response. Respondents may send questions to the NASA'S GSFC at the E-mail address listed below. All questions and answers will be made available to all those who respond to the Notice of Interest. The source of the questions shall be held confidential. Questions and answers that contain information unique to a respondent's proprietary approach will not be shared if they are identified as such. For purposes of this partnership opportunity, the POC is Mike Adams, Michael.l.Adams@nasa.gov, 301-286-2010. Responses to the Partnership Opportunity Document shall: 1) Be in a presentation format (.pdf viewgraphs) that shall not exceed 30 pages. The font size for the text shall be no smaller than 12 point. 2) Be specific about the system that the response is addressing. 3) Address all requirements noted in sections 3.0 of this document. Responses will be treated as proprietary information and controlled as such. The respondents shall deliver the requested information in presentation format. Final presentation packages must be received by 5:00 pm ET on March 17, 2017. Presentations are to be delivered electronically to Michael Adams at the above listed email address. Acronyms List AO Announcement of Opportunity CSR Concept Study Report EDT Eastern Daylight Time NASA'S GSFC NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center PEA Program Element Appendix POC Point of Contact POD Partnership Opportunity Document ROM Rough Order of Magnitude SALMON-2 Stand Alone Missions or Opportunity Notice SOW Statement of Work WRP Wide Range Pump