SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) Near Earth Objects Observations (NEOO) Partnerships Request for Information (RFI)
- Notice Date
- 10/12/2017
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA Headquarters Acquisition Branch, Code 210.H, Greenbelt, Maryland, 20771, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20771
- Solicitation Number
- NNH17ZDA009L
- Point of Contact
- Dr. Kelly Fast,
- E-Mail Address
-
kelly.e.fast@nasa.gov
(kelly.e.fast@nasa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- 1. Summary The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA or the Administration) Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) ( https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/overview ) is soliciting capability statements under this Request for Information (RFI) to identify private sector and philanthropic organizations that could contribute to the Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program ( https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/search_program.html ). This request is for information to be used for planning purposes only and will be internally reviewed. NASA will use the information obtained as a result of this RFI on a non-attribution basis. Responses of up to 10 pages should be submitted by November 13th, 2017, via NSPIRES in response to NNH17ZDA009L. See below for more information. PDCO is seeking the following information on organizations interested in partnering with NASA for this effort: •Your organization's specific capabilities (both current or already in development) that could be leveraged to achieve the goals of the NEO Observations (NEOO) Program (also referred to hereafter as "the Survey"). Examples include: telescopes with effective aperture diameters, instrumentation specifications, infrared sensors, long range radars with power and resolution, satellite technical information, ground station information, and technical information about related assets your organization controls. •Mechanisms that the Administration could use to expand collaborative partnership with your organization to detect, track, catalogue, and categorize NEOs. Examples include: public-private partnerships, data sharing agreements, and memoranda of understanding 2. Background Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to enter the Earth's neighborhood. Source: https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/basics.html. Section 321 of the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 created the George E. Brown, Jr. Near-Earth Object Survey. Congress requested that the NASA's efforts be enhanced to detect, track, and catalogue NEOs to characterize the NEO hazard. The Act created the Survey Program to "detect, track, catalogue, and characterize the physical characteristics of near-Earth objects equal to or greater than 140 meters in diameter" with a goal to achieve 90% completion by 2020. To date, nearly 8,000 of the estimated population of 25,000 NEOs with diameters greater than 140 meters have been detected. However, NASA estimates that with current assets in service, the Survey will not achieve 90% completion until 2045. Section 512 of the NASA Authorization Act of 2017 states, "It is the sense of Congress that the Administration should seek to leverage the capabilities of the private sector and philanthropic organizations to the maximum extent practicable in carrying out the Near-Earth Object Survey Program in order to meet the goal of that program..." The Act also calls for a report "describing how the Administration could expand collaborative partnerships to detect, track, catalogue, and categorize near-Earth objects." 3. Requested Response Topics The specific objective of this RFI is to seek information on organizations that NASA's PDCO could partner with to enhance the NEO Observations Program and specific information on their capabilities that could aid in this Survey. Previous experience that is relevant or could be applied to this Survey, is also relevant to this RFI. Capability areas that PDCO is interested in include but are not limited to: 1.Data Processing and Management 2.Detection and Tracking 3.Follow-Up 4.Characterization Information on capabilities in these areas or other areas not listed but that could be potentially helpful to PDCO should include information on current capabilities as well as capabilities in development that will be available without any partnership with NASA. Capabilities reported in development should NOT include any that are contingent on initiation of a partnership with NASA before they could be implemented. Please be as specific as possible when describing the capabilities of your organization and equipment as well as any organizational experience that is relevant to the Survey effort. To be effective in this Survey work, only systems with effective visual magnitude limits exceeding 20Mv should be considered. Important details include but are not limited to metrics such as telescope diameters, detector magnitude thresholds, multi-telescope coordination at local or regional levels, rate of sky scan, facility location and altitude, local weather patterns, time available to dedicate to Survey efforts, instrumentation information, spectral bandwidths, radar power and resolution, data processing capabilities, field of view, and automatic tracking capabilities. When describing previous experience relevant to NEO survey efforts, include detailed information such as but not limited to experience in tracking or observing asteroids or other moving targets, advanced post-processing techniques, previous partnerships with NASA, and other activities that might be relevant for detecting, tracking, cataloguing, and characterizing NEOs. 4. Response Guidelines Since this is a sources sought announcement, no evaluation letters and/or results will be issued to the respondents. Capability Statements shall be submitted electronically, via NSPIRES, see below for further information. The