Under this contract, the contractor will provide the personnel, materials, equipment, and facilities necessary to produce the polarimeter to unify the corona heliosphere (punch) phase a concept study.…

NASA Goddard Space Center awarded a $144.352 million cost-plus-fixed-fee definitive contract to Southwest Research Institute for the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona Heliosphere (PUNCH) Phase A concept study on November 22, 2017, with completion targeted for December 2, 2027.

The contract encompasses principal investigator program office services, instrument system engineering including mission assurance, design of a flight-qualified PUNCH instrument meeting mission and science requirements, development of integration and test plans for the instrument flight system, field operations planning, launch and flight operations planning, and science investigation leadership with resulting data product generation. The contractor shall develop PUNCH instrument systems requirements and mission systems requirements documents, conduct detailed block diagrams and technical descriptions of all instrument systems, perform instrument-level reviews of proposed designs, conduct trade studies and analyses to ensure requirement compliance, lead the science team, develop instrument-level test plans, and prepare detailed instrument development schedules with defined critical path and schedule reserves.

Place of performance is San Antonio, Texas. The contract is structured as cost-plus-fixed-fee pricing with no set-aside category. Southwest Research Institute, a nonprofit research and development organization headquartered in San Antonio, serves as the prime contractor. Subcontractors on the effort include Spacenav LLC, Planetary Science Institute, SSC Space US Inc., Blue Canyon Technologies LLC, The Regents of the University of Colorado, UK Research & Innovation, Parabilis Space Technologies Inc., Presidio Components Inc., Vantage Systems Inc., and The Trustees of Princeton University, among others providing specialized expertise across spacecraft design, science analysis, propulsion systems, capacitor components, and advanced instrumentation support.

Under this contract, the contractor will provide the personnel, materials, equipment, and facilities necessary to produce the polarimeter to unify the corona heliosphere (punch) phase a concept study. The scope of this effort includes, but is not limited to: 1. Principal investigator program office 2. Instrument system engineering, including instrument mission assurance 3. Design of a flight qualified punch instrument meeting mission and science requirements 4. Develop plans in support of integration and test of the punch instrument flight system 5. Develop plans in support of essential field operations 6. Develop plans in support of launch operations and flight operations 7. Develop plans for lead the punch science investigation as well as the generation of resulting data products the contractor shall provide a briefing on the punch science and science implementation plan at the phase a site visit. The contractor shall provide an organization chart defining contractor roles and responsibilities, reporting procedures, and all lines of authority. The contractor shall participate in defining the relationships between the contractor's program office and the NASA explorers program office. The contractor shall develop a punch instrument systems requirements document and a punch mission systems requirements document. The contractor will also develop detailed block diagrams and technical descriptions of all instrument systems. The contractor will conduct in-depth instrument-level reviews of the proposed instrument design. They will conduct essential trade studies, analyses, modeling and simulations to assure compliance with instrument requirements. The contractor will lead the science team and develop an instrument-level test plan and participate in planning for integration and test. The contractor shall prepare a detailed instrument development schedule covering all mission phases, listing major milestones, including a defined critical path and schedule reserves. The contractor will prepare updated instrument budgets as well as review and approve the overall punch budget. Finally, the contractor shall prepare and submit the concept study report.