NASA Langley Research Center, Bid Distribution Office, MS 126, Hampton, Virginia 23681-0001

D -- RESEARCH INSTRUMENT AND MEASUREMENT SUPPORT (RIMS) POC NASA Langley Research Center, Industry Assistance Office, Mail Stop 144, Hampton, Virginia 23681-0001. Firms are being sought to furnish the necessary resources to provide Research Instrument and Measurement Support (RIMS) to NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), Hampton, Virginia. An advance notice is published herein to provide information about services that are required. These services consist of three areas with the approximate percentage of effort as follows: daily support services for Instrument Calibration, Repair, and Maintenance, (40 percent), Data Acquisition, Analysis, and Measurement Support Engineering, (45 percent), Automated Data Processing Equipment (ADPE) Maintenance and Repair, (15 percent). Although the current level of effort contract requires 110 work years per year of direct labor at this time, the potential level of support is estimated at 160 work years per year. This procurement action is intended to result in a performance based contract with delivery orders being issued by the government containing performance requirements and delivery schedule specified therein. Equipment andsoftware identified in the request for proposal (RFP) as special test equipment will be provided to the contractor. The majority of this effort will be performed at the contractor's facility, however, regular visits to LaRC facilities and occasional remote site field tests (e.g., Wallops Flight Facility, Dryden Flight Research Center etc.) will be necessary to satisfy full task requirements. Support will be provided primarily for first shift operations, but some second and third shift work is required, therefore, the contractor should be prepared to perform emergency repair and support work on a 24-hour, 7-day week basis. An estimated 20 percent of the staff should have secret clearance for access to restricted areas. INSTRUMENT CALIBRATION, REPAIR, AND MAINTENANCE: The daily work involves pickup, delivery, repair, calibration, and maintenance of instruments, transducers, and sensors, plus the acceptance testing of a range of selected transducers and sensors, maintaining records of instrument history, operating receipt and inspection facilities, and operating a Measurement Assurance Program for LaRC and NASA with measurement traceability to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The current inventory of LaRC equipment includes 83,000+ instruments that are used in a wide range of applications: pressure/flow, force/moment/displacement, electrical, thermal, ADPE, and general purpose test, that represents an initial procurement cost of $350,000,000. DATA ACQUISITION, ANALYSIS, AND MEASUREMENT SUPPORT ENGINEERING: Data Acquisition, Analysis, and Measurement Support Engineering services are required to support measurement applications and research testing in LaRC's experimental and research test facilities and at off-site test locations. These services require the contractor to provide hardware and software engineering support to data systems used for facility research measurement and testing, to support the development and application of measurement science instrumentation, to support the LIDAR program (Laser applications for atmospheric science studies), the aircraft noise research programs (inclusive of associated field tests and human factors studies), and other LaRC research activities, as required, to evaluate measurement requirements and apply instruments and systems to satisfy research measurement objectives, to design, develop, install, implement, modify, upgrade and maintain software and hardware systems for integrated facility data acquisition and control systems, and to develop and install specialized field test equipment. In support of some LaRC test programs, the contractor must operate data acquisition systems, process/reduce raw data to an interpretable format (results), analyze resulting test data, generate test procedures, and provide error analysis. The contractor will be required to support research measurement and data acquisition systems and provide the above-mentioned operations/support services at off-site and on-site locations, as directed by the Government. Data Acquisition, Analysis, and Measurement Support Engineering requires expertise in real-time data acquisition, graphical user display, computation, and control system interfacing. It also requires expertise in analysis and documentation of requirements, system hardware and software design, application of commercial hardware and software systems/ subsystems, prototype unit fabrication and test, software coding and device driver development, systems integration and testing, measurement uncertainty and test techniques, system life cycle maintenance, total systems documentation, user training, quality assurance, systems administration and configuration control, and the operation of facility data systems and field test equipment. ADPE MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR: The ADPE maintenance support involves the hardware maintenance and repair of designated computers, workstations, and board level components associated with data acquisition, field test, and facility control systems at LaRC (except the Central Computer and the Business Systemscomplexes). This support, at a minimum, applies to over 300 personal computers, 500 scientific workstations and file servers, inclusive of 100 proprietary and open architecture MODCOMP computers, and computer systems/components from DEC, SUN, HP, SGI, MOTOROLA, and a variety of VME/VXI and SBus/ISA/EISA computer systems, boards and components. This support also requires ADPE systems receipt and inspection, installation, configuration control, maintenance to current revision level, maintenance of diagnostics, systems integration, testing, and documentation. Although the total quantity of equipment requiring ADPE maintenance support service is currently estimated to be 930 systems (5,000 units, including peripherals), maintenance support service will also be required on most new data acquisition related ADPE added at Langley during the period of performance of this contract. An estimated 10 percent of the aforementioned equipment inventory will require priority services. For these priority systems, the hardware revision, operating system, diagnostics, and documentation must be maintained at latest revision levels. Priority service also requires that downtime not exceed 4 hours on a designated subset of this equipment, with downtime not exceeding 24 hours on the remainder. A representative list of equipment requiring priority service will be provided as part of the Request For Proposal (RFP). Firms having the specialized capabilities to meet the above requirements are invited to respond to this sources sought synopsis. Responses shall be limited to a maximum of 3 pages, and should be submitted to NASA Langley Research Center, Industry Assistance Office, Attn.: Linda P. Fitzgerald, Mail Stop 144, Hampton, VA 23681-0001, or by e-mail to l.p.fitzgerald@larc.nasa.gov. Responses must include the following: (a) name and address of firm, (b) size of business: average annual revenue for past 3 years and number of employees, (c) Ownership: Large, Small, Small Disadvantaged, 8(a), and/or Woman-Owned, (d) number of years in business, (e) two points of contact: name, title, phone, fax, and e-mail, (f) DUNS Number (if available), (g) affiliate information: parent company, joint venture partners, potential teaming partners, prime contractor (if potential sub) or subcontractors (if potential prime), (h) a list of customers covering the past five years: highlight relevant work including a summary of work performed, contract number, contract type, dollar value for each customer reference, and customer point of contact with phone number. Further, it is requested that a list of equipment currently owned or leased by your firm and available to perform the work listed above be provided. Technical questions should be directed to Robert Hedgepeth at (757) 864-8265. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to procure the described services. The Government will not pay for any of the information solicited herein. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. Respondents deemed fully qualified will be considered in any resulting solicitation for this requirement. It is anticipated that a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) will be issued to industry for comment in the first quarter of calendar year 1997. The SIC Code for this procurement is 8734, with a small business size standard of $5 million. The Government reserves the right to consider a small business set-aside or an 8(a) set-aside for this procurement. The Government does not consider this requirement to be for commercial or commercial-type services. If you have a differing opinion, please so advise. Closing date for responses is 14 days from the date of publication of this synopsis. In responding, reference RIMS-SS. (0006)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0027 19970109\D-0006.SOL)