UTAS_JOFOC_Ralston_Update.pdf

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

LYNDON B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

PURSUANT TO 10 U.S.C. 2304(c) (1) and

FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) 6.302

This document is a Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) prepared by the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, Texas.

1. Introduction:

NASA is currently working on an advanced space suit system called the xEMU. The xEMU will provide environmental protection, mobility, life support, and communications for astronauts performing extravehicular activities (EVAs) in space. The Portable Life Support System (PLSS) is a major sub-system of the xEMU, and provides the life support function of the suit. The PLSS is comprised of highly specialized equipment, including the Thermal Control Loop (TCL) water pumps. These pumps are responsible for circulating high purity water through the PLSS system, which provides cooling to both the space suit and the astronaut inside the suit. Over the past decade, several iterations of the TCL pump have been developed to meet evolving PLSS requirements. Each iteration serves to improve upon the previous design, and meet any new or changed PLSS requirements. The TCL water pumps being procured in this contract are the latest iteration of the TCL pump, and draw heavily on the proprietary design of UTAS’s previous pumps.

These pumps will be used for the Suit Water Membrane Evaporator (SWME) Express Rack Flight Experiment (SERFE) and the PLSS. SERFE is an experiment that will be conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS) later this year to help validate the pump design.

2. The nature and/or description of the action being approved:

This justification provides the rationale for contracting by other than full and open competition with United Technologies Aerospace Systems (UTAS) for the continued design, development, and production of TCL water pumps which are an integral and highly specialized part of the PLSS.

3. Description of the supplies or services required, include an estimated value:

This justification provides the rationale for contracting by other than full and open competition to enter into a follow-on contract with UTAS for the development, manufacture, testing, analysis, and delivery of TCL water pumps for use in the PLSS and SERFE projects. The pumps must be compatible with the PLSS and the Suit Water Membrane Evaporator (SWME) Express Rack Flight Experiment (SERFE).

The total estimated cost for this effort is $616,563 and will take an estimated 27 weeks to complete from the time awarded. The majority of the cost of the contract is related to the design and manufacturing of the pumps and housings.

This cost is driven by the complexity of the design and the requirement that it be compatible with the PLSS and SERFE. The pump design a l so includes a housing that offers several benefits including: a reduction in the number of parts required in the design, corrosion resistant materials, and an efficient brushless direct current motor. Other costs in this contract are related to generating paper products (analyses, test reports, drawings, material usage list, etc).

The paper products are required to vet the design and support a NASA Preliminary Design Review (PDR). Other ancillary items, such as motor controllers for running the pumps and electrical harnesses needed to connect the pumps to the motor controllers, will also be included in this purchase.

4. Statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition for this action is 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1) and FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii)(A). FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii)(A) states that for NASA, “supplies may be deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of a follow-on contract for the continued development or production of a major system or highly specialized equipment, including major components thereof, when it is likely that award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition…”

This procurement meets the requirements of FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii)(A) as UTAS began work on these TCL water pumps under contract NNJ16HD07D. This procurement is a direct follow on to that pump design work. In addition, UTAS developed previous generations of pumps on NNJ16HD07D, which heavily influence the design of this pump. This procurement continues this previous work by furthering the design into detailed design, and ends with delivering NASA functional pump prototypes.

These new pumps are highly specialized, and are designed specifically for the PLSS system requirements. These requirements push the pump beyond the capabilities of commercial pumps, and required much more precise performance. One example of this is the specific materials used in the new TCL pump design. These materials must meet strict water quality and corrosion requirements that are not levied on commercial pumps. The performance and environmental requirements contained in the TCL water pump requirements document CTSD-ADV-1111 also require the TCL water pumps to be highly specialized. These requirements are necessary due to the demands of the space flight environment.

Award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of costs to the Government that are not expected to be recovered through competition. This duplicative cost is estimated to be on the order of $800,000, based on similar historical efforts, and would require a time frame not allowed by project needs.

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited:

UTAS has extensive experience making space flight hardware, including the development and support of the current EMU space suit. UTAS has also supported many development programs for advanced space capabilities under various programs and projects over many decades. More specifically, their experience also includes the development of several previous generation TCL water pumps, and design work for the current TCL water pumps for the PLSS project under NNJ16HD07D. The pumps in this procurement are based on the design work of these previous pump iterations, and will provide an opportunity to fix the problems identified with previous generation TCL water pumps.

The latest UTAS TCL water pump design is the subject of this procurement, and has been partially developed over the past year. NASA paid UTAS to begin preliminary design work on these pumps under a separate contract (NNJ16HD07D). Because UTAS has performed the ground work for building these pumps already, they are uniquely qualified to continue their work and deliver the required pump prototypes for the PLSS and SERFE projects. Project funding has not enabled procuring pumps from multiple vendors as this poses a prohibitive cost burden.

6. Description of the efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable:

Synopsis number 80JSC018Q0009 was publicized on the Government wide point of entry (GPE) website http:www.fedbizopps.gov from 11/30/2017 through 12/20/2017.

7. Description of the market research conducted, and the results, or a statement of the reasons why market research was not conducted.

The PLSS and SERFE requirements stem from research and development efforts that have occurred over the past decade. These efforts have helped mature the requirements over the years through many design, testing, and analysis efforts and millions of dollars of investment. The nature of these requirements eliminates the possibility of using a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) pump, and necessitates development of a custom pump solution. NASA performed market research through internet searches and talking to other known vendors in the industry. However, no other pump manufacturing vendor was either interested in performing this work, or could not make the exact style of pump required in the timeframe required. Selection of a different style pump is not an option at this time as it would necessarily require changes to the higher-level system (violating the requirements). This would incur significant cost and time delays, and not meet the requirements of this procurement.

8. Other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition.

The NNJ16HD07D contract wi th UTAS was s t ruc tured to support both the PLSS and SERFE projects in order http://www.fedbizopps.gov/ to realize cost savings for the government, and to better validate the design of the pump. The need date of these pumps is July, 2018. No other vendor is capable of performing the work necessary to deliver an equivalent quality pump by the need date. Selection of another vendor at this point would create a delay in both PLSS and SERFE project schedules that would quickly cost the government more than the total cost of this contract.

9. Sources, if any, that expressed an interest in the acquisition:

No sources responded to Synopsis number 80JSC018Q0009.

10. The actions, if any, the Agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required:

NASA is not aware of any other source that are interested in this work, or are capable of performing this work at the specified cost and time frame. NASA’s technical organization, along with procurement, will continue to research and assess the marketplace for alternative sources. NASA will continue to compare its requirements with the available capabilities to determine industry’s ability to competitively fulfill the requirements.