Microgravity Flight Services QA.pdf

Microgravity Flight Services Questions and Answers

1. Q: Re NASA and/or NASA-related industry and research entities interested to organize microgravity flight campaigns in Mauritius to benefit from its particular location in the middle of the Indian Ocean?

A: No. This effort will be restricted to operations by US entities within the Continental United States.

2. Q: Is there any interest to become users or tenants of low-gravity underwater and ground-based laboratories and facilities for microgravity R&D and outreach activities addressing potential markets in Africa, Indian Ocean and South-East Asia?

A: No. This effort will be restricted to operations by US entities within the Continental United States. Also, the effort will be restricted to atmospheric flight (aircraft).

3. Q: What is the cyclic period between Micro Gravity and Hyper Gravity for the flight profile ?

A: See the Representative Parabola in the briefing charts. It depends on the type of aircraft performing the parabola.

4. Q: Can a plot of the acceleration be provided?

A: It varies depending on the particular aircraft performing the maneuvers. See the Representative Parabola in the presentation.

5. Q: How many flight hours per year are expected (i.e., on average how long is each flight operation)?

A: Our typical operation has been 2 flight-week campaigns per year, with 4 flights per week of between 2.5 and 4 hours each, with up to 10 experiments per flight. This could vary depending upon the quantity and nature of experiments to be flown.

6. Q: How will this contract be structured? Is it a base year plus options year contract?

A: That is to be determined, but it is likely a firm-fixed price (FFP), indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract with time and materials for additional services (i.e.

payload integration beyond the standard services). The period will likely be 5 years with no option periods.

7. Q: Can you share more about how and when the aircraft would be scheduled for service? The aircraft doesn’t appear to be exclusive use meaning it could be used for other missions, correct?

A: The availability of aircraft will depend upon the provider’s schedule with experiment availability factored in. It is non-exclusive use and could be used for other missions.

8. Q: Would NASA consider contracting a front-end integrator to operate much as the Reduced Gravity office had functioned?

A: Possibly, if it can be done economically. However, this may not be practical within the restrictions of an IDIQ, multiple-award type contract, where work must be competed within the entities on contract.

9. Q: Current NASA policy will not allow for our subcontractor, which operates an exceptional microgravity aircraft but under a special use (not a commercial) permit. Would NASA consider changing this policy for research-only flights?

A: Yes, provided the operation takes place within the continental US and the aircraft is FAA certificated and the pilots are FAA licensed. Non-human-tended experiments may possibly be flown on special-use aircraft, depending upon NASA Safety and Mission Asssurance policies.

10. Q: What licenses (i.e. FAA) would be required? Can we operate with a non-for-profit license?

A: To fly human-tended experiments, all flight crew must be FAA licensed, and the aircraft must be FAA certificated. An offeror may represent a non-profit organization.

11. Q: What are the flight capabilities required (# of persons per flight, total volume/mass/power allocation per flight, micro-g quality and duration)?

A: Those are outlined in the requirements under “flight profiles”. We would also like to know what capabilities a respondent can offer, which should be outlined in the capabilities statement in response to this RFI.

12. Q: Are there specific locations from where flights must take place?

A: No, as long as the flights originate and terminate within the continental US.

13. Q: Will flight customers be limited to NASA people and payloads? Or does NASA foresee flying non-civil servants/payloads through this contract, for example grant awardees?

A: Experiments may come from the Government, industry, and academia. Human flight participants may come from any of those sectors, depending upon current NASA policies.

14. Q: Are international flight providers eligible if working through an American contracting agency?

A: Yes, provided the flight crews are FAA licensed, the aircraft is FAA certificated, and flight operations take place within the continental US.

15. Q: Is there a specific location required for the flights or can they occur in a provider designated location (presumably on US soil)?

A: There is no specific location required for flight activities, provided the flights take place within the continental US.

16. Q: What industries are looking to use microgravity and why?

A: The number of industries that find microgravity useful for development of technologies grows daily. Both in support of space missions and manufacturing activity research, the microgravity environnment holds both opportunities and limitations. As a few examples, telecommunications satellites look for better array deployment, satellites need to improve fuel management, and pharmaceuticals find microgravity advantageous to manufacture.

The industrial users are only limited to the imagination.

17. Q: If a 100km flight was 1/10th the current price and lead time, how would this open up new future use cases/applications? What are the current options for accessing the mesosphere and what type of demand would there be for regular and reliable flights to altitudes between 50 and 80km?

A: This RFI is for an atmospheric flight service, so these questions are not relevant to this requirement.

18. Q: What is the scientific value of flying frequently and on demand? In other words, how much added value is there is being able to repeat the experiment dozens of times in a short timeframe?

A: It depends on the nature of the experiment. Some experiments can be one-shot types, where only one parabola is required to achieve the goals, while others may require multiple parabolas. A great majority of investigations are human tended, which gives the possibility of fine tuning payloads realtime. In some cases, the payload requires more time than one parabola offers, so stageing of the investigation is spread over several parabolas.

19. Q: What percentage of (typical) payloads are sized at 3U or smaller?

A: A great majority of payloads are human tended and take advantage of the physical space to provide both hands on and real-time observation/adjustments to/of investigations. The compacting of payloads and automation is normally accomplished after parabolic flights are accomplished.

20. Q: Could the acronym “CONUS” refer to over water operations?

A: It could refer to over water operations provided the flights take place within the US national airspace (NAS) controlled by FAA.

21. Q: Can NASA provide resources like pressure suits from its inventory for high-altitude flights?

A: The flight provider is responsible for all aspects of the flight operation; thus, any resources will be the responsibility of the flight provider.

22. Q: From 2014; NASA has recently awarded indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, five-year contracts to four entities to provide suborbital reusable launch and payload integration services for access to space for small technology payloads. Did this happen?

A: Yes, there are currently contracts in place for suborbital resuable launch and payload integration services.

23. Q: Clarify “Operator needs to be a US domestic entity that provides the service”.

A: The term “US domestic entity” means created or organized in the United States or under the law of the United States or of any State. We require any respondent to be based within the US and registered as a domestic corporation, company, or individual. It is permissible for that entity to use foreign equipment and/or aircrew if aircraft is registered and certificated in the US by the FAA, and that the aircrew is FAA licensed. Reference CFR § 301.7701-5 for a more complete definition of US domestic entity.