Partnership Opportunity Document For a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Small Explorer (SMEX) Spacecraft

Partnership Opportunity Document For a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Small Explorer (SMEX) Spacecraft dated January 29, 2019 1.0 INTRODUCTION/SCOPE This proposal opportunity is in response to the NASA Draft Announcement of Opportunity (AO), NNH19ZDA003J was released November 6, 2018. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is developing a mission concept to be proposed for this AO. The partnership opportunity is being issued to select a teaming partner to provide a spacecraft bus. The proposed mission is currently in pre-Phase A. If the proposal is down-selected, the next step in the proposal process is a mission concept study culminating in a Concept Study Report (CSR), which is the Step 2 proposal, and a Site Visit. The following schedule should be used as a basis for responses to this opportunity: Notice of Interest (NOI): Due 5 Business days after publishing Proposal in Response to POD: 10 Business days after NOI AO Release Date: No Earlier Than (NET) March 1, 2019 Preproposal Conference: 3 weeks after AO release Notice of Intent to Propose Deadline: 4 weeks after AO release Electronic Proposal Submittal Deadline: 90 days after AO release Letters of Commitment Due (with Proposal): 90 days after AO release Step-1 Selections Announced: Q1 CY 2020 (target) Initiate Phase A Concept Studies: Q1 CY 2020 (target) Phase A Concept Study Reports Due: Fall 2020 (target) Down-selection of Investigation for Flight: Summer 2021 (target) Spacecraft start date: Vendor specified Instrument Delivery for I&T: 36 months after down-select (Summer 2024) Launch Readiness Date: NLT May 2025 1.1 COST Total cost and cost fidelity are important issues for the proposal. The cost cap for this AO is $195M (FY2020), including the cost for access to space. This cost includes the instruments, spacecraft, instrument to spacecraft integration support, environmental testing, launch site operations, and mission and science operations for a minimum of 2 years (goal - 3 years), as well as required contingency (>25%). The Phase A mission concept study (Step 2 down-selection) has a total cost cap of $2M (FY2020) for all partners. There will be no exchange of funds between the teaming partners for the portion of this partnership opportunity dealing with the preparation of the initial submission (Pre-Phase A, Step 1 proposal). Funding will be available for subsequent phases should the candidate mission concept be competitively selected for those additional phases. 1.2 DESIRED MISSION SERVICES GSFC is interested in selecting a partner to provide a spacecraft bus and observatory Integration and Test through launch and mission commissioning. GSFC may also be interested in having the partner provide mission operations using the partner's existing facilities. All interested parties are required to respond to this POD in accordance with Section 5 below. 1.3 PROPOSAL SUPPORT It is expected that the selected POD respondent will provide support using their own resources to help develop the required SMEX proposal elements in response to the Step 1 Pre-Phase A NASA SMEX AO in the area of the spacecraft bus, and observatory integration, launch, and commissioning with an option for mission operations. If the proposal is down-selected for a Phase A Mission Concept Study, this will consist of a one-year concept study phase culminating in a Mission Concept Study Report (CSR) (Step 2 proposal) and on-site support of a Site Visit. Partial funding will be provided to the partner for this Phase A mission concept study support, Mission CSR, and Site Visit. If the mission is selected for implementation (Phases B-F), the partner will be responsible for the design and development of the spacecraft bus and observatory integration, test, launch, and commissioning. The payload assembly will be provided as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE). Respondents to this POD shall state the timeframe that their services will be available and the extent that the respondent can meet the timeline requirements set forth in the AO. 2.0 MISSION OVERVIEW The Astrophysics Explorer Program conducts Principal Investigator (PI)-led space science investigations to advance NASA's strategic goals in astrophysics, which are to discover the origin, structure, evolution, and destiny of the Universe and search for Earth-like planets. More detailed information on the parameters of the potential GSFC mission will be provided to those responding with a Notice of Interest (NOI) to this POD. A Notice of Interest (it is intentionally not called a notice of intent) does not obligate an organization to provide a POD response. 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 Mission concept proposal in response to the AO in the area of the spacecraft and observatory. This will involve meeting with the relevant scientists and the overall mission engineering team in order to: (1) help define the end-to-end performance requirements, including interfaces to the instrument module; (2) define the flight system architecture; (3) identify trade studies; and (4) predict performance and quantify risks. This will include cost estimation for all mission phases. The period of performance for this interval is expected to last from partner selection until the submission of the initial proposal. 3.2 PHASE A STUDY AND PHASE A PROPOSAL SUPPORT SOW: If the mission is selected for a Phase A study, the proposal team will receive funds to conduct a Phase A study and submit a detailed CSR to NASA. The selected partner will be allocated a portion of this funding to assist in completing the CSR. The respondent will also be expected to contribute to designing, documenting, and costing the spacecraft for inclusion in the final CSR (as specified in the AO). The period of performance for this interval is listed above. 3.3 POD RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRE-SELECTION SUPPORT The respondent shall: 1) Demonstrate understanding and flight experience in the design, fabrication, integration and testing of spacecraft: - Identify driving mission and system requirements for the spacecraft and a response to addressing those requirements, - Highlight particularly critical or challenging areas for the design of the spacecraft, - Provide a technical summary/description of the proposed spacecraft bus including relevant heritage, - Describe what types of capabilities and cost benefits the spacecraft provides for the intended mission. 2) Provide any recommended potential study topics related to the spacecraft. 