JOFOC - LISA Charge Management Device For Beta SAM.pdf

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NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER (GSFC)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

(JOFOC)

For Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Charge Management Device

(CMD)

1. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.303-2(b)(1) – Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Justification for other than full and open competition.”

This document is a justification for other than full and open competition prepared by

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center

(GSFC).

The procuring agency is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the contracting activity is GSFC.

2. FAR 6.303-2(b)(2) – The nature and/or description of the action being approved:

This justification provides the rationale for contracting by other than full and open competition to award a sole-source contract to the University of Florida (UF) for an Engineering Development Unit (EDU) and Engineering Test Unit (ETU) of the Charge Management Device (CMD) to support the NASA contribution to the European Space Agency (ESA) led Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). The EDU and ETU units will be used for ground testing.

3. FAR 6.303-2(b)(3) – A description of the supplies or services required, to meet the

Agency’s needs (including the estimated value):

The NASA LISA Study Office (NLSO) at GSFC is currently performing work for the ESA led LISA mission, which is planning to launch in 2034. NASA is in the study phase of the mission and will be contributing hardware as part of an agreement with ESA. The project requires a CMD to control the buildup of charges on the test mass in each of the three identical spacecraft that comprise the LISA instrument. NASA requires the purchase of one EDU and one ETU CMD. UF’s Precision Space Systems Lab (PSSL) design is the only one that can meet the current schedule requirements due to the advanced state of their current design and the expertise of the PSSL team members. The scope of work also includes life testing of new Ultra-Violet (UV) diodes to determine the probability of success of meeting the mission lifetime of the LISA mission. Both the EDU and ETU units are to be assembled and functionally tested to validate the requirements outlined in the CMD performance specification. The ETU unit will undergo a complete environmental test program consistent with tailored the NASA Goddard General Environmental Verification Specification (GEVS), while the EDU will undergo functional performance testing. The proposed contract is anticipated to be awarded in October 2020 as a Cost-Reimbursable contract with an anticipated completion date of July 2025. The total estimated value of this acquisition is approximately $13.2M.

4. FAR 6.303-2(b)(4) – An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 10 U.S.C.

2304(c)(1)), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, “Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.”

5. FAR 6.303-2(b)(5) – A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited:

The rationale supporting the use of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1) is that the technical expertise developed over more than a decade of previous experience that is built into the design of the Charge Management Device (CMD) is held by UF as described below. This expertise allows the UF team to deliver a fully capable CMD within the required schedule as discussed below.

The fundamental technical expertise for the concept of charge control in space for a gravity mission was developed at Stanford for the Gravity Probe B (GPB) mission in the early 2000’s by the current UF Principal Investigator’s (PI’s) advisor. After the completion of that development, the idea of a Light Emitting Diode (LED) version of the current CMD was developed by the Stanford team, including the current PI. The first UV LED space flight testing was done on SaudiSat 3 funded by the government of Saudi Arabia and developed by Stanford with the current CMD PI as a major contributor. The expertise gained during this development includes the basic conceptual approach of using UV LED’s for charge management. Research and full flight hardware development on the original Charge Management Device for the LISA Pathfinder was done by another current UF PSSL team member while at the Imperial College of London and funded by a UK research agency. The key element of the current design including the use of UV LED’s and the use of AC control of the LED’s to manage deposited energy were funded by UF using startup funds received by the current PI when he moved there from Stanford. In addition, the custom test set required to verify the performance of the CMD, known as a torsion pendulum, specially designed to test the CMD, was developed using UF research lab startup funding. This facility is unique in the United States and is required to verify the performance of each CMD before it is delivered. Currently the UF team is funded to develop the LISA CMD to TRL-5 through NASA funding. NASA has expended $2.27 M on the efforts at UF so far. They have moved the CMD beyond Technology Readiness Level 4 (TRL-4) with a prototype being delivered to the University of Trento for testing with their torsion pendulum test facility and the prototype Gravitational Reference Sensor (GRS). If a new supplier were selected now, NASA would be required to invest at least this amount of funding, in addition to the cost of a new test facility, to bring that vendor up to the same level of readiness that the UF team has achieved.

This duplication of effort would not be recoverable by NASA.

At this time, no other company has the unique expertise; nor, due to the proprietary nature of the technology belonging to the UF PSSL team, can the government provide the CMD technology as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) to another potential provider. The UF independent funding of the Charge Management Device to bring its design concept to readiness for full development for LISA along with other outside funding to advance the UV LED CMD concept makes PSSL the most capable contributor of a significant hardware element for the ongoing ESA/NASA LISA mission scheduled for launch in the early 2030’s.

The current LISA project has a tight schedule for the delivery of the CMD to the GRS team.

