SDI - PDF.pdf

MARKET SURVEY FOR SPACE DATA INTEGRATOR

MARKET SURVEY FOR COMMERCIAL SPACE INTEGRATION INTO THE

NAS: SPACE DATA INTEGRATOR (SDI) ANNOUNCEMENT

This Market Survey announcement is issued in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Acquisition Management System (AMS) Policy at 3.2.1.2.1.

This is a Market Survey. This is not a Screening Information Request (SIR) or Request for Offers (RFO) of any kind. The responses to this Market Survey will be used for informational purposes only. The FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals.

The FAA will not pay for any information received or costs incurred in preparing a response to this Market Survey. Any cost associated with a Market Survey submission is solely at the source’s expense.

At this time, the nature of acquisition strategy has not been determined. Responses to this Market Survey may influence the specific strategy eventually chosen.

All interested sources [eg. Government agencies, academia, research, industry, etc] possessing expert technical knowledge are invited to provide comments regarding the contents of this Market Survey. Comments regarding an SDI structure or strategy considerations are also welcome.

I. PURPOSE

The FAA is embarking on a new program--Commercial Space Integration into the National Airspace System (NAS): Space Data Integrator (SDI). The purpose of this Market Survey is to solicit input from knowledgeable/expert sources regarding existing and emerging technology that could be leveraged to efficiently receive and distribute launch and reentry data concurrently with air traffic data to provide maximum NAS efficiency. Interested sources are also encouraged to provide information for the FAA to consider while determining requirements for an SDI program acquisition strategy and possible methods for procurement.

The FAA requests responses to Section V of this Announcement.

II. INTRODUCTION

The Commercial Space Integration into the NAS: SDI program will receive and distribute launch and reentry data in a manner that will allow it to be considered concurrently with air traffic and other NAS data to ensure public safety and maximize system efficiency. In doing so, the SDI program will allow the FAA to reduce the amount of airspace that requires closing in advance of a launch or reentry operation, effectively respond to contingencies in a timelier manner during a launch or reentry operation, and quickly release airspace back to the system as the operation progresses. This capability will allow the FAA to keep pace with the increasing frequency and complexity of commercial launch and reentry operations.

III. BACKGROUND

Recent activities across the commercial space transportation industry indicate that significant growth in commercial space transportation is underway, including commercial operators providing launch and reentry services to the government, space tourism, and suborbital operations. At the same time, prospective commercial launch site operators continue to approach the FAA seeking launch site operator licenses. In each case, the state and local governments, as well as launch and reentry vehicle operators are making significant financial investments to advance the development of launch sites.

During current operations, the FAA’s Joint Space Operations Group uses information exchanged via telephone calls, emails, and in some cases external web pages to obtain real-time data on vehicle state, operation status, and the location and extent of potential hazard areas. For each launch and reentry operation, the FAA designates one or more volumes of airspace, known as aircraft hazard areas (AHAs) that extend from the surface to an unlimited altitude. These volumes are located and sized to protect other NAS users from potential hazards associated with the launch or reentry, and the FAA prevents other users from entering these volumes when they are active. Prior to an operation, the FAA notifies other NAS users of these volumes by issuing Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) and other advisories that identify them by coordinates, altitudes, and times. The FAA works to maintain a level of situational awareness throughout the NAS during an operation to allow it to remain informed of mission status, verify actual mission performance against pre-defined mission plans and profiles, and respond as necessary to any contingencies.

Depending upon the nature of a contingency, the FAA may need to use data from the vehicle operator to generate additional AHAs and distribute the associated coordinate, altitude, and timing information. The FAA uses this information to generate a Flow Evaluation Area (FEA) and display it on the Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS) Traffic Situation Display (TSD), allowing Traffic Flow Managers and air traffic controllers to reroute aircraft away from the area.

The FAA desires a scalable system that will quickly integrate launch and reentry vehicle data and other NAS data into FAA systems and processes to keep pace with increasing operations tempo and complexity as the commercial space transportation industry expands.

IV. DESCRIPTION OF FUTURE COMMERCIAL SPACE OPERATIONS AND

PROCESS

The SDI program focuses specifically on a new fully automated data integration capability to obtain real-time data on vehicle state, operation status, and the location and extent of potential hazard areas, as well as provide visibility into progress and status of a mission relative to current NAS conditions.

SDI will provide the FAA with these functions:

• Automated situational awareness of a mission.

• Monitoring of mission as it transitions through the NAS.

• Alert and response to contingencies related to the mission.

