SATPC0043142 Tab 06 RDSS..pdf

This is a Recommendation and Determination to Solicit from One Source or Brand Name document from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shared Services Center, issued on March 15, 2017.

NASA recommends negotiating solely with Applied Research Associates (ARA) for BP-1 Lunar Regolith Simulant Material Testing services. The estimated cost is redacted, and performance is required within 60 calendar days after contract award. Alternatively, the document provides a brand name justification option for negotiating only with vendors capable of supplying a specific branded product from a named manufacturer for the stated supply or service, with cost and delivery timeline to be determined. The acquisition concerns supplies or services deemed reasonably available from only one source or manufacturer, with competition deemed impractical.

The rationale for sole-source selection centers on BP-1 simulant material testing that supplements compressibility tests previously conducted by ARA for NASA in 2005. By utilizing the same BP-1 material batch, testing equipment, procedures, and data analysis processes, newly acquired data will remain consistent with earlier BP-1 test data, enabling NASA to cross-check soil material properties for developing computational models for Human Landing System (HLS) touchdown simulations. Using a different vendor with different equipment and processes would produce inconsistent datasets, making it impossible to determine whether differences resulted from actual simulant variations or testing technique differences, thereby compromising NASA's ability to develop accurate HLS landing dynamics models and adding significant risk to lunar landings.