TPE RFP Questions and Answers (6-25-20).pdf

Questions and Answers for TPE RFP

1. Q: Would the SDA consider flying TPE in inclinations up to 100 deg?

A: As the goal of TPE is to characterize backgrounds for a range of sensor-solar geometries, sun-synchronous and retrograde orbits are not desired. SDA encourages solutions that include the ability to collect a wide range of earth background phenomenology in varying solar illumination conditions over the mission life. The maximum acceptable inclination is 90 deg.

2. Q: The RFP requests an early launch option, if available, and indicates that all proposed options will be summed during the evaluation. Would the SDA consider proposals that include additional alternate priced launch options, and if so, would multiple launch options be added together during the price evaluation?

A: The Offeror should include a single early launch option in its proposal. Proposals including multiple launch options will not be evaluated.

3. Q: The SOW states that TPE shall be delivered to orbit NLT (no later than) 31 March 2022, and that the launch should occur NLT the same date. The TRD states that ILC (Initial Launch Capability) is NLT 31 Mar 2022. Please clarify SDA’s intent.

A: The delivery of TPE to orbit NLT 31 Mar 2022 is the requirement.

4. Q: Can the government clarify the payload delivery date?

A: GFE payload delivery is NLT 29 Oct 2021.

5. Q: Can the government clarify the requirement to launch by 3/31/22? The delivery of payload + 4 months, referenced in TRD MISS-7, is the end of February 2022, not the end of March 2022.

A: Launch date NLT 31 Mar 2022 is the requirement. TRD MISS-7 is updated to remove the phrase “delivery of GFE payload + 4 months”.

6. Q: Please clarify the desired lifetime extension options. Is it a 6-month extension or a 12-month extension?

A: The option allows for a 6-month extension to the baseline on-orbit mission duration (also 6 months), to yield a total of up to 12 months of on-orbit operations.

7. Q: Please clarify the minimum lifetime requirement, is it 6 or 12 months? The TRD says 1 year but the SOW says 6 months with an option to extend to 12 months.

A: Minimum on-orbit operations duration is 6 months. Per TRD, SV minimum life is 1 year on-orbit to support option for a total of 12 months of on-orbit operations.

8. Q: Would SDA provide details on GFE payload, e.g., to inform Offeror’s approach to

EMI/EMC testing?

A: SDA will provide a GFE payload interface document upon request to US entities.

Requests may be sent to osd.pentagon.ousd-r-e.mbx.sda-rfp-20-0002@mail.mil mailto:osd.pentagon.ousd-r-e.mbx.sda-rfp-20-0002@mail.mil

9. Q: When will the Government take possession of the integrated TPE SV and accountability of the GFE payload?

A: SDA intends to take possession of the TPE SV after delivery to orbit and completion of on-orbit checkout.

10. Q: What facilities must have, or be able to obtain, a SECRET clearance?

A: Any facility in which downlinked payload mission data is decrypted must have a SECRET clearance. Manufacturing, integration, launch, and operations facilities do not require SECRET clearance unless they will host payload data. Each location must be cleared at the level of the data that it will be processing, accessing, or handling.

11. Q: Is the integrated payload-bus test plan the responsibility of the bus provider? What is the role of bus provider and GFE payload provider?

A: The TPE bus, launch, and operations provider “owns” this test plan. The GFE Payload provider will support development of the test plan by providing interface and performance data needed to allow compilation of this document, and GFE Payload provider will support SV testing.

12. Q: Are 11 x 17’’ pages permitted?

A: 11 x 17” pages are not allowed, per Proposal Instructions.

13. Q: Please clarify mission lifetime requirements and options.

A: Intent is for up to 1 year of mission life on-orbit post-checkout. The baseline minimum duration for on-orbit operations is 6 months after checkout. Contractors may propose option(s) to extend the minimum on-orbit duration from 6 months to 1 year total.

14. Q: Does the Government have a preferred inclination between 60-90°?

A: SDA does not have a preferred orbit inclination.

15. Q: Does the +/- 50 km indicate an orbit maintenance requirement on the nominal 1,000 km orbit?

A: The +/- 50 km is intended to ensure roughly circular orbit. Some orbit decay over the short mission life is acceptable.

16. Q: Can the government provide information on the instrument pointing direction relative to in the specified volume (z)?

A: SDA will provide a GFE payload interface document upon request to US entities.

17. Q: Can the government specify a half angle or cone angle to further specify the field of view to assess the vignette of the payload?

A: SDA will provide a GFE payload interface document upon request to US entities.

18. Q: Can the government specify whether BOTH gigabit ethernet and SpaceWire are required for the payload or if EITHER is acceptable?

A: The payload is expected to require only one of these interfaces, and it is currently baselined for gig-E. Either interface will be considered and details will be coordinated with payload provider.

