xEVAS_Industry Day_QA.pdf

Exploration Extravehicular Activity System (xEVAS) Official Responses to Questions Received at

May 13, 2021 Industry Day

05/28/2021

1. Q: Are companies required to bid on all Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs)? Specifically, are companies required to bid on the ISS CLN or can they bid an Artemis only suit?

A: Yes. At this time, NASA is anticipating that initial contract awards will be made for the full contract schedule, inclusive of all CLINs. NASA is considering a multiple award, Indefinite- Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) approach that would then allow NASA to select the best value for EVA services based on the technical demonstration of capabilities in the requisite environments, price considerations, and potentially other factors.

2. Q: Can NASA confirm the statement made at the Industry Day that proposers will be required to bid on all CLINs? What is the rationale for this requirement and does NASA believe this constraint will spur commercial engagement?

A: See NASA response to Question 1. NASA does not expect this to inhibit commercial engagement.

3. Q: Does NASA anticipate selecting multiple commercial providers within each CLIN?

Specifically CLIN 1, 2, and 3 under the alternative approach. This likely leads to an increase in cost for each Extravehicular Activity (EVA) given the additional investment required across multiple providers and CLINs.

A: See NASA response to Question 1.

4. Q. Clarify the difference between CLIN 5 Task Orders and the "recurring services" in CLINs 1-

3. Chart 27 states, "ISS and Artemis service task orders will be subsequently awarded based on the EVA system capabilities demonstrated." How is this different than the recurring services?

A: The Chart 27 statement referred to the services being provided under the (tentative) CLINs 1-3. CLIN 5 was forecasted for Government contract administrative purposes only, if it is included there will be no proposal or price needed by Offerors. At this time the Government anticipates being able to delete this CLIN due to current Government administrative system updates.

5. Q: Can NASA provide more detail on the mechanics of the Government Task Agreements (GTAs)? Is NASA saying that industry should develop draft GTAs with centers subject to an award and prior to a final Request for Proposal (RFP)? We assume the draft RFP will have GTA instructions.

A: Offerors may, at any time, work with the respective Center Partnership Office in order to obtain estimates, letters of intent, and start the process for Government umbrella agreements for individual Offerors as needed. The respective Center Partnership Office will have intake forms for Offerors. The draft RFP will list all Center POC’s, however for anticipated JSC partnerships, please contact Ron Diftler at myron.a.diftler@nasa.gov

JSC partnerships will not be employing the GTA, but instead will use an intake form that will provide sufficient information for JSC to provide estimates, letters of intent, and start the process to produce Reimbursable Space Act Agreements (RSAAs) as needed.

6. Q: Will industry contribution be used in the evaluation criteria for the RFP?

A: Yes, Industry Contribution may be evaluated through submittal of a Commercialization Plan that demonstrates the value of the corporate contribution, as part of the Mission Suitability evaluation factor. The resulting reduction in cost will be evaluated as a part of the Price evaluation factor.

7. Q: Is a guaranteed minimum # of task orders (i.e. minimum contract value) anticipated?

A: The contract will include a contract minimum value. NASA is still contemplating the best approach to establishing a minimum guarantee under the xEVAS contract(s). The draft solicitation, currently scheduled for release in June, will provide potential offerors an opportunity to comment on NASA’s intentions with respect to the minimum guarantee.

8. Q: What is NASA's expected funding profile for xEVAS? Will the program be divided into phases?

A: NASA doesn’t currently anticipate dividing the xEVAS in phases. NASA does not intend to provide a funding profile to Offerors.

9. Q: Is the intent of xEVAS to be A Small Business Set-Aside, Firm-Fixed Price (FFP), Multiple- Award IDIQ?

A: NASA is anticipating the award of one or more IDIQ contracts under an xEVAS solicitation and that task orders awarded under those IDIQ contracts would be issued as FFP. Current market research does not indicate that the xEVAS solicitation will be set-aside for small businesses, but this has not been determined at this time.

10. Q: Will the Industry Day participant list be made available, to facilitate teaming opportunities?

A: The Special Notice (80JSC21XEVAS) that was posted to the Government point of entry (beta.sam.gov) includes the option for companies to register as an interested party to the xEVAS procurement. An interested parties list is posted as an attachment with this response.

11. Q: How do you plan to facilitate industry partnering prior to RFP, esp for small businesses who may be able to serve small pieces of the effort with the primes but not equipped to be primes?

A: See NASA response to Question 10.

12. Q: Can you discuss more about the INSIGHT vs. OVERSIGHT role, and what that means for certifications, review boards, technical support, coordination with other commercial service providers such as launch and vehicle, etc? Will these contract management details be in the draft RFP?

A: NASA is planning fewer data deliverables and milestones under the commercial approach to procuring xEVAS, but emphasizing a collaborative approach. In order for NASA to certify the services under this contract, NASA will require strong insight into Offeror developed data and systems in order to assure requirements are being met, but will minimize the format of Offeror data and systems, nor will the Government be the approving officials for documents and decisions that they would typically perform under contracts for Government-owned hardware. Government oversight will reside only on items where NASA retains approval, such as specific data deliverables and contract milestones.

13. Q: Can NASA provide additional detail on the commercial opportunities they have identified that could be a potential future customers? Much of the commercial services model requires this market to materialize and right now there is significant uncertainty around this possibility?

A: NASA has awarded one Broad Agency Announcement for a commercial segment attached to the International Space Station (ISS) with the intent that it will, at some point, separate and become a commercial space station. A second announcement is currently in the procurement phase for Commercial Low-Earth-Orbit Destinations (CLD) that would create another, free-flyer station. Other commercial companies have announced their own plans to build lunar outposts or create permanent space stations. There is also an emerging space tourism market that will continue to develop and evolve. NASA anticipates the space market to develop and need EVA capability.

