SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- COMMERCIAL REUSABLE SUBORBITAL RESEARCH PROGRAM - CRUSR - REQUEST FORINFORMATION
- Notice Date
- 12/4/2009
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 481212
— Nonscheduled Chartered Freight Air Transportation
- Contracting Office
- NASA/Ames Research Center, JA:M/S 241-1, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
- ZIP Code
- 94035-1000
- Solicitation Number
- NNA10CR001L
- Response Due
- 1/4/2010
- Archive Date
- 12/4/2010
- Point of Contact
- Rachel Khattab, Contracting Officer, Phone 650-604-5237, Fax 650-604-0932, Email rachel.khattab@nasa.gov - Kelly G Kaplan, Contracting Officer, Phone 650-604-5814, Fax 650-604-0912, Email kelly.g.kaplan@nasa.gov
- E-Mail Address
-
Rachel Khattab
(rachel.khattab@nasa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Innovative PartnershipsProgram (IPP) recently established the Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program(CRuSR) Office at Ames Research Center (ARC). NASA recognizes the significantaccomplishments of the commercial reusable suborbital spaceflight industry and iscontemplating two significant procurement actions: 1) A potential procurement of reusablesuborbital spaceflight services, and 2) a solicitation of research investigations thatwill utilize those commercial reusable suborbital spaceflight services. Researchersproposing to fly investigations on these vehicles will need information about thepayload environment, flight profile and potential for human participation. In this Request for Information (RFI), the NASA Ames CRuSR Office is requesting technicaland programmatic input to improve the governments understanding of flight opportunitiesto aid potential science investigators in scoping and designing possible futuresuborbital investigations. Responses to this RFI are welcome from all interested parties, especially potentialproviders of suborbital spaceflight services. Suborbital spaceflight service providersshould consider accommodation of flight experiments that address any of the followingresearch disciplines:AstrophysicsEarth ScienceHeliophysicsPlanetary Science Space Life ScienceMicrogravity ScienceFundamental Space BiologyAtmospheric ScienceMaterials ScienceTechnology Development NASA may also consider funding research in other disciplines in the future.For experiments, it is expected that NASAs on-board payloads may require services suchas power, data handling, telemetry, internal mounting surfaces, external attachments orports, viewing portals, attitude control and pointing, day/night flight opportunities,and flight operations at remote field locations. NASA is aware that all such capabilitiesmay not be available from every provider, but some of these capabilities may be availablefrom each provider. NASA is interested in opportunities for externally-mountedexperiments as well. Early in 2008, NASA issued RFI NNH08DA003L entitled Scientist Participant SuborbitalScience Pilot Program, requesting similar information from the provider community. ThisRFI (NNA10CR001L) includes updated information and provides an additional opportunity forall interested parties to submit information either new information or an update of aprevious submission. NASA will use information received in response to this RFI tosupport future NASA Research Announcements (NRAs) that solicit proposals from the scienceand research communities for experiments that address NASAs science goals. It is NASAs intent to solicit reusable suborbital spaceflight services as early as 2010,which would lead to a pilot program of suborbital flight operations after flightopportunities become available. The Agency welcomes input from industry and otherinterested parties on approaches to procuring these services while allowing for continuedprivate capital investment in this emerging market. Information, such as trade secrets and commercial or financial information, provided tothe government on a privileged or confidential basis that, if released, would result incompetitive harm should be identified and marked as Proprietary. Government civilservant employees are subject to the non-disclosure obligations of a felony criminalstatute, the Trade Secrets Act, 18 USC 1905. NASA will likely provide Proprietaryinformation to its support service contractors who are under an obligation to keepthird-party proprietary information in confidence. By submitting a response to this RFI,the responder is deemed to have consented to release of Proprietary information to suchNASA support service contractors. Responses to the RFI will not be returned.It is anticipated that, following review of the responses to this RFI, NASA may conductfurther market research through two venues: 1) Meetings on-site at ARC with industry andother interested organizations and 2) NASA visits to company sites. Parties respondingto this RFI should indicate their interest in either or both of these venues. Requestsfor meetings on-site at ARC should include a proposed agenda and brief description of theinformation that will be presented. Requests for a site visit by NASA should describethe purpose and what it would accomplish. All requests for meetings should beaccompanied by compelling programmatic and technical information as requested below. Requests for meetings and site visits may be ranked or prioritized based on NASAstechnical and programmatic needs, as well as budget and resource constraints. Requested Information: NASA seeks both programmatic and technical information from the reusable suborbitalspaceflight community to support formulation of participation in the CRuSR Program. NASAunderstands that some of this information may not be readily available at this point intime. However, for scientists to design mission concepts and payloads suitable to thecommercial suborbital environment and flight profile, NASA will benefit by obtaining asmuch information as possible. Ranges and approximations are useful in the absence ofspecific figures and should be clearly noted as such, e.g. 3.2g- 4.6g, based on currentengineering models. The information that NASA seeks includes: Programmatic: Approximate