The National Space Policy directs NASA to “[l]ead an innovative and sustainable program of scientific discovery, technology development, and space exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities. Beginning with missions beyond low Earth orbit, the United States will lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by human missions to Mars and other destinations.” NASA has defined the Artemis Program consistent with this direction, which utilizes a strong mixture of commercial and civil space capabilities to establish sustainable lunar missions in the late 2020s. To support human lunar missions, NASA established the Human Landing System (HLS) Program, which is responsible for lunar lander development, certification, mission execution, and sustainable services. The HLS Program utilizes a public-private partnership model to meet these responsibilities, enabling efficient combinations of innovation and experience from both sectors to realize the best solutions for lunar human mission needs. The first procurement towards achieving Sustainable HLS services will be through an open solicitation through the second Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP-2) Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), to be released in late June 2021 with awards occurring in the Fall of 2021. The primary objective of this NextSTEP-2 Appendix N BAA (Sustainable Human Landing System Studies and Risk Reduction) is to engage with potential commercial partners for architecture concept development and risk reduction activities. NASA anticipates making multiple Appendix N BAA awards through firm fixed-price contracts with milestone-based payment schedules. In addition to the Appendix N BAA, NASA also plans to release a solicitation for a competitive procurement (designated Lunar Exploration and Transportation Services (LETS)) which will encompass Sustaining mission lunar lander systems development, certification and services. NASA’s tentative schedule for release of this solicitation is early 2022. The Appendix N BAA is structured to meet the following goals: Collecting industry feedback on preliminary Sustaining HLS requirements, reference mission profiles and NASA standards; Enabling industry engagement with NASA for sustaining lunar lander design specification and associated concept development through trade studies and joint working groups; and Reducing sustainable lunar lander development risk through selected risk mitigation activities. The performance of the contract or contracts resulting from the Appendix N BAA will consist of two main technical areas: (1) Sustainable Lunar Lander System Specification and Concept Development, and (2) Risk Reduction Activities. For technical area (1), contractors will review and provide feedback to NASA on draft Sustaining requirements and standards that will be included within the Appendix N solicitation. For use within Appendix N concept development activities, contractors will author their HLS Integrated Lander System Design Requirements; capturing the contractors chosen approach(es) to incorporate the draft Sustaining requirements and standards. Contractors will perform concept trade studies to inform NASA final requirements based on a NASA-defined list of trades provided to the contractors. Technical area (1) will last no more than 12 months from contract award, with a minimum of two milestone reviews to be completed during that period of performance. Technical area (2) consists of risk reduction activities to be completed by the contractors based on their Sustainable lunar lander concept risks. These risk reduction activities can utilize a mixture of public and private capabilities through Government Task Agreements (GTA), Government Furnished Property Agreements, and NASA Subject Matter Expertise usage through Collaboration tasks. Technical area (2) is expected to last no more than 24 months. NASA plans to offer Government resources to Appendix N BAA companies selected for award with final Government resource availability and work scope to be defined within two months after Appendix N awards. Costs for executing approved GTAs will be deducted from the contractor’s total award amount. Companies interested in understanding NASA Center capabilities are encouraged to review the attached NASA Center capabilities description and to contact specified NASA Center Points of Contact for further discussion. Detailed requirements for the Appendix N BAA and additional information on the overall HLS acquisition strategy will be contained in the forthcoming Appendix N solicitation. The Point of Contact for technical and programmatic questions on this synopsis is Ms. Jennifer McCaghren, NASA HLS Contracting Officer at
[email protected]. Submission information, participant eligibility, additional topic information and specific evaluation criteria for the solicitation will be identified in Appendix N BAA when it is released.