58 -- TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITIES OF COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE COSPAS-SARSAT LOW EARTH ORBIT (LEO) AND GEOSTATIONARY (GEO) LOCAL USER TERMINALS

Notice Date

October 3, 2000

Contracting Office

U.S. Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/OFA/AGFS/AMD -- OFA51, 1305 East West Highway -- Station 7604, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910

ZIP Code

20910

Solicitation Number

N/A

Point of Contact

Edward F. Tennant, Jr., Contracting Officer, 301-713-0823

Description

This is a Request for Information (RFI). The information received will be used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) /National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) in assessing the technological readiness of commercially available COSPAS-SARSAT Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geostationary (GEO) Local User Terminals (LUTs) for deployment in the operational NESDIS Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking (SARSAT) ground segment in the years 2001 and/or 2002. The Government will not award a contract based on this RFI. The Government will not pay for the information received in response to this RFI; provided, however, that costs properly chargeable under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Section 31.205-18, "Independent Research and Development and Bid and Proposal Costs," may be allocated to Government contracts consistent with the terms of such contracts. In the information exchange, NOAA/NESDIS will sign a non-disclosure statement at the respondent's request. Responses to this RFI should be submitted to the Government in writing to the attention of Ed Tennant at the header address or at fax 301-713-0806. All information submitted in response to this RFI which is received not later than November 3, 2000 will assuredly be considered by NOAA/NESDIS in its deliberation of this subject. Specifically, the Government seeks responses to the following items: 1. PERFORMANCE -- Comment on the general technological readiness of your organization to meet performance requirements, including interference processing, as documented in the current Cospas-Sarsat documents T.002-Cospas-Sarsat LEOLUT Performance Specification and Design Guidelines, T.005-Cospas-Sarsat LEOLUT Commissioning Standard, T.009-Cospas-Sarsat GEOLUT Performance Specification and Design Guidelines, and T.010-Cospas-Sarsat GEOLUT Commissioning Standard. (Note: Cospas-Sarsat documents are electronically available at http://www.cospas-sarsat.org/download/sysdocs.htm) In addition, comment on the technological readiness to support combined LEO/GEO and LEO/LEO processing. Show a general design concept. 2. MONITORING AND REPORTING -- Comment on the general technological readiness of your organization to meet the NOAA/NESDIS operational LUT monitoring and reporting requirements associated with the USMCC as documented in Cospas-Sarsat document A.003 -- Cospas-Sarsat System Monitoring and Reporting. Discuss how your technological approach enables flexibility for monitoring and reporting of "non-routine" events. 3. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT -- Discuss how your organizational and technological capabilities can support research and development of new and/or emerging SARSAT enhancements. This support may also include the activities of the NASA Search and Rescue Mission Office System Evaluation and Demonstration Lab (SEDL). SEDL activities include, but are not limited to on-orbit satellite checkout, Cospas-Sarsat problem investigation, and Cospas-Sarsat system enhancement. 4. SCHEDULE AND COST -- Discuss the schedule and rough order-of-magnitude (ROM) costs associated with replacing the current SARSAT LEOLUT ground segment. Include suggestions for optimizing the operational configuration and location of the current LEOLUT ground segment while maintaining full coverage of the U.S. Search and Rescue Area of Responsibility. Include schedule and ROM cost of implementing two GEOLUTs on the Suitland Federal Center campus. In addition, include ROM costs associated with maintaining LEOLUT and GEOLUT compliance with Cospas-Sarsat technical standards. 5. FINAL COMMENTS -- Does your organization wish to point out any special considerations that NOAA/NESDIS should know regarding the development of enhanced LUT technologies? In addition to responding to the above items, respondents are requested to submit a 5 to 10 page statement of capability identifying relevant experience, familiarity with the enabling technology, experienced personnel, and facilities/equipment.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20001005/58SOL008.HTM (W-277 SN5034F5)