This program will provide a data integration capability to support the safe and efficient integration of launch and reentry operations into the NAS. At a minimum, the capability will automate the:

• Receipt and display of mission planning data in advance of an operation;

• Acquisition of launch and reentry vehicle operator data from various existing sources external to the FAA during an operation;

• Selection or generation of a best source from among available sources for mission monitoring and verification of data conformance to planned trajectories;

• Integration of the best source data with data and systems describing current NAS conditions;

• Exchange of best source data with an FAA aircraft hazard area generator to enable timely computation of AHAs in the event of a contingency and distribute to other air traffic systems.

Given the growth and complexity of these missions, the capability will need to handle multiple concurrent missions. The FAA is looking for a scalable, easy to maintain solution that acquires, processes, displays, and disseminates both real-time and planning data.

The data to be acquired, integrated and distributed includes, but is not limited to:

1. Launch and reentry vehicle and mission data sources, such as:

o Mission planning data systems o Vehicle telemetry o Radar and other ground based or space based remote surveillance systems

2. Data from and to internal FAA sources, such as:

o NAS Enterprise Management System (NEMS) o Weather systems o AHA generator o Air Traffic Management Systems

3. Types of data such as:

o Vehicle characteristics, including specifications, debris catalogs, and failure data o Planned and conformance to vehicle trajectories and associated planned mission event timelines o Near real-time vehicle state vectors (time, position, velocity) o Coordinates describing the location and extent of specific volumes of airspace (i.e. AHAs) o Indicators of vehicle state and operation status, including confirmation of the occurrence of significant events such as engine ignitions and shutdowns, maneuvers, and changes in vehicle configuration, including deployments or jettisons of hardware o Indicators of data timing, quality and status o Weather data o Surveillance data of other NAS users from radar and other surveillance systems o Aircraft hazard area o Aeronautical information

V. INQUIRIES and QUESTIONS

The FAA requests responses to the following:

1. Identify and describe current and/or planned services and/or technologies that can be leveraged for integrating launch and reentry data with NAS data and systems for ensuring public safety and maximizing NAS efficiency.

a) Identify how these services and/or technologies might be leveraged.

b) Identify the technology readiness level of leveraged technologies; i.e., is the candidate product in production and being maintained, or is it currently being developed, and if so, identify the current development life cycle phase.

c) If leveraging existing technology, please specify whether it can support multiple concurrent operations.

d) If leveraging existing technology, please specify how many data sources can be accommodated.

e) Identify any potential issues that might arise as a result of leveraging current or planned technologies.

f) Identify technical advantages and disadvantages of leveraging current or planned technologies.

g) Identify any technical and or programmatic assumptions and constraints.

h) Specify when the identified services and/or technologies could be leveraged and provide a high-level estimated timeline that provides a system initial operating capability by leveraging current or planned technologies.

i) Identify if and how these services and/or technologies would be available for FAA use and software availability for integration into existing NAS system.

j) Due to the dynamic nature and narrow public safety limits of these operations, the FAA has identified a required data ingest rate of no less than 1 Hertz during an operation to minimize the time required to identify a potential off-nominal condition. At the same time, the FAA is looking to minimize the lag time associated with the transmission and receipt of data to be displayed during an operation in order to maximize its time to respond. Would the technology or service being proposed accommodate the 1 Hertz ingest rate and minimize the lag time associated with the transmission and receipt of data?

2. What data sources can your current and/or planned services and/or technologies operate on and what other sources are available to monitor real-time launch and reentry vehicles?

3. Have you integrated real-time launch and reentry data into an existing system?

Also,

4. What information can the FAA further provide to help better understand the requirements?

5. Suggest recommendations for topics that have not been addressed in the questions.

While the primary objective for the FAA is gathering technical data, we request limited additional data from respondents.

1. Entity Name and Address

2. Type of Entity [Check Y for all that apply]

a. U.S. Government Agency

b. Research Center

c. University or College

d. Business = if yes

i. Large

ii. Small

e. Other [Explain] ______________________

3. Name, Phone Number, and email address for responder or point of contact

Interested sources must provide responses as an electronic submission in either Microsoft Word or Portable Document Format (PDF). Only one response per entity will be permitted. There is a 25-page limit. Pages must be single sided with Times New Roman 12 Font. Responses to questions in Section V must be answered in the same order.

Submission must include source’s Point(s) of Contact, telephone number(s), E-mail and mailing address. Responses will not be returned. Any proprietary or confidential information contained in the Industry survey submissions should be appropriately marked.

The FAA may contact those responding to this request in order to obtain additional information.

Responses are to be received no later than March 30, 2018 by 5:00 pm and should be emailed to both sascha.byrd@faa.gov and linda.shariati@faa.gov. Please provide the following in the email “Subject” line: Space Data Integrator Submission.

mailto:sascha.byrd@faa.gov mailto:linda.shariati@faa.gov