Notice of Partnering Opportunity- 80GRC025R7002-NPO.pdf

Notice of Partnering Opportunity Flow Behavior of Granular Media in the Lunar Environment

80GRC025R7002-NPO

General Information

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate is soliciting proposals for instruments to be deployed on the surface of the Moon during Artemis IV, the second crewed landing of the Artemis campaign.

Payloads selected through this program element will be considered candidate payloads for the Artemis IV payload manifest; the final payload manifest will be determined at a later date.

Artemis IV will be a landed mission in the south polar region of the Moon, within 6º of latitude from the south pole, providing potential access to surface-accessible volatile deposits. Several of the proposed landing regions are located among some of the oldest parts of the Moon, and together with the permanently shadowed regions, provide the opportunity to learn about the history of the Moon through previously unstudied lunar materials.

Deployed instruments consist of autonomous instrument packages installed on the lunar surface by astronauts during extravehicular activities (EVAs). Proposed deployed instruments must address one or more of the following identified scientific objectives from NASA’s Moon to Mars (M2M) Objectives Document. One of the identified objectives for this call is Advance understanding of physical systems and fundamental physics by utilizing the unique environments of the Moon, Mars, and deep space.

Purpose of Notice

NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is issuing this Notice of Partnering Opportunity (NPO) for the purpose of openly and competitively selecting prospective team members to assist it in the preparation of proposals to be submitted by GRC to the Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) – 2024, F.12 Artemis IV Deployed Instruments Program, NNH24ZDA001N-A4DI. This process is being conducted in accordance with NASA FAR Supplement 1872.3. By this Notice, GRC is seeking information from partners regarding their availability, cost, capabilities, and past performance that relates to the science partnerships on potential future missions, technology and instrument developments, and laboratory experiments.

This Notice also authorizes NASA GRC to award grants, cooperative agreements and/or contracts to its selected partner(s) without further competition or justification, for execution of any GRC proposal that is selected in these partnerships.

Overview

This Notice is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a partnership. This Notice is subject to revision or cancellation at any time. Based on the responses to this Notice, GRC anticipates selecting organizations with which GRC would then immediately work directly and individually to develop, complete, and submit proposals in response to the above-mentioned objectives.

https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/m2m-objectives-exec-summary.pdf?emrc=119caf#:%7E:text=Operations%20Goal%3A%20Conduct%20human%20missions,the%20completion%20of%20the%20missions.

https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/m2m-objectives-exec-summary.pdf?emrc=119caf#:%7E:text=Operations%20Goal%3A%20Conduct%20human%20missions,the%20completion%20of%20the%20missions.

During the development of specific proposals, specific roles and cost estimates for the selected partners will be developed. For any GRC proposal that is selected, GRC intends to negotiate, without further competition or justification, a grant, cooperative agreement, or contract with each proposal partner, consistent with their agreed upon roles and this Notice. During these procurement negotiations, the specific statement of work, terms and conditions, and procurement value will be determined. There will be no exchange of funds between GRC and the teaming partners during the preparation of proposals. NASA GRC will not be responsible for any costs incurred by respondents in preparing a response to proposals or by the selected partners in assisting GRC in the preparation of proposals.

SECTION 1—INTRODUCTION

General Information

Presently, fundamental understanding of flow behavior of granular media in deep space environment is lacking. This is an impediment to successful deep space exploration and habitation. This proposal will look forward to addressing that knowledge gap. In this work, we will work towards understanding flow characteristic of granular media. The goals of this work are- (a) Understand granular media flow in lunar gravity condition using lunar simulants and potentially, lunar regolith; (b)Understanding the mechanism for lunar dust to adhere to surfaces (electrostatic charging vs lack of air vs lunar gravity vs a combination of all of this); (c) Develop generalized rheological constitutive equation and/or understand the limitation of present rheological constitutive equations and (d) Inspire science educations.

Participation

Participation in this partnering synopsis is open to all categories of U.S. and non-U.S.

organizations, including educational institutions, industry, not-for-profit institutions, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as NASA Centers and other U.S. Government Agencies.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Other Minority Universities (OMUs), small, disadvantaged businesses (SDBs)(8a), veteran-owned small businesses, service, disabled veteran-owned small businesses, HUBZone small businesses, and women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) are encouraged to apply. Participation by non-U.S. organizations is welcome but subject to NASAs policy of no exchange of funds, in which each government supports its own national participants and associated costs.

