This partnering synopsis is in preparation for the Earth Venture Instrument 6 (EVI-6) opportunity (or upcoming Earth Venture Mission) opportunity within the Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Program, which is estimated to be released in Summer, 2020. The Earth Venture Program is an element within the Earth System Science Pathfinder Program (ESSP) consisting of a series of innovative, integrated, science-driven approaches to solve pressing Earth system science issues. The goal of NASA's Earth Venture mission portfolio is to provide frequent flight opportunities for high quality, high value, focused Earth science investigations that can be accomplished under a not-to-exceed cost cap and that can be developed and flown relatively quickly, generally in 4-5 years or less.

This partnership opportunity is issued to select a teaming partner(s) to provide: (1) a SmallSat/CubeSat lidar system for taking atmospheric profiling lidar measurements of aerosols and clouds and ocean subsurface studies and (2) a SmallSat/CubeSat bus.

The mission cost cap for this AO is expected to be in the neighborhood of $35M (FY22)/Class D and the option also exists for a ~$100M Class C instrument in FY’20 dollars.  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 proposal) to the AO.  Funding will be available for subsequent phases should the candidate mission concept be competitively selected for those additional phases.

Participation in this partnering synopsis is open to all categories of U.S. and non-U.S. organizations, including educational institutions, industry, not-for-profit institutions, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, as well as NASA Centers and other U.S. Government Agencies. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Other Minority Universities (OMUs), small disadvantaged businesses (SDBs), veteran-owned small businesses, service disabled veteran-owned small businesses, HUBzone small businesses, and women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) are encouraged to apply. Participation by non-U.S. organizations is welcome but subject to NASA's policy of no exchange of funds, in which each government supports its own national participants and associated costs.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Earth Science Division's Earth Venture portfolio is an element within the Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Program. Earth Venture investigations consist of a series of regularly solicited, competitively selected, cost- and schedule-constrained Earth science investigations. They are described in the 2017 report, Thriving on Our Changing Planet. The 2017 Decadal Survey recommended that the existing Earth Venture portfolio be continued and expanded over the coming decade.

Initiated in 2007, the goal of NASA's Earth Venture portfolio is to provide frequent flight opportunities for high quality, high value, and focused Earth science investigations. These investigations need to be accomplished under a not-to-exceed cost cap that can be developed and flown relatively quickly, generally within five years. The investigations are Principal Investigator (PI) led and are selected through an open competition to ensure broad community involvement and encourage innovative approaches.

The intention of the Partnering Opportunity is to seek potential partners having demonstrated experience supporting one or more of the following areas:

(1) Design, fabrication, integration and testing of a lidar system compatible with a SmallSat/CubeSat.  Identify assumed instrument requirements and the approach to addressing those requirements. Describe relevant component and system heritage. Identify experience in the design, fabrication, integration and testing of similar space-flight instruments. Highlight particularly critical or challenging areas for the design of the instrument. Identify available design and modeling capabilities required to support development of the instrument components.

(2) SmallSat/CubeSat bus, including the following:

• Small satellite design and manufacture
• System Engineering support to resolve any payload accommodation issues
• Payload integration and testing (I&T) on the small satellite (Note: Adequate contamination mitigation precautions must be taken during I&T to assure the on-orbit performance of optical instruments.)
• Small satellite mission operations support throughout the mission lifetime
• Communications - telemetry and data interfaces
• Ground data capture and distribution services options
• Integration to Launch Vehicle

Relevant Parameter and Values provided below:

Parameter                          Value

Design Life                         2-5 years

Attitude Knowledge      10-25 arcseconds

Attitude Control             30-150 arcseconds

Jitter                                   < 10 arcseconds/sec

Mass                                    40 – 100 kg

Peak Power                      40 – 250 W

Volume                              Up to 1m x 1m x 1m

Mission Class                  C or D

Pointing ability              Inertial, Nadir, Earth Fixed, Solar, Lunar

Data rates                        10.0 Kbps – 1.0 Mbps

The period of performance for concept formulation and proposal development is expected to start upon selection and last until proposal submission. This will involve meeting with the proposal team members to establish the instrument functional and performance requirements, to develop the design concept, to identify and articulate capabilities and advantages of the selected approach, to identify and plan the schedule and cost of any necessary technology developments, and to identify and develop mitigation plans for risk areas that may affect mission success.

The evaluation team will use the following factors in partner selection:

1. Relevant Experience and Past Performance. The proposer shall include relevant recent experience and past performance in similar development activities.
2. Technical Approach. Respondents will be evaluated on their ability to meet the technical requirements. This includes demonstrated understanding of the requirements and proposed approach to meet those requirements.
3. Proposal Support (skills and personnel offered, relevant experience, past performance). This includes the skills and level of effort allocated to concept formulation and proposal support. 
4. Cost and Schedule. Respondents will be evaluated on their Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimate and on the reasonableness of this estimate. For those respondents offering a spacecraft bus, provide an estimate of costs for accommodating the notional sample payload (see range of parameters above) through pre-launch, launch and flight operation mission phases. The cost management strategy for the spacecraft development, launch and on-orbit checkout should be discussed. Provide the cost drivers and assumptions, as applicable.

NASA will not reimburse organizations for the cost of submitting information in response to this partnering opportunity. NASA will not pay for technical assessment or proposal preparation costs incurred by the respondent.

Responses to this partnering synopsis shall be limited to 10 pages in not less than 12-point font. Responses must address the aforementioned evaluation criteria. All responses shall be submitted to LaRC electronically via email by 3:00pm EST on January 29, 2020 to JaeSun Riley, [email protected]. Technical and Programmatic questions regarding this draft partnering synopsis should be directed to Becky Bales, [email protected] and procurement questions should be directed to JaeSun Riley, [email protected].