NASA GSFC ERNIE POD.pdf

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ERNIE: ElectRoN mIcroburst satEllite

Partnership Opportunity Document (POD)

18 December 2023

1.0 GENERAL INFORMATION

Contracting Office Address:

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Code 170

Greenbelt, MD 20771

2.0 INTRODUCTION/SCOPE

Current planning calls for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) to release a Heliophysics

Flight Opportunities in Research and Technology (H-FORT) Solicitation under ROSES February

14, 2024 to solicit proposals for space and sub-orbital science and science-enabling investigations that use platforms that include SmallSats (including CubeSats) and Hosted Rideshare Payloads, such as International Space Station (ISS)-attached payloads. The program encourages the devel-opment of technologies that will enable investigation of heliophysics science questions. All pro-posed investigations must be responsive to NASA Heliophysics Science Goals. We are expecting information from SMD about the 2024 H-FORT soon; this link is for the 2022 H-FORT.

https://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary.do?solId={7086A8AB-8746-A887-

D620-E565B7FA278F}&path=&method=init

As part of this effort, a team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is developing a mission concept for ERNIE: ElectRoN mIcroburst satEllite this Solicitation.

The partnership opportunity is being issued to select teaming partners to provide a 6U CubeSat bus, integrate and test (environmental, functional etc) GSFC provided instrument with the bus, down link data and function as Mission Operations. GSFC will build and integrate and test at the instrument level, the MERIT instrument (Miniaturized Electron pRoton Ion Telescope) and will exercise essential oversight to ensure that the implementation is responsive to NASA requirements and constraints as will be defined in the upcoming Solicitation.

Our project is currently in pre-proposal. If the proposal is selected, the concept will begin Formu-lation. The following schedule should be used as a basis for responses to this opportunity:

Partnership Opportunity Document (POD) released 18 December 2023

NOI Responses Due 10 January 2024

POD Responses Due 19 January 2024

Partner Selection 2 February 2024

Solicitation Released* February 14, 2024

Proposal Due* April 14, 2024

Selection/ATP* December 14, 2024

System Requirements Review* April 2025

Design Review TBD

Launch Readiness Review TBD

* These dates are best guesses based on previous H-FORT Solicitations

Total cost and cost fidelity are important issues for the proposal. There isn’t a formal cost cap, but the first year is probably limited to between $1.5M and $3M, the project is limited to five years, and the total budget covering one or two projects for this Solicitation is approximately

$15M over five years.

There will be no exchange of funds between the teaming partners for the portion of this partnership opportunity dealing with the preparation of the proposal. Funding will be available for subsequent phases should the candidate mission concept be competitively selected for those additional phases.

2.1 DESIRED MISSION SERVICES

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is seeking full CubeSat mission supporters that include as partners for potential science mission proposals to this opportunity to provide the fol-lowing services:

• 6U CubeSat bus compliant with a 3U science payload and NASA launch services

• Payload integration, environmental testing of the fully integrated spacecraft, pre-launch and launch support, data downlink and mission ops (commanding etc.) as needed.

3.0 MISSION OVERVIEW

The H-FORT Program conducts Principal Investigator (PI)-led science investigations as to address

NASA Heliophysics Science Goals using investigator- developed instrumentation flown on Small-

Sats (including CubeSats) or Hosted Rideshares, such as payloads on the ISS. The NASA Helio-physics Science Goals have a broad scope, while the proposed science questions are more narrowly focused. Science investigations must demonstrate that progress can be achieved on the proposed science questions through the investigation objectives, which may include demonstration of a new technology. Science-enabling investigations that primarily demonstrate a new technology must motivate the need for this technology by including specific science questions that the new tech-nology can address. NASA will cover all launch and launch vehicle integration costs for space-flight launches via NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP see Section VIII(c)vi of the ROSES

Summary of Solicitation) or SMD's rideshare program (see SMD Rideshare policy).

ERNIE, ElectRoN mIcroburst satEllite, is proposed as a 6U CubeSat in a high inclination Low

Earth Orbit (LEO) with a 24-month prime mission designed to comprehensively characterize elec-tron microbursts and solar protons. ERNIE’s science payload, is the MERIT, Miniaturized Elec-tron pRoton Telescope; MERIT occupies 3U, and has high heritage and high TRL. A unique aspect of MERIT on ERNIE is its capability to telemeter particle data for large numbers of particles.

Detailed information on the parameters of the mission will be provided to those responding with a

Notice of Interest (NOI).

4.0 PRE-SELECTION SUPPORT

4.1 PROPOSAL SUPPORT

SOW: It is expected that the selected POD respondent will provide support using their own re-sources to help develop the required proposal elements in response to the Solicitation in the fol-lowing areas:

• a well-defined and documented 6U CubeSat baseline,

• instrument accommodations,

• spacecraft to launch vehicle integration support, and

• mission operations support during launch and early commissioning.

• continued MOC during mission lifetime

This will involve meeting with the Principal Investigator (PI) and other proposal team members to establish the mission architecture, to help define both end-to-end mission and elemental per-formance requirements, to provide well-defined interfaces for the instruments, launch vehicle and ground system elements, and to identify any necessary technology developments, study topics, and/or other risk areas that may affect mission success.

The respondent is expected to aid the proposal team in the development of the required proposal content as well as supporting parts of the proposal production.

The period of performance for this interval is expected to start upon partner selection and con-tinue until proposal submission.

If selected, the project will go into Formulation.

