Spacecraft Bus Request for Information (RFI) for a potential Solar Sail Technology Demonstration Mission

This amendment extends the response date to June 22, 2018. All responses to this RFI must be in the form of a PDF document, not exceeding 10 pages (not including cover page), submitted in electronic form via email to Les Johnson at les.johnson@nasa.gov and Jeramie Broadway at Jeramie.w.broadway@nasa.gov with cc: to Melinda Swenson at melinda.e.swenson@nasa.gov no later than 2:00 p.m. (central), June 22, 2018. The body of the email message should identify and provide the name, institutional or organizational affiliation, address, telephone number and email address of the primary point-of-contact for the response. Description Spacecraft Bus Request for Information (RFI) for a potential Solar Sail Technology Demonstration Mission. The potential mission will demonstrate a large area solar sail to perform solar science in deep space. 1. Introduction The purpose of this RFI is to obtain information to support a SMD Technology Demonstration Proposal in summer 2018 and to investigate options to provide a spacecraft bus for said mission. This RFI seeks input from vendors with experience and facilities for designing, fabricating, and integrating deep space (beyond Low Earth Orbiting (LEO)) satellites. Vendors must be able to provide low risk, highly reliable design solutions and have a history of successfully delivering spacecraft bus systems to support Flight projects. In addition to spacecraft bus information, the RFI seeks vendors with experience in proposal generation support. The following capabilities are deemed critical: - Spacecraft bus management/development - Subcontract management - Quality management - Safety management - Systems Engineering - Spacecraft bus fabrication and test - Interface and Interface Control Document (ICD) development - Instrument package integration and test support - Functional and environmental testing - Coordination of shipment to the launch site - Launch vehicle integration support - Launch and early orbit checkout operations - On-orbit operation - Sustaining engineering - Flight software maintenance - Flight experience with deep space missions Options: A) Spacecraft Bus Design, development, and delivery of verified Spacecraft Bus and GSE to integration site. Provide support during system integration, verification, launch operations, and on-orbit performance verification activities. B) Spacecraft Bus plus System Integration As in A above but includes the analytical and physical integration of solar sail and payload specific subsystems (solar sail and deployer, power subsystem, instrument packages, etc.) and integrated system functional and environmental testing. 2. Mission Description and Preliminary Requirements Responses to this RFI shall be commensurate with the requirements below. These requirements are preliminary and are to be used as a - strawman' set of requirements for the purpose of responding to this RFI. The proposed mission's primary objective is to demonstrate predictable and controlled transit over a period of >2 years using a solar sail propulsion system. An associated objective is to collect science data from an onboard instrument. - Total Spacecraft Mass with 30 percent contingency: <65kg - Nominal Operational life: 24 months - Spacecraft bus must be capable of automated fault detection and protection (failure, detection, isolation, and recovery capabilities) - Spacecraft bus must meet the NASA Procedural Requirements for Limiting Orbital Debris (NPR 8715.6A) and NASA Process for Limiting Orbital Debris (NASA-STD-8719.14). - Assume Phase A begins FY2019 with hardware delivery within 3 years 3. Spacecraft Bus Capabilities 1. Accommodate Science Instruments Package 2. Accommodate Solar Sail and Sail Deployer provided by NASA 3. Accommodate Instrument System Power Supplies and Electronics that must be integrated with spacecraft power system electrical ground and structure. 4. Provide Electrical Power System. a. Assumed to be batteries and solar arrays. b. Science instrument power requirement is 40W (instrument: 10W, thermal: 15W, instrument specific downlink transmitter: 15W) 5. Provide Communications and Data Handling. a. Nominally X-band downlink in Host and S-band Cross Link Transceiver in Host Vehicle and End Mass. b. Science downlink requirement: 100 KB/S 6. Provide Flight Computer. 7. Provide Thermal Control System. a. Assumed cold-biased thermal with MLI, heaters, and passive radiators. 8. Launch Vehicle a. Spacecraft will be integrated on an ESPA ring and launched on an EELV b. In selecting a launch vehicle, the vendor shall maintain a minimum mass margin of 30 % between the mission system mass and the launch vehicle's lift capability to the specified orbit. GUIDE FOR RFI RESPONSES VENDOR PROPOSAL CONTENT INSTRUCTIONS Please provide information on the spacecraft bus that meets the above requirements and accommodates the Solar Sail and science instrument specific subsystems. The requested information is documented in the following sections. Section 1- Description of proposed spacecraft bus including spacecraft configuration, hardware capabilities, redundancies, instrument accommodation, accommodation in launch vehicle, deployments, command and data flow. Section 2 - Description of the reliability of the proposed bus including: margins and redundancies methodology, fault detection and protection, potential risks and mitigations, any new designs and associated risks. Section 3 - Description of the proposed spacecraft bus heritage and experience with previous flight projects (special information that shows experience and/or understanding of space tether systems is especially desired). Section 4 - Description of the assembly, integration, test and launch operations approach for the spacecraft bus and integrated system levels. Any differences from the contractor's normal test flow should be identified and described. Section 5- Description of the proposal writing capability providing experience with proposal writing and history regarding successful competed programs/projects/missions. Section 6 - ROM cost estimates for heritage spacecraft system of similar size and performance characteristics. Request for Information Response Information All responses to this RFI must be in the form of a PDF document, not exceeding 10 pages (not including cover page), submitted in electronic form via email to Les Johnson at les.johnson@nasa.gov and Jeramie Broadway at Jeramie.w.broadway@nasa.gov with cc: to Melinda Swenson at melinda.e.swenson@nasa.gov no later than 2:00 p.m. (central), June 22, 2018. The body of the email message should identify and provide the name, institutional or organizational affiliation, address, telephone number and email address of the primary point-of-contact for the response. Currently, no solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it shall be synopsized on the NASA Acquisition Internet Service and on FedBizOpps.gov. This RFI synopsis is not to be construed as a commitment or obligation by the Government, nor shall the Government pay for the information submitted in response. Respondents shall not be notified of the results.