SOURCES SOUGHT FOR NASA/GSFC WFIRST High Torque Actuator

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) High Torque Actuator NASA would like to survey the market for new or existing designs for non-propellant based high torque actuators (reaction wheels or control moment gyros) in order to incorporate this information into the WFIRST Spacecraft conceptual design and to obtain answers to several questions, listed below. The WFIRST Project, which is managed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, is investigating vendors who can provide high torque actuators for angular momentum storage and slew capability. WFIRST is envisioning the use of reaction wheels, control moment gyros, or combinations of both options. Briefly, WFIRST is a NASA observatory designed to perform Wide Field imaging and surveys of the near infrared sky. WFIRST is a 6.5 year mission (with a 10 year goal), currently targeted to launch in 2025 and will be in orbit at the Sun-Earth L2 point. In addition, WFIRST has three primary survey campaigns (High Latitude Survery, Microlensing, and Supernovae) where an agile observatory is required. The high torque actuator need is driven in general by science survey profiles and in particular by the microlensing slew profile. More general background information is available online in section 3.10 of the WFIRST Science Definition Team 2015 Report, http://wfirst.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/sdt_public/WFIRST-AFTA_SDT_Report_150310_Final.pdf . The purpose of this RFI is to survey vendor capabilities to meet the WFIRST mission requirements. This request is for information and planning purposes and feasibility of the requirements. While our intent may be to team with an industry partner(s), we are not bound by this RFI to do so. This is not a Request for Proposal, nor a Request for Quotation, nor an Invitation to Bid. Therefore, this RFI is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contract nor will the Government pay for information provided in response to this RFI. To consolidate our planning, responses from industry are requested by January 30, 2017, in the form of written and illustrated concepts, estimates for development costs and schedule, assumptions used for cost and schedule estimates design assumptions, and descriptions of capabilities. Responses can be submitted via email. The email text must give a point-of-contact and provide his/her name, address, telephone/fax numbers, and email address. The information is requested for planning purposes only, subject to FAR Clause 52.215-3, entitled "Solicitation for Information for Planning Purposes." It is not NASA's intent to publicly disclose vendor proprietary information obtained during this solicitation. To the full extent that it is protected pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act and other laws and regulations, information identified by a respondent as "Proprietary or Confidential" will be kept confidential. No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized in FedBizOpps. It is the potential offeror's responsibility to monitor this site for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. Technical or procurement questions should be directed to the contacts below. Interested offeror's shall address the requirements of this RFI in written format as described in the previous paragraphs by electronic mail to the contacts below no later than January 30, 2017. In addition, please let the contacts below know if you are interested in responding to this RFI prior to the deadline. Notification of interest will allow us to provide updated/revised information to the requirements below.Specifications and Questions Our microlensing survey drives the actuator requirement. As a result, high level requirements are system level torque capability of 1.53 Nm in the body Y-Z plane. For Momentum capacity, we need about - 75 Nms along the body Y-axis, plus 30 Nms headroom in any direction for slew momentum. The momentum storage capacity needs to be held in the wheels with wheel speeds below 40 Hz (2400 rpm) for jitter avoidance. 1. Reaction Wheels a. Torque Capability: > 0.65 Nm (up to 1.5 Nm, or as close as is feasible) b. Momentum Capacity: 50 Nms (@3000 rpm or less) 2. Control Moment Gyro a. Minimum Output Torque: < 0.005 Nm b. Output Torque: 2-5 Nm c. Momentum: >= 220 Nms for system (~ 75 Nms per flywheel if assuming singularity-free envelope) d. Single Fault Tolerant 3. Output Data and Interface a. Provide a description of output data being proposed with the solution. b. Provide a description of the proposed interface 4. Input Data to Actuator a. Provide a list of input signals/commands needed to operate the actuator 5. Physical Characteristics - provide the following estimated characteristics. If wheel and drive electronics are separate, please provide the characteristics for the wheel and drive electronics separately. a. Mass b. Rotor inertia c. Size Envelope d. Electrical Interface Locations e. Mounting Interface 6. Induced Vibration a. Static and Dynamic Imbalances b. Samples of induced vibration measurements (preferably in electronic format) 7. Radiation Requirement a. Meet the radiation environment of an Earth-Sun-L2 Orbit. 8. Thermal a. Are there any thermal requirements that need to be met by WFIRST to support the actuator? b. Estimated heat dissipation from reaction wheel and drive electronics. 9. Power a. The observatory will supply switched power from 21V to 35V. What would be the peak and steady-state power estimate at rated momentum capacity for the actuator? 10. Design Lifetime a. Can the actuator meet the expected mission lifetime of 6.5 years with a pre-launch life of at least 4 years? 11. Quality Assurance Program a. Please provide the quality assurance program with the proposed solution. 12. Cost and Schedule a. Please provide a cost estimate for the delivery of 1 Flight Unit and 1 Engineering Test Unit (ETU) and any cost savings for multiple actuators. b. Please provide a schedule for the delivery of 1 Flight Unit and 1 ETU and for multiple actuators. 13. Heritage and Capabilities a. Provide a list of previous missions that have the flown the actuator and any design modifications to existing actuators that you are proposing in this RFI and indicate any future planned missions. b. Provide a brief summary of your fabrication and test facilities that demonstrate the ability of your company to support the WFIRST requirements.