4.2 POD RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRE-SELECTION SUPPORT

The respondent shall:

1) Demonstrate understanding and flight experience in the design, fabrication, integration and testing of the 6U CubeSat for the proposed ERNIE mission:

• Identify assumed mission and system requirements for the 6U CubeSat and a response to addressing those requirements;

• Highlight particularly critical or challenging areas for the design of the 6U CubeSat;

• Provide a technical summary/description of the proposed 6U CubeSat including rele-vant heritage;

• Describe what types of capabilities and cost benefits the 6U CubeSat provides for the intended mission;

• Identify available design and modeling capabilities required to support development of the 6U CubeSat;

• Identify fabrication and testing facilities that will be required to support development and testing of the 6U CubeSat; and

• Provide any recommended potential study topics related to the mission design and/or mission operations.

2) Indicate what level of resources would be allocated to the proposal phase of support.

• Discuss skills that will be provided, ideas on what level of conceptual design and im-portant analysis and trade studies that might be needed.

3) Identify the pertinent missions for which the respondent has provided support for proposal writing in the area of 6U CubeSat design, fabrication, integration and testing:

• Provide data on scope of the 6U CubeSat design, the role played in the proposal pro-cess, and the portions of the proposal written or provided assistance in writing, and provide a customer reference POC.

4) Provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimate and schedule for:

• Initial/final mission operations planning

• Design, fabrication, and testing of the 6U CubeSat; support for integration of MERIT pyload to the 6U CubeSat; and observatory environmental testing.

• Mission operations support for pre-launch preparations, launch and commissioning.

• Provide ROM as separate cost line items for the following:

1. 6U CubeSat development cost

2. Environmental testing of the fully integrated bus, mission ops, and data downlink

Respondent is encouraged to share any additional capabilities that might reduce mission costs and/or improve the likelihood of mission success.

While these ROMs will not be considered binding commitments, they will serve as an important consideration during the response evaluation and therefore some supporting justification of the

ROM is required. Include previous experiences in the applicable area as well as cost/schedule performance with supporting data (estimated vs actual).

5.0 POD RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS, FORMAT, AND SELECTION CRITERIA

Potential respondents are asked to contact the science team by January 10, 2024 with a Notice of

Interest (NOI). An NOI submittal allows our team to disseminate additional details on the mis-sion’s parameters (science teams will provide separate document per team needs) and requirements and to provide answers to questions from potential partners. All NOI respondents will receive documents containing additional details on the mission, which can be used to facilitate a fo-cused response to the partnership opportunity. These details are proprietary and competition sensitive and are not to be shared outside the teams necessary to prepare a full response.

After receipt of the mission document, respondents may send questions to the science team at the e-mail address listed below. All questions and answers will be made available to all those who respond with a Notice of Interest. The source of the questions shall be held confidential. Questions and answers that contain information unique to a respondent’s proprietary approach will not be shared if they are identified as such.

Notice of Interest shall be sent to Georgia de Nolfo (GSFC-101) Geor-gia.A.DeNolfo@nasa.gov via email with “Notice of Interest” in the subject line, a simple sentence or two expressing interest in the ERNIE project, and an email address to which further information should be sent.

It is the responsibility of potential respondents to monitor SAM.gov for further information con-cerning this POD.

Responses to the Partnership Opportunity Document (POD) shall:

• Address all requirements noted in Sections 2.0 through 5.0 of this document; and

• Deliver the requested information in a standard presentation format (viewgraphs: such as

Power Point) that shall not exceed 30 pages (not including Options). The font size for the text shall be no smaller than 12 point.

Responses will be treated as proprietary information and controlled as such by GSFC for the US

Government.

Final presentation packages (electronic copy only, Portable Document Format, PDF, rec-ommended) must be received by January 19, 2024.

Presentations are to be delivered to Georgia de Nolfo (GSFC-101) Georgia.A.DeNolfo@nasa.gov.

Following receipt of responses, NASA/GSFC will set up teleconferences with respondents for oral presentation and questions & answers. The time for these teleconferences is expected to be the week of January 22, 2024.

Partnership Selection(s) is expected to be made by February 2, 2024. NASA's GSFC reserves the option to NOT select any teaming partners for the ERNIE project, on the basis of materials received.

6.0 EVALUATION FACTORS AND CRITERIA

Selection criteria will be consistent with the desire to encourage cost effective partnerships be-tween the Government and Industry. The information requested in Sections 3 & 4 will allow the evaluators to determine how well the respondent’s systems match and enable the mission.

The evaluation team will use the following factors in selection and award:

1. Technical Approach (30%). Respondents will be evaluated on their ability to meet the technical requirements given in Sections 2, 3, and 4. This includes demonstrated under-standing of the requirements, proposed approach to meet those requirements, and technical maturity.

2. Cost (40%). Respondents will be evaluated on their overall cost, on the reasonableness of cost and schedule estimates, and on the likelihood that the costs can be validated.

3. Relevant Experience and Past Performance (30%). Special emphasis in this factor will be given to demonstrated experience with similar missions, particularly with regards to instrument accommodations, terminal power and communication requirements, and adher-ence to Class A requirements as identified in the draft Solicitation.

7.0 ACRONYMS

AO Announcement of Opportunity

CSR Concept Study Report

GFE Government Furnished Equipment

GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center

I & T Integration & Test

NOI Notice of Intent

PDF Portable Document Format

PI Principal Investigator

POC Point of Contact

POD Partnership Opportunity Document

ROM Rough Order of Magnitude

SMD NASA’s Science Mission Directorate

SOW Statement of Work