Final RFP Questions and Answers.pdf

Received Vendor Comment Government Reply Does NASA require a specific budget format or template to be used? Section L Instructions to Offerors contains all information related to the Price

Volume.

Can the Government confirm whether a Basis of Estimate (BOE) or a standard budget justification is required?

The RFP does not identify that a BOE is required

CDRL-6 and CDRL-7 appear to be the same. Is CDRL-6 referring to Section 4 of the SPEC instead of Section 6? If that is not correct, can the Government please provide clarification on the precise difference between CDRL-6 and CDRL-7?

Yes, there is a typo in SOW para 2.2.2, CDRL-6 is referring to Section 4 of the SPEC" An updated copy of the statement of work will be provided to correct this typo.

Is there an assumption that since the algorithms for processing the “raw” science data into “measurement” science data is well-known, the processing may be done on-board (therefore, making the down-linked data less voluminous)?

This is to be determined by the offeror and should be identified in their approach

Does the requirement to measure +/- 6.5km/s doppler velocities include the spacecraft to Sun velocity and solar rotation?

Yes

The data latency requirement has changed to 15 minutes. Does this indicate that all processing of the data to L2 products should be done on board?

This is to be determined by the offeror and should be identified in their approach

Can the Government clarify if the magnetic requirements on pages 5 and 6 apply to the LOS component of the magnetic field only? Are there requirements for Btransverse?

SPEC paras. 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 are performance requirements for the baseline LOS magnetograph capability. SPEC Para. 4.1.3 provides target requirements for the Vector Field Measurement study described in SOW para. 2.1.6.

Can the Government confirm whether the proposal due date is October 12th vs October 13th?

The proposal due date is October 12, 2025

Can the Government confirm whether the PHOMI proposal team should be firewalled from the SWFO L-1 or SOLAR teams?

Vendors do not need to firewall PHOMI teams from SWFO or SOLAR teams.

Does a proposal need to be submitted by an AOR for the University of Michigan, or can the project team submit in NASA’s EFSS Box?

Offerors shall be submitted in accordance with the instructions outlined in the Request For Proposal (RFP)

Is proposing a "Technology Development and Risk Mitigation Effort" mandatory (per RFP Clauses, Section L.11, paragraph A.5) or optional (per SOW, section 2.3)

Yes, submitting a "Technology Development and Risk Mitigation Effort" is a mandatory submittal requirement for the proposal.

Can the Government clarify content requirements for Attachment G, "Technology Development and Risk Mitigation Efforts," referenced in RFP Clauses pages 14 and 29, so that it may be included as part of the Phase A proposal as required by Section L.11 paragraph A.5 on page 49?

An amendment will be issued to correct this.

Should the reference to the GeoXO Sounder RFP on Page 14 have been a reference to PHOMI Phase A RFP? An amendment will be issued to correct this clause.

If a Technology Development and Risk Mitigation Effort is proposed, may it be funded in excess of the $1.5M cost cap (as implied in SOW 1.3 reference to "funded (…) efforts") or should it be considered unfunded under the $1.5M cost cap?

Amendment #1 was issued to adresses this question

If a Technology Development and Risk Mitigation Effort is not proposed, how can the last milestone in the Payment Schedule of page 4 be met?

Amendment #1 was issued to adresses this question

SOW CDRL shows Sensor Design CDRL5 due at MTR, which drives much of the supporting analysis work into the first half of the study. To enable smoother phasing of the work, could NASA change CDRL5 to Prelim at MTR and Final at

FSR?

A revised statement of work (SOW) will be provided to change this requirement.

This RFP is a solicitation for a “Line of Sight Magnetograph” (App. A, Introduction, Section 1, Page 1). However, Section 4.1.3 “Requirements for Vector Magnetograph Imager” lists PHOMISPEC-2483 and PHOMISPEC-2485 which state “PHOMI shall produce vector magnetograph imagery…” which is NOT required for a Line of Sight Magnetograph. Can the Government clarify this?

SPEC paras. 4.1.1 and 4.1.2 are performance requirements for the baseline Line of Sight (LOS) magnetograph capability. Para. 4.1.3 provides target requirements for the Vector Field Measurement study described in SOW para. 2.1.6. The goal of the study in SOW 2.1.6 is to understand the flexibility of the vendor’s design to either add the vector measurement, or remove it, depending on the vendor’s baseline. In addition, the government seeks to understand the technical (mass, power, volume, data rate, etc.), cost, and schedule impacts of implementing that change.

PHOMISPEC-233 (Section 5.4) states that “the spacecraft will maintain pointing stability of the Magnetograph reference frame to the SRF to less than 1.5 arcmin 1-sigma (TBR) over any contiguous 60-second period of Operational Sun-pointing Time”. Is this a typo, given that the boresight accuracy is 1.5 arcmin (3 sigma)?

This is not a typo. Need to conduct this instrument study to understand sensitivity before a definitive answer can be provided because the S/C performance has not been defined yet.

80GSFC25R0001

Final Request For Proposal

Government Response to Questions

What is the spacecraft pointing stability over 10 sec? Need to conduct this instrument study to understand sensitivity before a definitive answer can be provided because the S/C performance has not been defined yet.

For the Vector Magnetograph Enhancement Study, PHOMISPEC-2485 states that “The PHOMI shall produce vector magnetogram imagery with a polarization accuracy of ≥ 0.3%.” Should this be </= 0.3% since the smaller the uncertainty the better?

Yes this is a typo, it should be <= 0.3 percent.

For the Vector Magnetograph Enhancement Study, vector magnetic field polarimetric sensitivity translates to different measurement sensitivity for transverse and longitudinal field strengths in terms of Gauss (and is also spectral line dependent). Can the Government specify the requirement for the transverse and longitudinal field sensitivities in terms of Gauss per pixel?

PHOMISPEC-33 can be interpreted to apply to both transverse/vector and longitudinal/LOS magnetograms at this time. It reads “The PHOMI shall produce photospheric magnetograph imagery with an image sensitivity of 10 G/pxl

(TBR).”

SOW section 2.4.3 (CDRL 21) states that “the contractor shall provide a parametric cost estimate for the development and production of two flight model Sensors and any engineering model(s) recommended in the Model Philosophy & Plan (see section 2.1.b).” Is this a typo, given that the Guiding Assumptions about the Eventual Flight Project (section 1.2.b) were changed from the draft RFP to read, “One (1) Flight Unit, plus parts…” and there is no section 2.1.b?

This is aTypo in the SOW, An amendment will issued to provide an updated statement of work to correct this.

Page 14 of 59 of the Clauses pdf document ( Contractor Proposed Technology Development and Risk Mitigation Efforts is in error. Delete the sentence "These efforts were proposed by the Contractor in the proposal submitted in response to the Request for Proposal (RFP) 80GSFC21R0027 for Geostationary and Extended Orbits (GEO-XO) Sounder Phase A Study."

An amendment to the Request For Proposal (RFP) will be issued to correct this.

Page 28 of 59 of the Clauses pdf document (52.217-9 | Option to Extend the Term of the Contract. (MAR 2000)) is in error. See Amendment 1 to the RFP to correct this.

Do you know when you will be providing the submission link? I noted in the RFP instructions that it is “To Be Determined” and we wanted to be sure we had the correct information once we are ready for submission.

The first sentence is a typo. There is another sentence after that which states that offerors should follow instructions found at the link identified in the RFP. An Amendment will be issued to update this.

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