Partnering Opportunity for Scalable High Energy oPtics for Astronomy Returns and Discovery (SHEPARD)

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center has issued a Special Notice for the Scalable High Energy oPtics for Astronomy Returns and Discovery (SHEPARD) project under the Early Career Initiative (ECI). This partnering synopsis seeks potential collaborators to contribute to advanced optical and manufacturing technologies for space exploration. The notice aims to identify partners with expertise in precision surface finishing, metrology equipment, and advanced manufacturing methodologies. Specifically, NASA is looking for organizations that can support technical development in areas such as grazing-incidence mirror mandrels, high-resolution optical metrology, and ultra-high precision machining and polishing techniques. The opportunity represents a collaborative approach to developing innovative space hardware technologies.

Potential partners can include U.S. and non-U.S. organizations such as educational institutions, industry entities, non-profits, and government agencies, with particular encouragement for HBCUs, minority universities, and small businesses. The project requires partner teams to include at least 50% NASA early career employees and proposes innovative space hardware projects lasting up to two years with costs up to $1.0M annually. Partner selection will be evaluated across four key criteria: technical qualifications (30 points), management approach (25 points), teaming and workforce approach (25 points), and experience with agile development principles (20 points). Interested parties must submit responses of up to five pages per technical area by February 14, 2024, using 12-point font. Partners will provide technical requirements, conceptual designs, and other inputs at no cost to NASA, with the potential for future collaborative agreements if selected.