Capability Statement, exclusive of the one page summary, shall not exceed 10 pages (including attachments) and shall use a minimum font size of 12 pt. Additionally, the Capability Statement shall list, at a minimum, two customer contacts covering the past five years (highlight relevant work performed, any associated contract numbers, contract type, dollar value of each contract, number of employees and customer point of contact address, phone number and email address). To facilitate a prompt review, a one-page summary shall be included with your capability statement(s), which shall identify your entity's specific capabilities that are relevant to the Survey. The one page summary will not count against the page limit. The one-page summary shall include: 1.Name, address, primary POC, and telephone number; 2.Size of organization; 3.Total number of employees or individuals involved in efforts; 4.Describe the organization's ownership; 5.Number of years in business; 6.If applicable, entity's Government size standard/type classification (Large, Small,Small Disadvantaged, 8(a), Woman-Owned, Veteran-Owned, Service Disabled Veteran, HUB Zone business); 7.Affiliate information: including any entity parent, joint venture partners, prime contractor (if potential sub) or subcontractors (if potential prime), point of contact position, address and phone number; 8.Applicable NAICS Code(s); and 9.DUNS number and cage code, if available. It is not sufficient to provide only general brochures or generic information. NASA encourages qualified Joint Venture business arrangements to submit Capability Statements as well. Responses shall include the entity's specific area of interest related to the Survey. Please advise if the capability is considered to be a commercial or commercial-type product. A commercial item is defined in FAR 2.101. It is emphasized that this RFI is NOT a Request for Proposal, nor Invitation for Bid. NASA does not plan to respond to the individual submittals. This RFI is being used to obtain information for planning purposes only, and the Government does not intend to award a contract or any other instrument or agreement at this time. As stipulated in FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Pursuant to FAR 52.215-3, entitled Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes, this information is being made available for planning purposes and to allow private institutions and individuals the opportunity to self-identify their capabilities that may be of interest to the Survey. This RFI is subject to review or cancellation at any time and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contract. The Government will not pay for the information submitted in response to this request, and respondents will not be notified of the results. 5. Response Instructions All responses must be received by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on November 13th, 2017. All responses to this RFI must be submitted in electronic form via NSPIRES, the NASA online announcement data management system, located at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/. For this RFI, a response submission will take the form of a Notice of Intent (NOI) within the NSPIRES online announcement data management system. The RFI response itself will be, exclusive of the one page summary, a 10-page PDF-formatted document that is attached (uploaded) to the NSPIRES system. Please conform to the standard formatting described in the ROSES Summary of Solicitation, Section IV(b)ii. You must be registered with NSPIRES to submit a RFI response. See registration instructions at http://nspires.nasaprs.com (select "Getting an account"). Neither institution registration nor an institution affiliation is required to respond to this RFI. 1.Log into your account at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/. 2.Select "Proposals/NOIs" from your account page. 3.Select "Create NOI" from your proposals page. 4.Click "Continue" on the next page. 5.Select "Request for Information: NNH17ZDA009L from the bulleted list of announcements. 6.Click "Continue." 7.Enter RFI response title ("NOI title" field will be shown). 8.Select "do not link at this time" for submitting organization page. 9.Click "Save" on next page. 10.It is not necessary to complete any of the "NOI Details"; all requested information should be included in the attached PDF document. Information which is entered into "NOI Details" but not included in the attached PDF document will not be considered. 11.Prepare your RFI response offline and save as a PDF document (note NSPIRES instructions on PDF formats). The response document must include the respondent's name, institution, and E-mail address so the file is self-contained. File names format should be "PI Last Name - First Name - Number - RFI". "Number" will be used to distinguish multiple responses from the same PI. Each response should not exceed ten pages in length. 12.To attach (upload) your PDF document: a.Click "add" under NOI attachments section; b.Select "Proposal Document" from the drop-down list; c.Browse to attach your PDF file; d.Select "Upload"; e.Click "OK"; f.Your RFI document has been uploaded to NSPIRES. 13.Click "Submit NOI" button. NOTE that this does not complete the submission process. 14.Ignore any warnings about incomplete NOI elements. Ensure that your NOI document is attached and click "Continue." 15.Click "Submit." This will take you to the NOI submission confirmation page, which provides you with the NOI/RFI number for your records. This completes the submission process. Please note: You may delete and replace form fields and uploaded documents any time before the submission deadline, however, once the RFI response is submitted, it cannot be deleted. 8. Point of Contact Questions concerning this Request for Information should be emailed to Dr. Kelly Fast kelly.e.fast@nasa.gov Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this RFI.
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