July 8, 2019

TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION PAGE

1.0 General Information 3
2.0 Introduction / Scope 3
2.1 Cost 3
2.2 Desired Mission Services 4
3.0 Mission Overviews 4
4.0 Pre-selection Support 5
4.1 Initial Proposal Support 5
4.2 Development Support 5
4.3 POD Response Instructions for Pre-Selection Support 6
5.0 POD Response Instructions 7
6.0 Evaluation Factors and Criteria 8
7.0 Acronyms 9
 

1.0 GENERAL INFORMATION

Contracting Office Address:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Code 210.S
Greenbelt, MD 20771

2.0 INTRODUCTION / SCOPE

This proposal opportunity is in response to the NASA Announcement of Opportunity (AO), Heliophysics Medium-class Explorer (Heliophysics MIDEX 2019) element of the Heliophysics Explorer program, which is expected to be released in July of 2019. NASA's GSFC is developing an additional mission concept to be proposed for this AO. The partnership opportunity is being issued to select teaming partner(s) to provide multiple spacecraft buses, instrument to spacecraft integration support, integration support for the spacecraft to launch vehicle, and mission operations support for launch and early orbit commissioning.

The proposed missions are currently in pre-Phase A. This phase ends with a Step 1 proposal that will be due 3 months after the AO is released. If the proposal is selected for implementation, the mission will proceed into Phase A, per NPR 7120.5E. The following schedule should be used as a basis for responses to this opportunity:

Partnership Opportunity Document released July 8, 2019
Responses due July 26, 2019
Partner Selection announced August 2, 2019
AO Release Date July 2, 2019
Step 1 Proposal in response to Helio MIDEX AO September 30, 2019
Selection(s) Announced (target) Q2 CY 2020
Phase A Start Date Q2 CY 2020
Phase A Concept Study Reports Due Q1 CY 2021
Investigation Selection for Flight Q4 2021

Spacecraft Start Date Vendor Specified
Instrument Delivery to for I&T Expected ~ October 1, 2024
Launch Readiness Date Vendor Specified (NLT Feb, 2026)

2.1 COST

Total mission cost and cost fidelity are important issues for the mission trade studies. The mission cost cap for this AO is expected to be in the neighborhood of $250M (FY19), including launch services. This cost includes the instruments, spacecraft, instrument to spacecraft integration support, environmental testing, launch site operations, and mission and science operations for a minimum of 2 years (goal - 3 years), as well as required contingency (>25%). Reserves will be held at the Project level and not with the partner.

There will be no exchange of funds between the teaming partners for the portion of this partnership opportunity dealing with the preparation of the initial submission (Pre-Phase-A, Step 1 proposal) to the MIDEX 2019 AO. Funding will be available for subsequent phases should the candidate mission concept be competitively selected for those additional phases.

2.2 DESIRED MISSION SERVICES

NASA'S GSFC is interested in formally establishing a partner to provide the following services for each of these three missions:

• Provide spacecraft buses capable of supporting mission needs for up to three years in low earth orbit.
• Accommodate, integrate and test primary science instruments provided by NASA'S GSFC and its partners to spacecraft.
• Provide instrument to spacecraft integration and test support, spacecraft to launch vehicle integration and test support, and mission operations support for launch and early orbit commissioning to spacecraft.
• Option #1: GSFC may be interested in having the partner provide mission operations support using the partner's existing mission operations facilities.
• Option #2: Use of GSFC integration and test (I&T) facilities may be considered as a basis should a potential provider not have adequate facilities for satellite-level I&T.

All interested parties are required to respond to this POD in accordance with Section 4 below.

3.0 MISSION OVERVIEWS

The Heliophysics Explorer Program conducts Principal Investigator (PI)-led space science investigations. The goal of NASA's Heliophysics Explorers Program is to provide frequent flight opportunities for high quality, high value, focused Heliophysics science investigations that can be accomplished under a not-to-exceed cost cap and that can be developed relatively quickly, generally in 48 months or less.

