Sources Sought Notice RPOCVI.pdf

Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Capture

(RPOC) VI

This Sources Sought Notice (SSN) outlines the requirements to provide engineering support services (research, analysis, design, development, integration, verification, test, evaluation, and operations support) supporting Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C), system engineering, and Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Capture (RPOC) activities. The Contractor shall provide engineering support in projects and technical areas, including but not limited to those below in support of the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) and other NASA centers:

• Human Spaceflight Support and Related Exploration Initiatives

• Technology Development, Support, and Research

The scope of these tasks encompasses the program architecture definition, analysis and development, as well as the entire spacecraft definition and development process, including requirements development, concept development, technology development, system design, system and vehicle evaluation, system and vehicle test, verification, integration, and operations support. Examples of tasks to support these systems include but are not limited to: the development of analysis tools, including modeling of space vehicles, vehicle subsystems, dynamics, and environment in a high-fidelity simulation environment, and development of tools to support command and monitoring analysis including high fidelity graphics and user interfaces.

The structure of the SOW should not be construed as defining a required organizational configuration. Specific tasks will be authorized on task orders.

NASA will provide computational resources for vehicle software assessments and other software required for the effort onsite at NASA, and/or virtually, through a network server account.

Contractor personnel may be required to travel to participate in major reviews and technical interchange meetings for many of these tasks. This travel may be both domestic and international. Details of expected travel will be provided in task orders.

HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT SUPPORT AND RELATED EXPLORATION INITIATIVES

LOW EARTH ORBIT (LEO) SUSTAINING SUPPORT

The Contractor shall support NASA’s efforts in GN&C areas related to flight readiness certification and real-time mission evaluation of International Space Station (ISS) Visiting Vehicles, U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), Commercial LEO Destinations (CLDs), and CLD Visiting Vehicles (VV). Analysis of the visiting vehicles, destinations, trajectories, and operations that the Contractor shall perform includes simulation of the visiting vehicles, the ISS/CLD, and the environment. The visiting vehicles included in this effort deliver cargo and crew to the ISS/CLD, or in USDV’s case, rendezvous and dock to the ISS prior to deorbiting the ISS.

Visiting Vehicle operations concepts include both capture/berthing and docking vehicles. The Contractor shall ensure each vehicle/destination’s adherence to applicable ISS requirements, Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCAP) requirements, CLD contract requirements, and any future requirements released by NASA.

The Contractor shall support an assessment of each vehicle/destination’s design to verify that the design meets all applicable requirements during the VV rendezvous, proximity operations, docking, undocking, departure phases of flight, and during the destination’s evolutionary operational phases. The contractor shall review the vehicle design, development, certification, and mission specific products. The Contractor shall also support the development, test, and verification of the ISS crew monitoring capabilities to be used during VV approach, capture or docking maneuver, docking, if applicable, undocking, and departure from the ISS. Additionally, these tools are developed in various programming languages (e.g. MATLAB/Toolboxes, Python, C++, C) and architectures (e.g. NASA Trick).

The Contractor shall provide NASA with documentation and results to support a recommendation relative to Certification of Flight Readiness (CoFR) for each visiting vehicle/destination and shall identify and record any limitations of the content and analysis supporting the recommendation.

The Contractor shall support development of simulation and analysis tools for each of the visiting vehicles/destinations using the existing NASA/JSC simulation development environments. These software tools support independent vehicle/destination design and development evaluations, mission design assessments, requirements analysis and verification, and crew safety evaluations. The Contractor shall provide elements of this tool set to the LEO Program for integration into the crew and flight controller training simulation tool sets.

The Contractor shall support the readiness, training, planning, and technical preparations for real-time support on the ISS/Destination Mission Evaluation Room (MER) RPOC Console, as well as support mission simulations and real-time mission operations (rendezvous, approach, capture/dock, release/undock and departure) on the RPOC console.

MOON AND MARS EXPLORATION SUPPORT

The Contractor shall support NASA’s efforts in GN&C areas related to projects such as Orion, Human Lander Systems (HLS), Space Reactor-1 (SR-1) Freedom, Lunar Pressurized Rover, and related Exploration Initiatives. The contractor shall support planning, designing, and developing software tools and simulation products to support mission design/evaluation, requirements analysis, strategy development, and safety evaluation. The Contractor shall use the software, software tools, and simulation products to perform the requirements development and assessments. The Contractor support shall include but not be limited to the following –

• GN&C requirements development/assessment.

• Architecture analysis, mission design, reference mission assessments, GN&C system level evaluation and assessment.

• GN&C technology assessments and evaluations that may include Monte Carlo or parametric analyses.

• Use of software, software tools, and simulation products to conduct mission design/evaluation, requirements analysis and safety evaluation. Legacy software tools rely on the Trick and JSC Engineering Orbital Dynamics (JEOD) simulation environments, Copernicus, Genesis, or NASA core Flight System (cFS), as well as various programming languages including MATLAB/Toolboxes, Python, Julia, C, and C++.

• Software and hardware integration, hardware-in-the-loop testing, lab maintenance, and simulation development support.

• Integration of GN&C related flight software elements for delivery.

• Vehicle systems engineering and integration, including test campaign planning and execution.

• Test and verification leadership with emphasis on environmental, human-in-the-loop, and interface testing.

• Readiness, training, planning, and technical preparations for real-time support.

TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT, SUPPORT, AND RESEARCH

DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGY

The Contractor shall provide specialized support for development, analysis, testing, or research of technologies related to NASA JSC activities. The contractor support shall include but not be limited to the following –

• Develop and use of software, software tools, and simulations to support GN&C technologies.

• Provide specialized support for tool development and/or implementation in NASA/JSC’s development, analysis, and test labs. Specialized support includes support unique to the tools and models, analysis, and hardware developed for the JSC activities outlined in Sections 2.2 and 2.3.

• Develop prototype tools as required to validate new concepts.

• Design and develop guidance and trajectory tools, including Copernicus (trajectory optimization tool programmed in modern Fortran) and Genesis (trajectory design tool programmed in Julia).

• Perform systems engineering, requirements development and analysis.

• Develop ground and on-orbit test and demonstrations designed to investigate and validate new technologies.

• Leverage existing tools, processes, and experience to minimize additional development and analysis effort.

• Manage and integrate flight software based on the NASA core Flight System (cFS).

• Support embedded systems development, testing, and integration of sensors into flight computers and flight software.

• Development and verification of GN&C system architecture and flight software algorithms, as well as development of vehicle simulations based in Trick or Genesis.

RESEARCH AND PROTOTYPE GN&C

The Contractor shall support research and develop prototype GN&C concepts to support improvements in the ascent, rendezvous, on-orbit, entry, and landing phases of flight. For these related systems/subsystems and software, the Contractor shall enhance Failure Detection, Isolation, and Recovery (FDIR), command and control, crew visualization and intervention, and other vehicle or system/subsystem functions.