SECTION 2—SCOPE

Overview

This Notice is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contract.

This Notice is subject to revision or cancellation at any time.

There will be no exchange of funds between NASA and the selected partner(s) for responses prepared against this Notice of Partnering Opportunity or the F.12 Artemis IV Deployed Instruments Program, NNH24ZDA001N-A4DI proposal development. That is, NASA will not be responsible for any costs incurred by respondents in preparing a response to this Notice or by the selected partner in preparation of the F.12 Artemis IV Deployed Instruments Program, NNH24ZDA001N-A4DI proposal.

Details of the F.12 Artemis IV Deployed Instruments Program, NNH24ZDA001N-A4DI Opportunity

Timeline for A4DI Program Element

Pre-proposal conference, see Section 3.6 Wednesday, December 4, 2024 1:00 PM ET Step-1 Due Date December 17, 2024 Step-2 Due Date February 14, 2025 Candidate Payload Selection ~6 months after Step 2 Deadline Estimated Start Date (No Earlier Than) ~10 months after Step 2 deadline Low-fidelity Mockup Due By Payload PDR Training unit (2) delivery June 2027 Engineering unit delivery September 2027 Target flight instrument delivery (Artemis IV) December 2027 Target launch (Artemis IV) February 2028

SECTION 3—RESPONSES TO NOTICE

Response Content In the response to this partnering opportunity, interested parties shall provide the following information to NASA:

1. Technical proficiency: Respondents shall describe their technical knowledge and proficiency in all or some or one of granular media, simulation, rheology, particle-particle interaction at microscopic scale, flow dynamics, experimental design, fabrication, AI/ML, optimization of computation as outlined in the General Information section.

2. Past Experience: Respondents shall describe their relevant experience with all or some or one of granular media, theoretical background, simulation, rheology, and integration of AI/ML in real life problems.

Evaluation of Response The evaluation team will use the following factors in the selection of partner(s) for this effort.

The government will evaluate the submitted response based on these factors that are listed in order of importance:

1. Technical proficiency: The Government will evaluate the NPO Response to determine the level of technical knowledge and proficiency in all or some or one of granular media, simulation, rheology, particle-particle interaction at microscopic scale, flow dynamics, experimental design, fabrication, AI/ML, optimization of computation as outlined in the

General Information section.

2. Past Experience: The Government will evaluate the NPO Response to determine the relevance of the Respondent’s past experience with experimentation in micro-/partial-gravity. Working with other NASA missions/projects will be considered a plus.

All responses will be treated as proprietary information and controlled as such.

Questions

All questions pertaining to this Notice must be submitted to the Contracting Officer in writing via email at hunter.c.butkovic@nasa.gov. Questions are due by 12:00 pm ET on December 02, 2024. If the government chooses to respond to submitted questions, they will be posted at a later date as an attachment to this notice.

Response Instructions

The response is limited to a two (2) page PDF document. that fully addresses the criteria noted within section 3 in not less than 12-point font, submitted as an electronic PDF document.

Excluded from the page count are the cover letter, title pages, table of contents, resumes, and an acronym list. Responders are free to attach additional appendices that further describe their capabilities. However, only the required two (2) page PDF will be evaluated for selection.

The responses are due to NASA GRC no later than 5:00 pm ET on December 09, 2024. Any responses received after this time and date will be handled as late responses in accordance with FAR 15.208. Responses shall be submitted via email to Hunter Butkovic at hunter.c.butkovic@nasa.gov

NASA GRC anticipates completing its evaluation and selection process by December 16, 2024.

Selected partners will be contacted directly by the GRC project manager or management sponsor to develop the proposal. At that time, GRC may ask for supplemental information to your proposal.

Communication Restrictions

GRC will impose local restrictions on communications regarding this notice and the processing of responses. All communications with potential respondents will be restricted to the procurement points of contact identified in the synopsis of this NPO.

Additional Information Releases

The NAICS Code and Size Standard are 541715 and 1,250 respectively.

The Government does not intend to acquire a commercial item using FAR Part 12.

NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/pub_library/Omb.html

It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor this website for the release of the solicitation and amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments (if any).

Evaluators of responses, which are submitted under this process, may include non-US Government personnel (i.e. the Principal Investigator). Therefore, responders are hereby on notice that responders submitted hereunder may be released outside the Government but shall be released solely for the purpose of evaluation of responses as part of this selection process. All responders acknowledge acceptance of this condition by the submittal of their responses.

http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/pub_library/Omb.html