Selected Heliophysics Explorers will perform heliophysics investigations designed to address the following science goals:

• Explore the physical processes in the space environment from the Sun to the Earth and throughout the solar system;
• Advance our understanding of the connections that link the Sun, the Earth, planetary space environments, and the outer reaches of our solar system; and
• Develop the knowledge and capability to detect and predict extreme conditions in space to protect life and society and to safeguard human and robotic explorers beyond Earth.

Potential Mission Mission Description
HMIDEX-M Small Satellite Constellation - Low Earth Orbit

Detailed information on the parameters of the potential GSFC missions will be provided to those responding with a Notice of Interest (NOI). A Notice of Interest (it is intentionally not called a notice of intent) does not obligate an organization to provide a POD response.

4.0 PRE-SELECTION SUPPORT

4.1 INITIAL PROPOSAL SUPPORT

SOW: It is expected that the selected POD respondent will provide support using their own resources to help develop the required Heliophysics MIDEX 2019 proposal elements in response to the Heliophysics MIDEX 2019 AO in the following areas:

• a well-defined and documented spacecraft baseline,
• instrument accommodations,
• instrument to spacecraft integration support,
• spacecraft to launch vehicle integration support, and
• mission operations support for launch and early orbit commissioning.

This will involve meeting with the Principal Investigator (PI) and other proposal team members to establish the system architecture, to help define both end-to-end and elemental performance requirements, to provide well-defined interfaces for the instruments, launch vehicle and ground system elements, and to identify any necessary technology developments and/or other risk areas that may affect mission success. These efforts will culminate in a Technical Baseline Review (TBR) approximately 15 days after selection and will include cost estimation for all partner-provided mission elements and for all mission phases.

The period of performance for this interval is expected to start August 5, 2019 until proposal submission.

4.2 DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT

SOW: If the mission is selected for development and launch, the respondent will be responsible for the design, development, and testing of the provided mission elements. The respondent is responsible for identifying the spacecraft requirements and providing all aspects of the spacecraft (either directly, or through purchasing or teaming arrangements). The period of performance for this interval is expected to follow the timeline noted in Section 2.0. However, the respondent is encouraged to develop a schedule for completing the spacecraft bus that provides the best value to the Government.
 
4.3 POD RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRE-SELECTION SUPPORT

SOW: The respondent shall:

1) Demonstrate understanding and flight experience in the design, fabrication, integration and testing of spacecraft:
• Identify assumed mission and system requirements for the spacecraft and a response to addressing those requirements;
• Highlight particularly critical or challenging areas for the design of the spacecraft;
• Provide a technical summary/description of the proposed spacecraft bus including relevant heritage;
• Describe what types of capabilities and cost benefits the spacecraft provides for the intended mission;
• Identify available design and modeling capabilities required to support development of the spacecraft;
• Identify fabrication and testing facilities that will be required to support development and test of the spacecraft; and
• Provide any recommended potential study topics related to the spacecraft.

2) Indicate what level of resources would be allocated to the proposal phase of support
• Discuss skills that will be provided, ideas on what level of conceptual design and important analysis and trade studies that might be needed.

3) Identify the pertinent missions for which the respondent has provided support for proposal writing in the area of spacecraft design, fabrication, integration and testing:
• Provide data on scope of the spacecraft design, the role played in the proposal process, and the portions of the proposal written or provided assistance in writing, and provide a customer reference POC.

4) Provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimate and schedule for the design, fabrication, and testing of the spacecraft; integration of the GFE instrument module to the spacecraft; and observatory environmental testing.

5) Options: While these ROM's will not be considered binding commitments, they will serve as an important consideration during the response evaluation and therefore some supporting justification of the ROM is required. Include previous experiences in the applicable area as well as cost/schedule performance with supporting data (estimated vs actual).

