MARVL ECI RFI_FY24_R2.pdf

NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is hereby soliciting information from potential partners to participate in a proposal development activity that addresses the technical objectives and development of technology elements associated to the Modular Assembled Radiators for NEP VehicLes (MARVL) project in response to an Early Career Initiative (ECI) sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) and released on November 13, 2023.

The deadline for partnering responses is January 16, 2024.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) LaRC is seeking participation with this partnering synopsis from all interested U.S. and non-U.S. organizations, including educational institutions, industry, not-for-profit institutions, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as NASA Centers and other U.S. Government Agencies. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Other Minority Universities (OMUs), small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs), veteran-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, HUBZone small businesses, and women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) are also encouraged to respond. Additionally, in support of the Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, NASA is also looking to advance equity or remove barriers for members of underserved communities to access procurement opportunities. Underserved Communities include Black, Latino, and Indigenous and Native American persons, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other persons of color;

members of religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) persons; persons with disabilities; persons who live in rural areas; and persons otherwise adversely affected by persistent poverty or inequality.

Participation by non-U.S. organizations is welcome but subject to NASA’s policy of no exchange of funds, in which each government supports its own national participants and associated costs.

The Early Career Initiative (ECI) is an internal NASA call for space technology development and demonstration proposals that foster the next step in the professional development of early career NASA technologists by providing cutting-edge hands-on space technology development opportunities. This initiative promotes creative joint partnering within highly collaborative work environments between the best and brightest NASA early career innovators and world-class industry, academia, and other government organizations.

Proposing teams will include a core team, including NASA and external partner members, and at least half of the core team must consist of NASA early career employees. A NASA early career employee must lead the project (Project Lead) and shall engage an experienced NASA mentor and a STMD mentor who will be identified after selection of the project. Other roles (e.g., Project Manager, Project Scientist) can be filled by team members from NASA or the external partner. The general approach will be to employ agile systems engineering methods emphasizing working products, collaboration, iterative, hands-on testing, and responsiveness to change rather than formal process and documentation with milestone-based assessments, including a continuation review at the development site and a final presentation to NASA Headquarters. If a project wishes to involve a foreign organization, prior confirmation is needed.

Teams must propose innovative space hardware-focused projects lasting no more than 2 years, with total costs of up to $1.0M per year, including procurement and labor costs.

NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is seeking partners to participate in developing proposals for and collaborating on potential Early Career Initiative (ECI) projects. LaRC is pursuing several topic areas that align with NASA’s space technology priorities and involve a variety of technical areas that could benefit from partnering. Potential partners shall respond to the technical challenge provided below:

• Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) is one propulsion technology candidate for long duration space flight missions to the Moon and Mars. This form of propulsion generates large quantities of excess heat which necessitates extraordinarily large-scale radiators for heat rejection. This NEP subsystem is called the Primary Heat Rejection Subsystem (PHRS). Incorporating in-Space Assembly (iSA) capabilities into the PHRS design space will allow for reduced radiator mass, facilitate the use of a variety of commercial launch vehicles, and enable radiator repair and replacement. MARVL will identify and address four technical challenges to design modular PHRS radiator units to be assembled in a reactor commission orbit. These four areas are as follows:

o PHRS installation and commissioning concept enabling nuclear reactor operations, in-flight repairs, and use of commercial launch vehicles.

o Predictions of physical system behavior in operational environments throughout all mission phases.

o High-temperature, lightweight, and damage tolerant radiators.

o Ability to connect high-temperature fluid interfaces and initiate heat transfer between components.

• The MARVL project goal is to design and analyze a lightweight PHRS targeting an NEP capability. The project will conduct research and development efforts regarding PHRS installation and commissioning concepts for a candidate NEP vehicle. The team will then design modular radiator units that can be assembled in-space to produce the required total radiator area for the selected mission. Utilization of prior knowledge of iSA will be advantageous for project success, along with multi-physic systems modeling, large scale radiator design, and high temperature fluid interfaces design. All four aspects will need to work in concert to generate an optimal PHRS design. It is not expected that each potential partner will have knowledge in all areas stated prior. The following objectives will be addressed by the MARVL project:

o Define and evaluate a set of PHRS installation and commissioning concepts o Build models and simulations to predict system behavior in environments o Define and analyze a modular high-temperature radiator o Define and analyze a reversible high-temperature fluid interface design

The partner(s) may provide expertise in at least one of the fields described below. The ideal partner would contribute some work or resources to the project in-kind, which should be described within the partner’s proposal submission.

