NASA Procurement Office, Code DAOO, Stennis Space Center (SSC), MS 39529-6000

99 -- SCIENTIFIC DATA SETS SOL 13-SSC-O-97-21 DUE 062097 POC Rebecca S. Dubuisson, Contracting Officer, Phone (601) 688-1636, Fax (601) 688-1141, Email rebecca.dubuisson@ssc.nasa.gov -- Kimberly G. Stone, Procurement Officer, Phone (601) 688-1432, Fax (601) 688-1141, Email kim.stone@ssc.nasa.gov WEB: Click here for the latest information about this notice, http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/SSC/date.html#13-SSC-O-97-21. E-MAIL: Rebecca S. Dubuisson, rebecca.dubuisson@ssc.nasa.gov. NASA/SSC plans to issue a Request for Offer (RFO) for scientific data sets or products for use by NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) science teams -- The overall scientific goal of MTPE is to provide long-term understanding of the Earth Systems needed to protect our global environment for current and future generations -- NASA is exploring new ways of doing business that will result in faster, better, and cheaper methods of achieving scientific results -- The President's Space Policy directs NASA to establish a demonstration program to purchase data from the private sector - -- In addition to obtaining important MTPE data sets/products, the demonstration program will enable NASA to better assess the willingness of industry to accept a major portion of the up-front financial risk as a new way of doing business -- This data purchase seeks to augment and extend the EOS measurement sets through contracts to purchase data that private sector participants identify as meeting critical elements of the science goals of the MTPE Program and that these participants agree to develop and deliver on a "cash on delivery" basis -- The program is not intended to fund any research activities but to provide data sets or products for research activities funded within MTPE -- The Government is attempting to obtain the maximum value for its investment of taxpayer dollars by challenging the private sector to create and sell necessary scientific data sets or products with no Government oversight -- Offerors will be requested to provide data sets or products that address the scientific requirements of the MTPE Program, which includes five major themes: l) Land-Cover and Land-Use Change Research; 2) Seasonal-to-Interannual Climate Variability and Prediction; 3) Natural Hazards Research and Applications; 4) Long-Term Climate: Natural Variability and Change Research; and, 5) Atmospheric Ozone Research -- The proposal process will be conducted in two phases under separate solicitations -- A two-phase approach makes it possible to evaluate the critical characteristics and value of the proposed data before actually committing to additional specific data purchases -- Not all offerors that are selected for participation in Phase I will be selected for continuation into Phase II -- Only one synopsis will be issued for both phases -- Phase I consists of data providers proposing data sets based upon MTPE science team criteria and the EOS measurement sets -- For offers selected to participate in Phase I, negotiations will be conducted to establish period of performance, price, and data rights with NASA for providing prototype data during a 1 to 6 month period -- By the end of this period, data sets that have been selected during Phase I will be evaluated by a science team for a period of approximately 4 to 6 months -- It is desired that the prototype data will be delivered in a format conducive to EOS Data and Information Systems (EOSDIS) and will include appropriate documentation and metadata. Those contractors providing data sets deemed of value by the science team will then be requested, by letter RFO, to submit proposals for Phase II. Complete technical requirements will be included in the RFO -- Copies of the RFO will be available by downloading from the Internet -- This procurement is being conducted under the NASA MidRange Pilot Test Program approved by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy on April 16, l993 -- A draft RFO is being issued concurrently with this synopses -- Offerors are requested to provide comments to the Contracting Officer no later than May 9, l997, to the address specified in the draft RFO cover sheet -- A pre-offer meeting is scheduled for May 13, 1997 at Stennis Space Center -- A firm date for receipt of offers will be stated in the RFO -- All responsible business sources may submit an offer which shall be considered by the agency -- These documents will be available in ASCII format and reside on a World-Wide Webb (WWW) server, which may be accessed using client browsers such as, MOSAIC -- The WWW address is http://aim6msfc.msfc.nasa.gov/EPS/SSC/date.html. (0122)

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