ICESat-2 Airborne Lidar Survey

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has a requirement for support to plan and execute a mission to collect airborne lidar and imagery data in July 2022 in support of the ICESat-2 spaceborne lidar mission. This contract will support the deployment and integration of the Chiropetra lidar and imagery system, owned and operated by the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology on NASA’s G-V aircraft from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. This aircraft campaign will operate out of Thule Air Force base (Greenland) and will collect data over sea ice targets, with specific targets dictated by weather and safety considerations. The contract will support data collection and processing for up to 7 flights of up to 7 hours duration each (49 total hours of data collection). This contract will support all aspects of the integration and deployment of the instrument and instrument team to Thule in support of this campaign.

NASA/GSFC intends to issue a sole source contract to acquire the services from the University of Texas at Austin in accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1 – only one responsible source. The University of Texas at Austin Bureau of Economic Geology currently owns and operates the Chiropetra lidar and imagery system, which will deploy on NASA’s G-V aircraft from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The University of Texas at Austin is the only source that both has the technical capability to collect the required data, and the ability to meet the programmatic requirements of this campaign (primarily schedule). The Bureau of Economic Geology has deployed this combined lidar and imagery system several times in support of Earth Science missions and projects. This instrument has the unique capability to co-locate both infrared lidar data with green lidar data – this combination allows the Chiroptera instrument to unambiguously determine both the water (or ice) surface, but also the depth of melt ponds on arctic sea ice. This ability to measure the depth of ponds is a critical objective of the ICESat-2 2022 Arctic Sea Ice Airborne Campaign. As such, this deployment requires both the specialized instrumentation owned by the contractor, as well as the specialized data processing algorithms and specialized labor skills to produce the data products that will meet the mission requirements. The timing of this campaign (July 2022) is timed to capture melting sea ice conditions in this part of the Arctic, which are generally from late June to late August each year, and the availability of NASA Johnson Space Flight Center’s Gulfstream-V aircraft. Therefore, no other source can provide the services necessary to meet the needs of the ICESat-2 spaceborne lidar mission. A period of performance of 1-year is anticipated.

The Government does not intend to acquire a commercial item using FAR Part 12.

Interested organizations may submit their capabilities and qualifications to perform the effort electronically via email to Nathan Freeman at Nathan.A.Freeman@nasa.gov not later than on May 19, 2022. Such capabilities/qualifications will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this acquisition on a competitive basis. A determination by the Government not to compete this acquisition on a full and open competition basis, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government.

NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/procurement/regs/Procurement-Ombuds-Comp-Advocate-Listing.pdf