In order to proceed with the LISA mission at minimum risk, GSFC requires the technical expertise on the CMD that resides with the UF PSSL team. The UF PSSL's expertise and the advanced status of the CMD allows NASA to procure an EDU within approximately 24 months from Date of Award (DOA) and an ETU unit within 48 months from DOA as the LISA schedule requires. Companies with similarly capable products would need to develop the capability to generate and deliver UV energy to the proof mass within the GRS, with hardware that demonstrates both sufficient energy delivered and lifetime to meet the mission duration of 10 years. The University of Florida team has been working on this problem for the past 10 years with specific work on the LISA application for the past three. They have not only developed a system and evaluated a complete set of flight quality parts but have assembled a fully functional and tested TRL-4 demonstration unit and are working on a TRL- 5 unit to be delivered by the end of the calendar year. A similarly capable company starting at TRL-3 (basic conceptual design) would take at least two years to come up to TRL-5 and would need to invest in a complete testing capability to verify that the unit is capable of controlling charge to the degree required. In addition, they would need to initiate a life test program which would need to run for a similar period of time which the University of Florida has initiated and has been running for the past year. This would put anyone else two years behind where UF is now. In order for any CMD team to meet the current flight hardware delivery date of July of 2030 to maintain the mission schedule, they must be able to deliver the TRL-5 unit this year and move on to the TRL-6 unit to be complete by July of 2022, then develop the EDU in preparation for the PDR in December of 2023, and develop the ETU unit and in preparation for the CDR in November of 2025. This schedule is critical to the success of this development. The mission requires a full set of three fully redundant flight CMD’s tested and ready for integration to the instrument by July of 2030. In order to meet this flight delivery schedule the fabrication must start by July of 2027.

6. FAR 6.303-2(b)(6) – A description of the efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies:

A notice to the Government Point of Entry (GPE) website (beta.sam.gov) was published on May 05, 2020, in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2. This posting informed potential sources of NASA’s intent to award this sole-source contract to UF. The results of this synopsis are summarized in Section 10 below.

7. FAR 6.303-2(b)(7) – A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable:

The Contracting Officer’s signature on this document indicates that the Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated cost to the government will be fair and reasonable. The Contractor shall be required to submit a proposal to be evaluated and negotiated by the

Government. Prior to execution of the contractual instrument, a proposal analysis will be performed. The proposal analysis will ensure that the final price for the contract action is fair and reasonable.

UF shall be required to submit certified cost and pricing data. The proposed costs will be evaluated by the Contracting Officer’s Representative and the Contracting Officer to determine that the direct labor rates, direct labor hours, skill mix, other direct costs, indirect costs, and fee(s) are fair and reasonable. The Contracting Officer will ensure that the cost reimbursement contract value is fair and reasonable based upon a thorough cost evaluation of the contractor’s proposal including the proposed terms and conditions, and, if needed, will request field pricing assistance to verify UF’s proposed rates.

8. FAR 6.303-2(b)(8) – Description of the market research conducted, and the results, or a statement of the reasons a market research was not conducted:

The Government queried the Government wide database of contracts and other procurement instruments intended for use by multiple agencies available at https://www.contractdirectory.

gov/contractdirectory/. The Government also reviewed the System for Award Management and the Federal Procurement Data System. These databases did not identify any other contractor, grant, or contract associated with the development of a charge management system for use on a gravitational reference sensor such as is required for LISA, nor for any other application.

Additionally, a search of the NASA SBIR database did not identify any small business research that has been performed toward this technology in the past decade

A review of relevant publications in the area of UV LED’s used for charge control finds no publications less than 8 years old other than those from the UF team and from research done in China for a mission similar to LISA. Upon the review of catalogs and other generally available product literature published by manufacturers, distributors, and dealers or available on-line, no references were discovered to the CMD technology other than the efforts identified at UF in the past 10 years. All references to CMD were with respect to the GRS for LISA and the previous LISA pathfinder. This seems to indicate that there is no market for this technology outside the requirements for the GRS for LISA.

In the market research performed, no commercial sources outside of UF were identified that had products that could meet the requirements for LISA CMD. Therefore, a formal Request for Information (RFI) was not posted on Beta.SAM.gov, because it was unlikely to yield another responsible source.

9. FAR 6.303-2(b)(9) – Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition:

None.

10. FAR 6.303-2(b)(10) – A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed an interest in writing in the acquisition:

A notice of NASA’s intent to award this sole-source action was synopsized on the GPE website (beta.sam.gov) per FAR Subpart 5.2 (See Section 6 above). The synopsis was posted on May 05, 2020 and closed on May 20, 2020. NASA did not receive any responses to the posting.

11. FAR 6.303-2(b)(11) – A statement of actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required:

The Agency will continue to examine the market in the future for alternative solutions or new sources before executing any subsequent acquisitions for the same requirements.

TERENCE DOIRON Digitally signed by TERENCE DOIRON Date: 2020.07.09 10:05:23 -04'00'

Meredith Link Digitally signed by Meredith Link Date: 2020.07.09 10:10:02 -04'00'

MARY STEVENS

Digitally signed by MARY

STEVENS

Date: 2020.07.22 08:38:44 -04'00'

Rubilotta, Raymond

J. (GSFC-2000)

Digitally signed by Rubilotta, Raymond J. (GSFC-2000) Date: 2020.07.23 09:08:50 -04'00'