Amendment 01 QAs_final_071823.pdf

NNH16ZCQ001K-CIS-Appendix L Amendment 01

Questions and Answers

No. Question Answer

1 Enclosure A, Paragraph 17.4 – Funding Allocation: Given the $800,000 expected total cumulative award value, can NASA provide any information/insight as to how many awards they anticipate?

NASA may award multiple or a single award for any or all the study areas listed in Section 6, Capability Study and Demonstration Statement of Objectives (SOO), as stipulated in Section 17 of Enclosure A, Appendix L.

2 The NextSTEP BAA Amendment 22 dated 12/06/22, Section 3.2.6, p.

13 states that nonprofits do not need to provide cost sharing when grants are issued under the BAA. Can you confirm that nonprofits do have to provide “Corporate Resources/Corporate Contributions” as stated in Appendix L, p. 12, Section 11, or is this only required of for-profit organizations?

Section 3.2.6. of the BAA specifically applies to Grants and Cooperative Agreements. Awards resulting from Appendix L are FAR-based contracts (See Section 5 and 14.7 of Enclosure A, Appendix L).

Section 11 states that, “A corporate contribution is required, however there is no mandatory minimum contribution required for eligibility under Appendix L.”

3 The NextSTEP BAA Amendment 22 dated 12/06/22, Section 3.2.6, p.

13 states, “The value of participation by federally funded government funded participants… shall be added to the price to the government for determining whether the required level corporate contribution for that research element has been met.”

a. Is this provision applicable to the current Appendix L Corporate Resources/Corporate Contribution requirement?

(This question refers to Section 3.2.5, not

3.2.6. The question is

being provided as received).

a. Yes

b. The term “federally

Questions and Answers

b. If it is applicable, what constitutes a “federally funded government funded participant”? Does this refer to any organization that accepts federal funding (e.g., universities, not-for-profits, for-profit contractors) or those that are predominately funded by the federal government (e.g., National Labs, FFRDCs)?

funded government funded participant” refers to any entity receiving government funding:

universities, FFRDCs, national labs, non-profits, for-profit commercial companies, etc.

4 Appendix L, p. 12, Section 11, Corporate Resources: Can we use investments as Corporate Resources/Corporate Contributions if we are using them for cost share commitments on other awards?

No (see 2 C.F.R.

200.306, para. (b)(2))

5 Appendix L, p. 12, Section 11, Corporate Resources: Do internal investments or IR&D count toward the corporate contribution requirement if they are allowable indirect costs that are funded / reimbursed by the federal government?

No (see 2 C.F.R.

200.306, para.

(b)(4))

6 Appendix L, p. 12, Section 11, Corporate Resources states “Corporate contribution are expected to be in the form of direct labor, travel, consumables or other direct in-kind contributions,” but that “other reasonable forms of corporate contribution may include [other] investments” (emphasis added). During evaluation, will a greater weight be placed on direct in-kind contributions versus other / internal corporate investments?

Contributions will be considered based on the evaluation criteria detailed in Section 16.3.

7 Appendix L, Section 6.1.1. A: Wideband Terminal design: Are there any design constraints that we should take into account such as power, weight, size or compatibility with certain interfaces or subsystems on the space vehicle?

a. What is the max bandwidth expected to ground terminal?

b. What is the expected receive sensitivity for the ground terminal in support of link budget analyses?

c. Is there expectation for adhoc Ground Terminal services (mobile, etc.) to discover and sync to space vehicles overhead for comm service?

This information shall be provided to awardee(s) at BAA Contract Kick-off.

8 Appendix L, Section 6.1.1. D: Interoperability Among Multiple Service Providers: Is the interoperability intended to be based on physical

Both.

Questions and Answers reconfiguration of the space vehicle terminal prior to launch or an in-orbit reconfiguration of space vehicle communications modules during operations?

9 Appendix L, Section 6.2 Advancements and future trends: In section

6.1.1. the frequencies of interest are stated as Ka, L and S-band. Are futured trends for the phased arrays intended to describe antennas that could be reconfigured to support future Q/V band or the evolution of these phased array designs in the future to include Q/V band?

• Are you looking for a single active electronically scanned array (AESA) that cover L- thru Ka- band (and possibly V-band in the future)? Or would you accept two separate AESA covering the entire freq. band?

• What is the instantaneous bandwidth requirement in each band?

• How many beams do you need in the receive and transmit mode?

• Can you provide information about the modem that will be used with the terminal?

• Are there special environmental/power/reliability/availability requirements for the ground-based terminal?

As stated in the BAA (Section 6.2) related to future support in Q/V bands.

Additional details will be discussed during technical interchange meetings (TIMs) that will occur during the execution of the BAA study.

10 To what extent does NASA want study performers evaluating DTN architectures as part of the wideband terminal and constellation study areas?

NASA welcomes DTN architecture evaluations but does not require it.

11 Proposals must be submitted electronically in accordance with the instructions detailed in Enclosure A, Appendix L, Sections 13 through 15, no later than August 7, 2023, 5:00pm Eastern Time.” Per the Appendix those requirements are (Table 1, Overview of Proposal Sections and Page Limitations).

Yes

12 In Appendix L document, labeled CUI//SP-PROCURE is publicly releasable. I ask this because the rest of the document does not include any portion marking implying the CUI header is just a category designator.

This is a public document and not

CUI/SP-PROCURE.

This amendment will specify this change.