• Ideal academic partner candidates should have experience in the fields of radiative heat rejection systems, radiator design, fluid loop systems, multi-physics modeling and simulation, fluid interfaces, and/or in-Space Assembly. Analysis expertise of work stated is desired.

• Ideal industry partner candidates should address a minimum of one of the following technical focus areas:

1. Radiative Heat Rejection Systems

• Experience with large scale heat rejection system design

• Focused technical areas regarding radiator design (i.e. heat pipes, mass reduction, structural elements, specialty surface coatings for radiator surfaces, material selection, etc.)

• Capabilities to help validate concepts/analyses at sub-scale levels

• Radiative heat rejection system modeling and analysis expertise

2. Fluid Loop Design and Fluid Interfaces

• Experience with alkali metal fluid loop systems including material compatibility

• High-temperature reversible fluid interfaces for heat transfer

• Design for reversibility and minimal leakage

• Modeling and analysis expertise for fluid loop and fluid interface design

3. In-Space Assembly/autonomous robotic systems and/or Modeling and Simulation of complex systems

• End-effector design and dexterous robotic manipulation

• State estimation and sensor fusion

• Experience with ROS2, C++, and Python

• Hardware module packaging for launch to space

• Integrated multi-physics simulation (ex. orbital simulations with multibody dynamics)

• High fidelity visualization capabilities for synthetic data generation

This partnering opportunity does not guarantee selection for award of any contracts or other agreements, nor is it to be construed as a commitment by NASA to pay for the information solicited. It is expected that the partner(s) selected would provide (at no cost to NASA) technical requirements, conceptual designs, technical data, proposal input, project schedules, and cost estimates. If the proposal is subsequently selected, NASA LaRC anticipates issuing contracts or other agreements to the selected partner(s) for the performance of the proposed tasks.

Partner selections will be made by LaRC based on the listed criteria:

(1) Technical Qualifications of the External Partner (30 points): This criterion evaluates the technical expertise/capabilities; and innovativeness of the external partner in leading and/or executing activities related to the topics above; and the resources (skills and time) that would be allocated to the potential proposal development phase.

(2) Management Approach (25 points): This criterion evaluates how the management approach is different from standard NASA practices, evaluates whether it represents a successful approach from another industry or organization and shows understanding of the alternative approach. The criterion will assess how the management approach applies to your project and the degree to which it increases the probability of successfully executing the work plan. Assessment will also include the practicality and efficiency of the project schedule and requested resources.

(3) Teaming and Workforce Approach (25 points): This criterion evaluates the integration of capabilities across the core team members relative to the work plan.

(4) Iterative Design Approach Used in the Past (20 points): This criterion evaluates the external partner’s past experience in developing and utilizing Design Analysis Cycles (DAC), Agile Sprints, or other iterative design processes. It will be important to address: experience using development methods that emphasize working products; collaboration;

iterative design processes; and responsiveness to change as well as formal processes and documentation. Knowledge of the NASA NPR 7120.8 and

7123.1 will be advantageous.

No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on SAM.gov. Interested firms are responsible for monitoring this website for the release of any solicitation or synopsis.

Interested firms having the required capabilities necessary to meet the above requirement described herein should submit a capability statement of no more than 5 pages indicating the ability to perform all aspects of the effort. The responses should use 12-point font for each technical area of interest (i.e. offerors responding to one or more of the mission elements may submit up to 5 pages). Responses shall also address each of the evaluation criteria listed above.

Resumes of key personnel and a cover page that clearly identifies the topic area addressed by the response do not count against the total allocated page count. Please advise if the requirement is considered to be a commercial or commercial-type product. A commercial item is defined in

FAR 2.101.

All responses shall be submitted electronically via e-mail to Octavia Hicks at octavia.l.hicks@nasa.gov and to Amanda Stark at amanda.stark@nasa.gov no later than 4:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time January 16, 2024, All procurement questions should be directed to Octavia Hicks.

This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited.

Respondents will be notified of the results of the evaluation. Respondents deemed fully qualified will be considered in any resultant partnering selections for the requirement.

mailto:octavia.l.hicks@nasa.gov mailto:amanda.stark@nasa.gov