This partnering synopsis solicits potential partners to participate in a proposal development activity that addresses the technical objectives, development, and demonstration of an On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (OSAM) simulation environment in response to an Early Career Initiative (ECI) sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and released on March 24, 2020. The deadline for proposals is May 28, 2020. The Early Career Initiative is an internal NASA call for space technology development and demonstration proposals that foster the next step in the professional development of early career NASA technologists by providing cutting-edge hands-on space technology hardware development opportunities. This initiative promotes creative joint partnering within highly collaborative work environments between the best and brightest NASA early career innovators and while teaming with world-class industry, academia, and other government organizations. Proposing teams will include a core team consisting of a no more than eight members total, including NASA and external partner members at least half of which must consist of NASA early career employees. A NASA early career employee must lead the project (Project Lead) and shall engage an experienced NASA mentor, and a STMD mentor who will be identified after selection of the project. Other roles (e.g., Project Manager, Project Scientist) can be filled by team members from NASA or partner. The general approach will be to employ agile systems engineering methods emphasizing working products, collaboration, iterative, hands-on testing, and responsiveness to change rather than formal process and documentation with milestone-based assessments including a continuation review at the development site and a final presentation to NASA Headquarters. If a project wishes to involve a foreign organization, prior confirmation is needed. Teams must propose innovative space hardware-focused projects lasting no more than two years and costing up to $1.25M in procurement and labor per year. NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is seeking partners to participate in developing proposals for and collaborating on potential ECI projects. LaRC is pursuing several topic areas that align with NASA’s space technology priorities and involve a variety of technical areas that could benefit from partnering. The partner can propose to the technical challenge provided below: The OSAM Architecture Simulation System (OASiS) will provide researchers a modular, high-fidelity simulation environment where they can rapidly prototype, evaluate, and optimize the effectiveness of their OSAM technology and operational concepts. Testing large-scale OSAM operations, such as those that would be required for assembling and maintaining structures like the In-space Assembled Telescope or the Lunar Gateway, would be too costly and labor intensive to attempt at full-scale on Earth; however, with OASiS, users will be able to perform a multitude of tests in a virtual environment that simulates the final mission environment, incorporating key elements such as robotic agents, assembly materials, metrology system hardware, and environmental effects. In addition, OASiS will contain a modular data protocol for passing position-orientation feedback between the metrology system hardware and robotic agents in order to drive autonomous OSAM operations, should the user require it. The comprehensive testing capabilities and feedback provided by OASiS will help guide technology development and reduce mission costs, ultimately enabling the successful servicing, assembling, and manufacturing of vital, research-enabling structures on-orbit. Ideal academic or industry partners would provide methods for increasing the fidelity of modeling robotic agents or metrology system hardware within OASiS. All modeling schemes must be compatible with the existing simulation framework in which OASiS will be built – the Langley Standard Real-time Simulation in C++ (LaSRS++). Partners would contribute in any of the following areas: The partner shall have expertise in the field of metrology hardware and would identify hardware that could enable precise and accurate OSAM operations; for example, optical and lighting systems, visual sensors, or stress/strain sensors. The partner shall provide input on how to accurately model and characterize that hardware in a simulated environment, verifying and validating the behavior of that hardware in a lab setting. The partner shall have expertise in the field of high accuracy visual image reproduction that could be implemented within a high-fidelity simulation environment. The partner shall provide effective methods for modeling and reproducing images being taken by visual systems within OASiS, including lens characteristics or lighting conditions. The partner shall have expertise in the field of data feedback processing and optimization methods. The partner shall provide a modular optimization scheme for placing and orienting metrology system hardware within OASiS based on the data feedback provided by the hardware during the simulation and the placement of other objects within the simulated environment. The partner shall have expertise in the field of flexible multibody dynamics. The partner shall provide a method for modeling the flexible motion of robotic agents and assembly materials during OSAM operations based on the environmental effects, focusing on modeling methods that would enable real-time simulation. The partner must provide expertise in at least one of the fields described above and must have the personnel and facilities required to perform any necessary software or hardware testing. The ideal partner may also contribute some, but not all, work or resources to the project in-kind, which should be described within the partner’s proposal submission. This partnering opportunity does not guarantee selection for award of any contracts or other agreements, nor is it to be construed as a commitment by NASA to pay for the information solicited. It is expected that the partner(s) selected would provide (at no cost to NASA) technical requirements, conceptual designs, technical data, proposal input, project schedules, and cost estimates. If the proposal is subsequently selected, NASA LaRC anticipates issuing contracts or other agreements to the selected partner(s) for the performance of the proposed tasks. Partner selections will be made by LaRC based on the listed criteria: 1) Technology Description and Approach: This criterion evaluates the technical expertise/capabilities and innovativeness of the external partner in leading and/or executing activities related to the topics above and indicate the resources (skills and time) that would be allocated to the potential proposal development phase. The proposal will also be evaluated on the degree to which the work plan is likely to advance technology and lead to its eventual utilization. 2) Management Approach: This criterion evaluates the overall management approach for the execution of the technical effort. The proposal will be evaluated on the degree to which the management approach is different from standard NASA practices and represents a successful approach from another industry or organization. It will also evaluate how the management approach increases the probability of successfully executing the work plan. 3) Teaming and Workforce Approach: This criterion evaluates the integration of capabilities across the core team members relative to the work plan. 4) Agile Approaches Used in the Past: This criterion evaluates the external partner’s past experience in developing and utilizing agile development principles: using development methods that emphasize working products, collaboration, iterative, hands-on testing, and responsiveness to change rather than formal processes and documentation. 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. RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS: Responses to this partnering synopsis shall be limited to 5 pages in not less than 12-point font for each technical area of interest (i.e. offerors responding to one or more of the mission elements may submit up to 5 pages per each element). Responses shall address each of the evaluation criteria listed below. Resumes of key personnel and a cover page that clearly identifies the topic area addressed by the response do not count against the total allocated page count. All responses shall be submitted to LaRC electronically via e-mail by 4:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time May 28, 2020, to Octavia Hicks at
[email protected] and to Jessica Friz at
[email protected]. All procurement questions should be directed to Octavia Hicks.