SOURCES SOUGHT
16 -- Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Flight Frequency Reference System (FRS)
- Notice Date
- 8/20/2024 9:53:20 AM
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 336414
— Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER GREENBELT MD 20771 USA
- ZIP Code
- 20771
- Solicitation Number
- RFI-NASA-GSFC-LISA-FRS
- Response Due
- 9/9/2024 9:00:00 AM
- Archive Date
- 09/24/2024
- Point of Contact
- Christopher W. King, Phone: 4104590123, Terence Doiron, Phone: 3012868898
- E-Mail Address
-
christopher.w.king@nasa.gov, terence.a.doiron@nasa.gov
(christopher.w.king@nasa.gov, terence.a.doiron@nasa.gov)
- Description
- NASA GSFC is seeking capability statements from all interested parties, including all socioeconomic categories of Small Businesses and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI), and members of the underserved communities as defined by Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity And Support For Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government, for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for the LISA Flight Frequency Reference System (FRS) acquisition. The Government reserves the right to consider a Small, 8(a), Women-owned (WOSB), Service Disabled Veteran (SD-VOSB), Economically Disadvantaged Women-owned Small Business (EDWOSB) or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses received. LISA is a European Space Agency (ESA)-led mission consisting of three (3) spacecraft (S/C) that are separated by 2.5 million kilometers in an Earth-trailing orbit. The three (3) S/C will relay laser beams back and forth between the different S/C and the signals will be combined to search for gravitational wave signatures coming from distortions of spacetime. Gravitational waves are created during events such as supermassive black hole mergers, collisions between two black holes that are millions, or even billions, of times bigger than our Sun, and from other distant systems including smaller, stellar mass black holes orbiting supermassive black holes. Gravitational waves are a powerful new probe of the Universe that uses gravity instead of light to take measure of dynamic astrophysical phenomena. Part of NASA GSFC�s contributions to the LISA mission with ESA is to supply the System (LS) for the mission, which consists of the Laser Head (LH) and FRS.� Each S/C will have four (4) LHs, two operating and two as cold spare, and one (1) FRS.�� In nominal operation, the mission will designate one of the six (6) operating LHs to be the main LH while the remaining five (5) LHs will be in transponder mode.� The main LH will be frequency locked to the FRS on the same S/C.� Each of the FRSs shall have a proven redundancy scheme such that any of the 4 LHs on the same S/C can be seamlessly switched and frequency locked with the designated main LH on command.� The FRS can be further separated into the rigid optical cavity subsystem designated as the FRS-Optical or FRS-O and the electronics-controlled subsystem designated as the FRS-Electronics or FRS-E.� The FRS shall be interfaced with the NASA LISA LH design and all Interface Control Document (ICDs) shall be provided by NASA to ensure proper interfacing with the LH and other subsystems.� For the purposes of this market research, FRS shall be referred to as the entire FRS-O and FRS-E system with interconnecting harnesses. This acquisition is for the design, fabrication, alignment, testing, verification, and delivery of: One (1) engineering model (EM) FRS-E (Electronics only including the chassis, power distribution card and control electronics), One (1) qualification model (QM) FRS, Three (3) flight model (FM) FRS, and One (1) flight spare (FS) FRS One (1) Flight Spare (FS) Unassembled Kit that could be used for full FRS assembly at a later date. Post-delivery support for the Laser System (LS) integration and testing at GSFC.�� No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on SAM.gov. Interested firms are responsible for monitoring this website for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. Interested firms that possess the capability to meet the above requirement as described in the attached DRAFT Statement of Work (SOW) are encouraged to submit a capability statement of no more than 20 pages, using no less than 12-point Times New Roman font, indicating the ability to perform all aspects of the effort. In addition to submitting a capability statement, please answer the following questions for informational purposes: 1. What are the biggest programmatic, technical, and/or logistical challenges for your company in producing the various FRS models and quantities for the LISA program as stated in this RFI?� The notional delivery schedule for the FRS is shown in Appendix A in this RFI. 2. What supply chain issues, if any, does your company foresee? 3. Your company is invited to provide informal information and recommendations for fashioning this proposed acquisition. Recommendation areas may include the type of contract, anticipated contract terms & conditions, incentives, variations in delivery schedule, price and/or cost proposal support, and any other areas that your company believes is relevant for the Government to achieve its stated objective.� Your company may opine regarding what portion of the work could be set-aside for small businesses if all the required work cannot be provided by a small business.� Details to support any recommendations for partial small business set-asides should be included. �� 4. What can NASA GSFC specifically do to promote competition for this requirement? 5. Can the company provide a description of heritage spaceborne or airborne hardware similar to LISA in terms of production volume? 6. What facilities and resources are available to support and meet the production volume, environmental testing (TVAC, shock/vibration, etc.) and performance verification of the LISA FRS? 7. NASA GSFC intends to issue the �NPRO as Government property under any resultant contract as Ground Support Equipment (GSE) for verifying the FRS performance. What are some challenges, if any, your company will encounter verifying the FRS requirements and what additional property will your company require for Verification & Validation (V&V) of FRS requirements? All responses shall be submitted electronically via email to Contracting Officer Christopher King at christopher.w.king@nasa.gov, and LISA Study Manager Terence Doiron at terence.a.doiron@nasa.gov no later than 12:00PM Eastern on September 9, 2024. NASA GSFC requests any questions or comments be submitted to the same point of contacts listed above no later than 12:00PM Eastern on August 28, 2024. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. Respondents deemed fully qualified will be considered in any resultant solicitation for the requirement. NASA intends to publicize a listing of respondents in order to facilitate teaming arrangements. Should your firm desire not to be included in this listing, clearly indicate this desire in your response.
- Web Link
-
SAM.gov Permalink
(https://sam.gov/opp/96c1677b0bf34363a07c972726ba6176/view)
- Place of Performance
- Address: USA
- Country: USA
- Country: USA
- Record
- SN07178831-F 20240822/240820230129 (samdaily.us)
- Source
-
SAM.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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