14. Q: Is there a specific date when the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) will be retired?

How soon do you need commercial EVA capability on ISS?

A: NASA does not have a specific date to retire the EMU. NASA strongly desires demonstration of the xEVA system(s) in 2024 to have a period in which both the EMU and xEVAS options are in operation and as the xEVAS becomes more capable to meet the EVA needs, the EMU will be phased out of operation. A transition plan is expected to be required in the solicitation.

15. Q: Please provide more information on the plan for Certification of EVA Readiness (CoER) process planned for this program.

A: The contractors shall provide certification that their systems meet all appropriate endorsements. NASA will roll that certification into a broader certification that all associated systems and processes are certified for flight and/or EVA. Additional information will be provided in the draft solicitation.

16. Q: What is the structure of the xEVA Safety and Technical Review Board and what are the expectations for hazard reports and verifications of controls to hazards, especially in integrated operations with other NASA vehicles & hardware?

A: NASA intends to provide instructions in the xEVAS solicitation that will assure both the necessary data and meeting support expectations from the xEVAS Offeror that will aid in the Government performing the NASA insight and approval process.

17. Q: Will all contractor teams' engineering products be subject to review by a NASA xEVA chief engineer review board?

A: NASA intends to leverage an insight and approval process for xEVAS. Contractor teams’ engineering products may be subject to NASA xEVA chief engineer review board in order for NASA to properly assess risk and perform the Government approval functions as defined in the solicitation.

18. Q: Will there be NASA engineering systems managers to mirror system engineer roles on the contractor side? Will these NASA engineering systems work under a NASA xEVA chief engineer office?

A: NASA intends to leverage an insight and approval process for xEVAS. NASA engineering systems managers will perform insight functions that allow the Government team to properly assess the risk of services provided by the contractor, with a NASA xEVA chief engineer office, as is currently done today on other successful NASA commercial service Programs and contracts (e.g. NASA Launch Services, ISS Commercial Resupply, NASA Commercial Crew, and Gateway Deep Space Logistics).

19. Q. Is the contractor obligated by contract to provide fleet following data to NASA engineering on all NASA and Private missions where like hardware is in service?

A: Yes, the xEVAS contract requirements will provide information regarding data insight required for NASA to fully assess the risk of Offeror commercial missions that use the same xEVAS fleet, hardware, and/or systems.

20. Q: Clarify, for example, if a contractor provided xEVA product, such as a spacesuit, is successfully deployed for a NASA mission, then it is used for a private mission, may the suit be returned to service with NASA after being used in a private mission?

A: NASA intends to support a commercial model with the intent to reduce the cost of EVA capability. NASA does not intend to impose unnecessary restrictions to the requirements unless they would present a safety concern for the crew members. However, it will be incumbent upon the offeror to demonstrate that NASA certification remains valid and the EVA system does not pose additional safety risk or reduced reliability of the suit and that such scenarios will not interfere with the contractor’s obligation for readiness to perform EVAs, including critical contingency EVAs.

21. Q. Will a NASA resident office engineer be on site at primary contractor locations? What are the roles & responsibilities? How will this resident be utilized in communications

A: NASA intends to request an allocation for a resident office engineer(s), with the intent of assuring NASA continually improves the communication process with remote NASA team members while also providing fast and efficient communication value to the Contractor team.

More details will be in the draft solicitation and NASA will be looking for contractor input via an Insight Plan.

22. Q. What level of access to contractor engineering data networks will be needed for this program? How many NASA user accounts with secure access should be expected 10, 30, 100, 200?

A: NASA will provide instructions in the solicitation for Offerors to propose their solution for NASA insight to Contractor data. NASA looks forward to a productive and collaborative working relationship with the provider.

23. Q: Can the maintenance hours for the current ISS suit with the calendar period be provided?

A: For the current EMU system, including four (4) suits and support equipment and considering both preventive and corrective maintenance, we have seen it vary from ~50 to over 100 hours per 6-month period.

24. Q: How long before RFP release will the EVA Technical Library be provided for review by offerors?

A: NASA anticipates the EVA Office will have the technical library established with xEMU data by the end of May 2021. The current xEVAS procurement schedule would place final solicitation release on August 12, 2021.

25. Q: Can the expected EVA training hours with a calendar period be provided?

A: A variety of crew will be in training simultaneously. For the current system. For ISS Flight assigned crew, we have typically provided ~225 hours of training in the 1-2 year period leading up to flight. About 125-135 hours have focused on task and technique training and the remainder on systems training (Suit, process for EVA prep, etc.). For Artemis NASA anticipates greater task and technique training needs. For this commercial EVA service, the needed systems training will be dependent on the complexity and maintenance requirements for that system and NASA expects the contractor to propose the training they need to provide.

26. Q: Can the average hours currently spent on ground support, post-certification, and other support activities with and without active EVAs be shared?

A: No, the current average hours are not representative of a commercial approach and NASA encourages Offeror input after reviewing the requirements in the solicitation.

27. Q: How will the crew time for maintenance be accounted for? Will this need to be commercially procured?

A: NASA intends to provide an allocation of crew time in the solicitation, while also allowing flexibility for new approaches as commercial solutions evolve.

28. Q. Will NASA consider to use commercial NBL service for EVA training? Or only JSC NBL only will be used?

A: NASA will retain responsibility for training crew and others on generic EVA skills, techniques, and task-based tool use. NASA will also develop and test the plans and procedures for EVA tasks. In order to accomplish this NASA will utilize JSC facilities such as the NBL, ARGOS, and others with training hardware support (training suits, etc.) provided by the contractor. None of this precludes the contractor from developing or utilizing the facilities they feel provide additional value.