Attachment O-GeoXO SC Engineering Units Prototype Units and Risks_MPR.pdf

ATTACHMENT O

CONTRACTOR-PROPOSED

ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT UNITS AND RISK

MITIGATION EFFORTS

GeoXO Spacecraft RFP 80GSFC23R0010

CONTRACT NUMBER: TO BE DETERMINED

August 7, 2023

ATTACHMENT O

CONTRACTOR-PROPOSED

ENGINEERING DEVELOPMENT UNITS AND RISK MITIGATION EFFORTS

Pursuant to 52.215-210 Mission Suitability Volume Instructions section L.12, paragraph A.5, any Engineering Development Unit and associated Risk Mitigation Efforts proposed under

Statement of Work Section 6 shall be documented in Attachment O of the contract. These efforts are intended to mitigate schedule risk associated with High Risk engineering activities.

Engineering Development Units, other than those required in Section 6 of the SOW for isolation systems and the Instrument Mounting Platforms, are not necessarily required under the contract and will not be construed as a weakness if not proposed. However, the Offeror may only receive credit in the mission suitability evaluation for the proposed efforts to the extent of its description in Attachment O and the associated benefits explained in its Mission Suitability Volume.

The Contractor shall clearly define what engineering development activities are to be accomplished as well as any products, analyses, tests, or reports that will be produced. Activities include but are not limited to:

• Efforts needed to help advance the engineering maturity of the concept employed in the design.

• Any component build to address a challenging engineering problem or to ensure confidence that the design can be qualified

• Development of a new engineering approach that supports assessing or reducing a risk posture.

• Engineering development effort intended to mitigate schedule risk associated with low

Technology Readiness Level (TRL) items in order to achieve TRL 6 by PDR.

• Risk mitigation effort to demonstrate a new design concept or integration & test technique.

The Contractor shall outline in Attachment O, an Engineering Development-and-Test Plan, identifying all items below:

a) the objectives of the EDUs,

b) the functional and performance requirements from the contractual documents that the

EDU(s) will address,

c) the proposed level of fidelity of the EDU(s), including planned performance, environmental, and/or other testing,

d) any proposed combined EDU(s) assembly and test plans

e) the risks planned to be mitigated/retired,

f) the schedule of EDU(s) development and test, including linkages to Engineering Peer

Reviews, Milestone Reviews, flight subsystem fabrication and the spacecraft system integration schedules.

Definitions

Brassboard: A medium-fidelity functional unit that typically tries to make use of as much of the final product as possible and begins to address scaling issues associated with the operational system. It does not have the engineering pedigree in all aspects but is structured to be able to operate in simulated operational environments in order to assess performance of critical functions.

Breadboard: A low-fidelity unit that demonstrates function only, without respect to form or fit.

It often uses commercial and/or ad hoc components and is not intended to provide definitive information regarding operational performance.

Engineering Development Unit (EDU): A high-fidelity unit that demonstrates critical aspects of the engineering processes involved in the development of the operational unit. EDUs are intended to closely resemble the final product (hardware and software) to the maximum extent possible and are built and tested to establish confidence and to validate that the design will function and perform as expected. Dependent upon its design and fabrication, the EDU may be subject to flight-like environments or environmental testing. EDUs cannot serve for environmental qualification, provide requirements verification, or be flown.

Flight Unit: The unit that will be flown. For GeoXO, the first Flight Units will be Protoflight

Units with follow-on Flight Units subject to an Acceptance test program.

Protoflight Unit: Flight hardware of a new design. It is subject to a Qualification test program that combines elements of Prototype and flight acceptance validation; that is, the application of design Qualification test levels and flight Acceptance test durations. First flight units of GeoXO hardware and software are subject to a Protoflight test program.

Prototype Unit: The Prototype unit fully reflects the flight design to the maximum extent possible. It is fabricated with full reliability and quality-control measures, flight EEE parts, and may have full redundancy. The Prototype unit will be environmentally tested to full Qualification levels and durations and will be acceptance tested and fully calibrated in accordance with flight test procedures. Prototype units cannot be flown due to the over-stressing seen during environmental Qualification.

Qualification Unit: The Qualification Unit serves to qualify the design. Qualification is achieved through either a Protoflight or Prototype test program. For GeoXO, the Qualification

Unit is the Protoflight Unit.