date of suborbital spaceflight service availability Development and flight testing timeline and availability of any test flights forpotential payloads, including likely constraints on such payloads (mass, volume, poweravailability or the lack thereof, etc.) Comments on any and all regulatory, airworthiness, or liability constraints in thedevelopment and operation of this service for use by NASA and NASA-sponsored researchers Approximate cost/price per payload; per seat, if applicable; and per flight Government/private partnering needs and/or opportunities Technical: General flight profile information Launch/landing sites, trajectory description, i.e. altitude profile vs. time includingoptions/constraints for tailoring the flight path, flight environments (e.g.,accelerations, vibrations), microgravity levels/capabilities and exposure time, launchwindows, potential flight rates, day/night launch constraints for flights in the2010-2011 timeframe. Data rate for telemetry during ascent, coast, and descent phases, if available Payload environment information - Mass/volume availabilities/constraints for PI and/or experiments - Power, communications, data storage capabilities/constraints - Internal experiment mounting capabilities/constraints and potential forexternally-mounted experiments, including attach points available, if any, and theirconstraints on access to space (e.g. exposed to space, in vacuum, indoors)- Fields of view, attitude constraints (pointing accuracy and stability)- Vehicle pointing capabilities and precision - Earth/space viewing capabilities/constraints - Potential for window-mounted experiments - Window material characteristics (e.g., spectral transmission properties from the mid-IRthrough the UV)- Expected cabin working environment - Internal pressure, temperature ranges, lighting. - Thermal constraints- Atmospheric composition and changes over time, especially humidity.- Pressure suit (if any) concept and associated constraints - In-flight seating configuration and restraints Operations information - Preferred concept of operations for science flights - Integration of science payloads/investigators/flights with other spaceflightparticipants/commercial flights (as applicable) - Expected timeline for investigator request-for-flight through to completion-of-flight - PI and experiment integration plan - Pre-flight training and testing - Launch opportunities (e.g. dates including earliest available, time of day, repeatcadence, etc.) including constraints on specifying launch windows- Launch sites including constraints on setting flight paths (e.g. overflying specificlocations or phenomena)- Standard timeline and requirements/constraints for testing, accommodation, andoperations (e.g. when to deliver instrument, what are required standards for testingbefore it can be accommodated, safety requirements, etc.)- Opportunities for modifications of any standard services, facilities, operations, etc.- Approximate cost for any of the above that is not included in the base cost of "buyinga ride"- Company Point of Contact to acquire additional information- Information requested by NASA for each vendor/platform- Approximate cost for "buying a ride"- Approximate cost for accommodation- Approximate cost for operations- Any other approximate costs to NASA associated with flying a CRuSR experiment Other information that may be pertinent to NASA and the community of potentialresearchers. Instructions for Responses to the RFI: Questions about this RFI should be emailed to: Rachel.Khattab@nasa.gov. Please sendquestions with "CRuSR RFI - Questions" in the subject heading. Questions and answers willgenerally be posted as an amendment to this notice. Company or individual names will notbe posted. Additional information about this Program is available on the CRuSR website(http://suborbitalex.arc.nasa.gov ). Responses must include the following: name and address of firm, size of business;average annual revenue for past 3 years and number of employees; ownership; whether theyare large, small, small disadvantaged, 8(a), HUBZone, and/or woman-owned; number of yearsin business; affiliate information: parent company, joint venture partners, potentialteaming partners, prime contractor (if potential sub) or subcontractors (if potentialprime); list of customers covering the past five years (highlight relevant workperformed, contract numbers, contract type, dollar value of each procurement; and pointof contact - address and phone number).* Responses to this RFI are requested by January 4, 2010, but updates are also requestedon an on-going basis, as soon as new information is available. Responses should be sentby email to the contracting officer Rachel.Khattab@nasa.gov. Please send responses with"CRuSR RFI" in the subject heading. Documents must be in MS Word or Excel or Adobe (pdf)file format. Hard copies are not required or requested. Please contact the contractingofficer with any questions or concerns about the submittal instructions.PLEASE NOTE: This is a request for information only and does not constitute a commitment,implied or otherwise, that NASA Ames will take procurement action in this matter.Further, neither NASA Ames nor the Government will be responsible for any cost incurredin furnishing this information.No solicitation exists; therefore, please do not request a copy of a solicitation. When asolicitation is released, it will be synopsized in FedBizOpps https://www.fbo.gov/ and onNSPIRES http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/nais/index.cgi (Requests for Proposals). Itis the offeror's responsibility to monitor the Internet site for the release of thesolicitation and amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible fordownloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments, if any.An ombudsman has been appointed -- See NASA Specific Note "B". Information about major upcoming ARC procurement actions is available athttp://ec.msfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eis/admin/admin.cgi?center=ARC Any referenced notes may be viewed at the following URLs linked below.
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