• Option #1: Mission Operations Support - Respondent may provide separate ROM cost estimate for providing mission operations support using partner's provided facilities. Two years of routine mission operations support shall be assumed (post-on-orbit commissioning).
• Option #2: GSFC Environmental Testing - The respondent may also propose and provide a separate ROM for spacecraft integration and environmental testing at the GSFC if it is deemed to be a better value for the Government.

5.0 POD RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS

Potential respondents are asked to contact the NASA'S GSFC Heliophysics MIDEX 2019 team by 5 PM EDT on July 10, 2019 with a Notice of Interest (intentionally not called a notice of intent). This Notice of Interest does not create an obligation to respond to the POD, but allows the NASA'S GSFC Heliophysics MIDEX 2019 team to disseminate additional details on the mission parameters and requirements and to provide answers to questions from potential partners. All Notice of Interest respondents will receive a document containing additional details on the proposed Heliophysics MIDEX 2019 mission, which can be used to facilitate a focused response to the partnership opportunity. These details are proprietary and competition sensitive and are not to be shared outside the teams necessary to prepare a full response. In addition, the second document will contain partner selection criteria.

After receipt of the mission document, respondents may send questions to the NASA'S GSFC Heliophysics MIDEX 2019 Team at the e-mail address listed below. All questions and answers will be made available to those who respond to the Notice of Interest. The source of the questions shall be held confidential. Questions and answers that contain information unique to a respondent's proprietary approach will not be shared if they are identified as such.

Notice of Interest shall be sent to
Deborah.A.Amato@nasa.gov via email with "Notice of Interest" in the subject line, a simple sentence or two expressing interest, and an email address to send further information.

For purposes of this partnership opportunity, the NASA'S GSFC Heliophysics MIDEX 2019 Team contact is Deborah Amato, Deborah.A.Amato@nasa.gov, 301-286-6834 (W) or New Opportunities Office, 301-286-5442 (O).

It is the responsibility of potential respondents to monitor the Federal Business Opportunities website at www.fbo.gov, for information concerning this POD.
Responses to the Partnership Opportunity Document (POD) shall:
• Address all requirements noted in Sections 2.0 through 5.0 of this document; and
• Deliver the requested information in a standard presentation format (viewgraphs: such as Power Point) that shall not exceed 30 pages (not including Options). The font size for the text shall be no smaller than 12 point.
Responses will be treated as proprietary information and controlled as such by GSFC for the US Government.
 
Final presentation packages (electronic copy only, Portable Document Format {PDF} recommended) must be received by 5 pm EDT, July 26, 2019.

Presentations are to be delivered to Deborah Amato, Deborah.a.amato@nasa.gov. Following receipt of responses, NASA/GSFC will set up teleconferences with each respondent for oral presentation and questions and answers. The timeline of these teleconferences is expected to be the week of July 29-31, 2019. Teleconferences will be scheduled in the order that responses were received.

Partnership Selection is expected to be made by August 2, 2019.

6.0 EVALUATION FACTORS AND CRITERIA

The evaluation team will use the following factors in selection and award:

1. Technical Approach (30%). Respondents will be evaluated on their ability to meet the technical requirements given in Section 2, 3, and 4. This includes demonstrated understanding of the requirements and proposed approach to meet those requirements.

2. Cost (45%). Respondents will be evaluated on their overall cost and on the reasonableness of cost and schedule estimates.

3. Relevant Experience and Past Performance (25%). Special emphasis will be given to demonstrated experience with similar missions, particularly with regards to instrument accommodations, spacecraft attitude control requirements, and mission communication requirements.
 
7.0 ACRONYMS

AO Announcement of Opportunity
NASA'S GSFC NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
ICD Interface Control Document
MIDEX Medium-class Explorer
NLT No Later Than
NPR NASA Procedural Requirement
PI Principal Investigator
POD Partnership Opportunity Document
ROM Rough Order of Magnitude
TBD To Be Determined
U.S.A United States of America