(1) 40. QA for RFP Amendment 80MSFC22R0015 (rev 2).pdf

RFP 80MSFC22CR0015

Amendment 1 Questions and Answers from Industry Regarding the Scalable Science Data Exploration Solicitation

Question Number Questions & Answers

1 Question: Section K, Pg. K-6, 52.204-8 (a)(1) Please confirm the Small Business Size Standard for NAICS code 541690. The revenue cap is clear at $16.5M, however the table in Section K, Pg. K-6. seems to suggest that there is also a size standard tied to the number of employees being less than 1,500.

Answer: Revised; see table in Section K, Pg. K-6 to reflect size standard as $16.5M only.

2 Question: Does this effort have an incumbent contractor?

Answer: No, this requirement does not have an incumbent contractor.

3 Question: Is this an active RFP or a pre-solicitation?

Answer: This is a fully released Request for Proposal (RFP) solicitation.

4 Question: Section H, Pg. H-1- 1852.232-77(a), please define what items are intended for the sum of funds stated for availability and Schedule for Allotment of Funds?

Answer: Revised; see Clause 1852.232-77(a), Pg. H-1, total price is TBD.

The Schedule for Allotment of Funds is TBD.

5 Question: Section H, Pg. H-1- 1852.232-77(c)(1), please define the until date?

Answer: Revised Clause 1852.232-77(a), Pg. H-1. It is contemplated that funds presently allotted to this contract will cover the work to be performed until TBD.

6 Question: Can the government provide the instructions to the submittal platform entitled “Electronic Proposal Delivery – Proposal Marking and Delivery Through NASA’s EFSS Box” as mentioned in the Request for Proposal Letter?

Answer: Click on URL, below, and follow the attachment (listed below on Page 4), Offeror Instructions for Uploading Proposal Files in Response to a NASA Solicitation.

https://nasagov.app.box.com https://nasagov.app.box.com/

RFP 80MSFC220015

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7 Question: Does the government just want pricing or is it looking for a technical proposal as well?

Answer: An acceptable proposal must include sufficient pricing and technical descriptions for each task that adequately describes the effort proposed and the costs of each SOW task. Specifically, skill mix and labor rates assessed to determine the Offeror’s understanding of the requirements and resources required to perform the effort. Also considered are the number of hours proposed, and other direct costs such as travel, subcontracts, etc. The Offeror must delineate all elements of the proposed price (labor, overhead, general and administrative, Other Direct Costs, etc) associated with the SOW requirements and provide the budget for each SOW task. These costs will be evaluated in accordance with the requirements of the solicitation and all applicable FAR, NFS, and governing statutory requirements.

Question Number Questions & Answers

8 Question: Can the government provide Proposal Instructions and Requirements (format, page count, font size, etc)?

Answer: Revised; reference Section L, Pg. L-2, 1852.215-81 Proposal Page Limitations.

9 Question: Is this effort single award or multiple award?

Answer: The Government may elect to make multiple awards.

10 Question: What open-source software or frameworks would NASA prefer for this system? What is NASAs definition of open-source tools?

Answer: NASA is looking for open-source software that provides a wide variety of options for data analysis and visualization. NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems (ESDS) Open Source Software Policy can be found at https://earthdata.nasa.gov/collaborate/open-data-services-and-software/esds-open-source-policy. Included in this policy, permissive licenses - i.e., Apache License 2.0, the BSD 3-Clause “Revised” License, and the MIT License - must have broad acceptance in the Earth science OSS community.

11 Question: Is this new data management system or a system being built on existing systems? If it is the latter, what are the specifications of these existing systems?

Answer: The data system includes both new developments and enhancing existing components.

12 Question: Does NASA require a budget estimate for each task, or should vendors just submit their labor rates?

Answer: Yes, reference Section L, pg. L-3, Price Proposal Instructions.

https://earthdata.nasa.gov/collaborate/open-data-services-and-software/esds-open-source-policy https://earthdata.nasa.gov/collaborate/open-data-services-and-software/esds-open-source-policy

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13 Question: Is there specific or required content that NASA would like to see in proposal responses to this solicitation (project references, staff resumes, etc.)?

Answer: Reference Pg. L-2, 1852.215-81 Proposal Page Limitations and Section M, Pg. M-1, Price Proposal Instructions.

14 Question: The proposal is focused on a GOTS solution, is COTS solution acceptable or does it need to government owned?

Answer: All solutions are to be open source.

15 Question: Please define what the NASA Cloud currently is?

Answer: NASA’s Earth Science Data Systems program currently uses Amazon Web Services (AWS).

16 Question: Does NASA want the open-source tools from the community distribution exclusively or are commercially supported versions and commercial implementations of open source tools acceptable for use as well?

Answer: Solutions that are not offered as open source will not be considered.

17 Question: Can an offeror/contractor utilize Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) products to achieve the SOW’s main objective, or is the intent for an offeror/contractor to develop net-new open-source software that does not utilize any existing COTS software?

Answer: No commercial solution or off the shelf solution will be considered. All software must be delivered as open source.

18 Question: If my company utilizes several technology partners (e.g., MicroStrategy, Denodo, AWS) that could achieve the SOW’s main objective to “…develop cloud native tools and services for data ingest and transformation to support scalable dynamic visualization and exploration of science data,” however, those technology partners have proprietary software that would not be able to be placed on the NASA Open-Source Catalog.

Answer: All software must have the ability to be placed in the NASA Open-Source Catalog.

19 Question: Primary Point of Contact

Answer: Revised; Christopher M. Ragucci – Christopher.m.rugucci@nasa.gov

Offeror Instructions for Uploading Proposal Files in Response to a NASA Solicitation

Offerors are encouraged to check with their corporate IT staff to determine if there are firewall restrictions that would need to be addressed prior to the submission of proposal files through NASA’s EFSS Box.

1. Click on URL provided in solicitation provision entitled “Electronic Submission of Proposals – Proposal Marking and Delivery Through NASA’s EFSS Box”. (e.g., https://nasagov.app.box.com/f/XX##XX#X#XX###X##X##XXX###X#XX#X)

2. “Drag and drop” or “select” proposal files to be uploaded in the provided space

3. Complete required additional proposal related data fields.

4. Click at the bottom of the webpage.

5. The uploader will see the files being processed for upload and upon completion of the upload will receive the following message:

6. Immediately after all files have been uploaded and the proposal has been submitted in its entirety, the offeror shall provide notification in accordance with paragraph (e) of the “Electronic Submission of Proposals – Proposal Marking and Delivery Through NASA’s EFSS Box” provision.

If the offeror is having trouble or failure uploading proposal files to NASA’s EFSS Box, discuss potential firewall issues with your corporate IT staff prior to trying to resubmit the proposal files or reaching out to the contracting officer.