19. Q: Can the government specify the desired electrical characteristics of the bi-level discrete outputs?

A: Bi-level discrete characteristics in TRD PAY-10 have not been specified.

20. Q: Can the government specify any required signal conditioning for the payload analog data interfaces?

A: Analog data interface details in TRD PAY-11 have not been specified.

21. Q: Can the government specify a high-level concept of operations related to pointing modes and TPE mission objectives including characterizing scene backgrounds, optimizing algorithms, CONOPS, and wavebands for advanced missile detection and tracking?

A: A very high-level TPE CONOPS includes notional 5-15 minute collections at high data rate (e.g., 30 Hz) that are scheduled to obtain data on a variety of terrestrial and atmospheric backgrounds, as well as at a variety of solar-sensor relative viewing geometries, in the available spectral bands. These high-volume raw data will be stored within the payload or the bus for later transmission to ground. These data may be augmented by low-volume post-processed data statistics calculated near-continuously, as duty cycle allows, to increase perceptivity to background clutter variation. Pointing modes are expected to include a nadir pointing baseline for the phenomenology collects and an inertial mode to support off-earth pointing at calibration stars. The inertial mode may also be used in phenomenology collects to increase access time on a region.

22. Q: Can the Government specify a nominal payload duty cycle?

A: SDA has not specified a minimum duty cycle. Capability is desired for high duty cycle to maximize collection duration and diversity. SDA envisions typical continuous collects on the order of 5-15 minutes’ duration and a minimum daily download per the TRD that will limit the transmission of high-volume raw full-frame data. However, the data stored for downlink may include both raw high-rate mission data and post-processed low-volume data for statistical characterization of backgrounds that span a much longer time duration. The latter data type benefits from higher duty cycle availability.

23. Q: Can the government clarify THERM-1 to mean that if the bus can ensure a deep space pointing constraint, the instrument will self-manage its thermal control?

A: The baseline thermal approach is for the instrument to self-manage thermal control when radiator views space.

a. Q: Does the deep space view need to be maintained for all vignettes or just a subset of them?

A: For all vignettes, during imaging collections, including ground-viewing and space-viewing, the payload radiator must view space. Radiator is assumed to point to space TBD minutes for equilibration prior to start of imaging collections.

b. Q: Does the deep space view need to be held 100% of the time?

A: No. For all imaging collections, including ground-viewing and space-viewing, the payload radiator must view space. Radiator is assumed to point to space TBD minutes for equilibration prior to start of imaging collections.

c. Q: Can the payload tolerate incident solar irradiation on the radiator surface?

How much?

A: Yes; amount is TBD in collaboration with payload provider.

d. Q: Is there a required payload interface temperature range?

A: Yes; survival limits are TBD pending payload provider analysis.

24. Q: Will the government retain ownership of the payload after delivery or will ownership transfer to the contractor?

A: Government retains ownership.

25. Q: What are the expected frequency allocations for command/telemetry link and the payload high rate data link?

A: Per SOW, Contractor provides uplink and downlink capability and determines frequency allocation.

26. Q: Can the government clarify if OPIR payload remote sensing licensing is the responsibility of the government/OPIR payload contractor or the Launch and Satellite contractor?

A: Licensing is the responsibility of the Launch and Satellite contractor.

27. Q: Please confirm that in the event of a conflict between the liability provisions for government property in FAR 52.245-1 and the reciprocal waiver of claims required for an FAA license under 14 CFR part 440, the waiver of claims takes precedence.

A: Contracts/legal?

28. Q: What authority to proceed (ATP) date should be assumed?

A: Offerors may assume 5 Aug 2020 for ATP.

29. Q: Can you confirm that the government will retain decision-making authority over the functioning of the OPIR payload and what data is collected?

A: Yes, the government will retain tasking authority.

30. Q: Is the 'NLT 250Mbps' a good-put or interface rate?

A: TRD requirement PAY-8 refers to an interface rate for data flow from payload to bus.

31. Q: Is the assumption that the gigabit ethernet is for payload data (at NLT 250 Mbps) and the SpaceWire is used for command and telemetry? What is the expected command and telemetry data rate on the SpaceWire Interface?

A: The payload data will flow through either a gig-E or a SpaceWire interface at NLT 250 Mbps. The current baseline is gig-E but both options will be considered. The command and telemetry data flows on the same line and rate is TBD in coordination with payload provider.

32. Q: Can the government clarify if payload testing where the optics are exposed is expected after integration to the spacecraft bus?

A: Payload testing with exposed optics is not expected after integration onto the spacecraft bus.

33. Q: Can the government clarify if the payload CG can be assumed to be on the centerline in the X- and Y- axes.

A: The payload CG is near centerline in X and Y axes. Please see the GFE payload data package, which is available upon request to US entities.

34. Q: Can the government clarify if 32 V (28 +/- 4 V) is the maximum allowable voltage or if a higher voltage is acceptable?

A: 32 V is the maximum allowable voltage.