Solar Cruiser Phase B Solar Sail System Provider

Note: This notice has been updated with a Question and Response. See bottom of this section. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has a requirement for services relating to the 2018 Heliophysics Technology Demonstration Mission of Opportunity NNH17ZDA004O to continue into development (Phase B) after a two-step process lasting more than 2 years. NASA/MSFC intends to issue a sole source contract to acquire the services from Roccor, Inc. who has been a key partner in the proposal effort, contributing company investment dollars through the life of the proposal period. Roccor was selected as the Solar Sail System (SSS) provider based on Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) investments on solar sail technology developments through Roccor going back many years. The following is a list of those investments, which total over $4M of federal investment. NASA Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract #NNX16CL50P: Development of high-performance HSC TBs for CubeSat solar sails. NASA Phase III SBIR contract #NNX16CG03P: Deployable TBs for NASA Goddard CORSAIR Mission, this mission resulted in the development and delivery of 6-m HSC TBs to NASA Goddard. NASA Phase II SBIR contract # NNX17CL07C: Development of TRACTM Boom (TB) technology—the goal of this project was to develop a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of the TB technology and mature design tools, enabling this technology to be infused into NASA missions. AFRL SBIR Commercialization Readiness Program (CRP) contract #FA9453-17-C-0426: Development of the FURL solar sail—the goal of this project is to scale-up an AFRL-developed solar sail technology, called FURL. This unique solar sail design utilizes TBs as the deployment system. AFRL SBIR Phase I SBIR contract #FA8650-18-P-9211: Development of a 1,000-m2 deorbit sail—the goal of this project is to develop a very large drag sail technology that can be used to deorbit spent upper stages of rockets. The drag sail has a similar architecture to a solar sail and employs TB technology directly extensible to Solar Cruiser as the deployment system. NASA Phase II SBIR contract #80NSSC18C0173: Development of TB specifically for very large solar sails and directly extensible to Solar Cruiser. This program will be leveraged during Phase A for the preliminary design and development of the Solar Cruiser sail system. NASA Phase I SBIR contract #80NSSC19C0513: Development of a Sail Trimming Actuator for Targeted Reentry (STARTR) system with a 4-TB deployment system similar to Solar Cruiser SDM. Roccor is now the designer and developer of extensible booms for large-scale deployable structures (which includes solar sails). Much of the design for the Solar Cruiser Solar Sail System was developed under the above listed SBIRs. Pursuant to FAR 6.302-1, the Government intends to award a sole source contract to Roccor to develop, manufacture, test and deliver the Solar Sail System (SSS) elements, as well as the Active Mass Translator (AMT) for the Solar Cruiser Project. The Government does not intend to acquire a commercial item using FAR Part 12. Interested organizations may submit their capabilities and qualifications to perform the effort electronically via email to Burke Sellers at [email protected] not later than 3:00 p.m. CST on February 17, 2021. Such capabilities/qualifications will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this acquisition on a competitive basis. A determination by the Government not to compete this acquisition on a full and open competition basis, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government. NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/pub_library/Omb.html Question Received and Response Q1: Will the presolicitation posted as solicitation number 80MSFC21LST0202 be a follow-on requirement to any work performed currently or in the past, or will this be a new requirement? A1: Though similar work has been conducted via the SBIR program as shown in the notice, this is a new requirement.