3) Indicate what level of resources would be allocated to the proposal phase of support. - Discuss skills that will be provided, ideas on what level of conceptual design and important analysis and trade studies that might be needed. 4) Identify the pertinent missions for which the respondent has provided support for proposal writing in the area of spacecraft design, fabrication, integration and testing: - Provide data on scope of the spacecraft design, the role played in the proposal process, and the portions of the proposal written or provide assistance in writing, and provide a customer reference Point of Contact (POC). 5) Provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimate and schedule for the design, fabrication, and testing of the spacecraft; integration of the GFE Payload Assembly to the spacecraft; and observatory environmental testing. The respondent may also provide a separate ROM for environmental testing at the GSFC if it is deemed a better value for the Government. These ROMs will not be considered binding commitments but will serve as an important consideration during the response evaluation. Justification of the ROM is required; include previous cost and schedule performance with data (estimated cost & schedule vs actual). 4.0 DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT SOW: At the end of Phase A another down-select occurs. If the mission is selected for development and launch, the respondent will be responsible for the design, development, and test of the spacecraft or proposed subsystem. The respondent is responsible for identifying the spacecraft requirements and providing all aspects of the spacecraft (either directly, or through purchasing or teaming arrangements). The period of performance for this interval is expected to follow the timeline noted in 1.0 however, the respondent is encouraged to develop a schedule for completing the spacecraft bus that provides the best value to the government. 4.1 POD RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS FOR DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT The respondent shall: 1) Provide a description of the recommended spacecraft to meet the mission overview described in section 2.0 2) Identify which missions they have successfully supported as spacecraft provider and provide a customer reference POC. - Provide information on recent similar spacecraft designed and delivered, and how that experience is applicable to the mission. Basic information on scope of work, and how well the fielded spacecraft met the requirements (cost and technical, and how well they met the proposed schedules). 3) Identify available design and modeling capabilities required to support development of the spacecraft. 4) Identify fabrication and testing facilities that will be required to support development and test of the spacecraft. 5.0 POD RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS, FORMAT, AND SELECTION CRITERIA Potential respondents are asked to contact the GSFC team as soon as possible after release of this document with a Notice Of Interest (intentionally not called notice of intent). This contact does not create an obligation to respond to the POD, but allows GSFC SMEX teams to disseminate more details on the parameters of the missions being considered and provide answers to questions from potential partners. All Notice of Interest respondents will receive further details on the missions that will facilitate a focused response. These details will be proprietary and competition sensitive and not to be shared outside the teams necessary to prepare a full response. All questions and answers will be sent to those who respond to the Notice of Interest, while 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. The parameters and question answers provided to all Notice Of Interest responders are vital to focused responses. Notices of Interest shall be sent to emily.l.wilson@nasa.gov via email with - Notice of Interest' in the subject line, a simple sentence or two expressing interest, and an email address to which to send further information. For purposes of this partnership opportunity, the point of contact is: Emily Wilson (emily.l.wilson@nasa.gov, 301.614.6730). The backup contact is: Neerav Shah (neerav.shah-1@nasa.gov, 301.286.8174). Responses to the Partnership Opportunity Document (POD) shall: - Be in a presentation format (viewgraphs: such as Power Point) that shall not exceed 30 pages. The font size for the text shall be no smaller than 12 point. - Address all requirements noted in Sections 3.0 through 5.0 of this document. Responses will be treated as proprietary information and controlled as such by GSFC for the US Government. The respondents shall deliver the requested information in a standard presentation format. Final presentation packages (electronic copy only, Portable Document Format {PDF} recommended) must be received within 15 days of publication of the POD. Presentations are to be delivered to Emily Wilson at the above listed email address. Following receipt of responses, NASA/GSFC will set up teleconferences with each respondent for oral presentation and questions and answers. The timeline of these teleconferences is expected to be the week of February 18th but may be rescheduled due to unforeseen circumstances related to government operating status. Teleconferences will be scheduled in the order that responses were received. Partnership Selection is expected to be made by February 28, 2019. 6.0 EVALUATION FACTORS AND CRITERIA The evaluation team will use the following factors in selection and award: 1. Technical Approach (30%). Respondents will be evaluated on their ability to meet the technical requirements given in Section 2, 3, and 4. This includes demonstrated understanding of the requirements and proposed approach to meet those requirements. 2. Cost (45%). Respondents will be evaluated on their overall cost and on the reasonableness of cost and schedule estimates. 3. Relevant Experience and Past Performance (25%). Special emphasis will be given to demonstrated experience with similar missions, particularly with regards to instrument accommodations, spacecraft attitude control requirements, and mission communication requirements. 7.0 ACRONYMS AO Announcement of Opportunity CSR Concept Study Report GFE Government Furnished Equipment GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center I & T Integration & Test NOI Notice of Intent (Proposal) or Notice of Interest (POD) PDF Portable Document Format PI Principal Investigator POC Point of Contact POD Partnership Opportunity Document ROM Rough Order of Magnitude SMEX Small Explorer SOW Statement of Work