JPL Competitive (Best Value) RFP for Technology Development for Europa Lander Descent Camera

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), an operating division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) staffed with Caltech employees, is a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) under the sponsorship of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). As a member of the NASA family, JPL is recognized as the agency's only FFRDC.

Safe and accurate landing on Europa presents multiple challenges that are unique to Europa's environment. For this reason, a Lander Descent Camera is required. The Descent Camera is intended to provide images for localization and velocimetry during the Deorbit, Descent, and Landing (DDL) phase of the mission.

This RFP is for Phase I, the engineering design effort with the objective of arriving at a camera design capable of meeting the required performance while being robust to the extreme Jovian/Europan environments and compatible with Planetary Protection requirements. This shall be done via detailed design studies for components, analyses and tests of environmental impacts on the camera, and evaluation and progressive refinement of various camera design options leading to eventual Flight unit procurement at the end of Phase II.

Because some of the documents are export controlled, it is required that interested proposers contact JPL Subcontracts Manager Crystal Ramirez to receive the solicitation documents.