Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Charge Management Device (CMD) Engineering Development

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) intends to negotiate solely with the University of Florida, 1523 Union Rd. Room 207, Gainesville, FL, 32611-1941, in accordance with 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1, Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements to procure a charge management device as a part of an international spacecraft program.

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is a state-of-the-art space based gravitational wave telescope to address key questions in astrophysics. LISA was selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) as the third large mission of the Cosmic Vision Program during June of 2017. NASA is an international partner in this effort and has teamed with ESA, its international partners and other support contractors.

The LISA mission consists of several critical components, one of which is Charge Management Device (CMD) which is a part of the Gravitational Reference Sensor (GRS). The GRS is an evacuated chamber that houses the LISA test mass and sensors to determine the location of the test mass and maintain it in a drag-free environment. The test mass housed within the GRS acts as the reference for the local inertial frame. It is the end mirror for the laser interferometers. This test mass builds charge due to caging release, cosmic rays, Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs). In order to control external forces on this test mass, its charge must be controlled. The purpose of the charge management device is non-contact charge removal from the test mass.

As a part of its contribution to the LISA mission, NASA will support the design, development and testing of the CMD. NASA is subject to an aggressive schedule, established by ESA, and intends to utilize Ultra-Violet (UV) illumination technology that has been proven in flight on the previous LISA Pathfinder mission to meet the LISA charge management needs with any modifications necessary to meet the resource and lifetime requirements for LISA. NASA will accomplish the design, manufacture and delivery of TRL-6 breadboard CMD by the end of 2022 in preparation for the ESA Adoption review in 2023. Additionally, an engineering development unit (EDU) and an engineering test unit (ETU) CMD will be developed and delivered with the EDU required by December 2023 in preparation for the CMD preliminary design review and the ETU required by July 2025 in preparation for the CMD critical design review.

The CMD development effort includes performing all required analysis, design, fabrication and testing of a TRL-6 breadboard EDU and ETU CMD in the relevant space environment, including testing and integration activities. CMD design reviews with the LISA team will occur before manufacturing hardware and in preparation for environmental testing. The procurement will require the delivery of the completed prototype units for integration into the University of Trento GRS test setup for end-to-end testing and post test data analyses. In addition to support to the above development, the contractor should also be prepared to support the ESA's Adoption Review for the LISA mission and regular monthly project reviews and meetings.

The interested organizations should be willing and able to support the schedule of development of the TRL-6 CMD by the end of calendar year 2022. This is a critical subsystem for the LISA mission and any delay in the development of this item places the success of the ESA Adoption review in 2023 in jeopardy.

GSFC intends to issue a sole source Request for Proposal to the University of Florida for the design, development and manufacture of the CMD in preparation for the LISA Adoption review and the CMD Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and Critical Design Review (CDR). This hardware will be delivered to ESA and integrated into the GRS test environment for verification of performance in the relevant environment of the instrument by the end of 2022 for the TRL-6 breadboard, by December 2023 for the EDU and July of 2025 for the ETU.

A DRAFT LISA CMD Statement of Work, which details the requirements, is attached to this notice.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) for this requirement is 336414 and the size standard is 1,250 employees.

This announcement constitutes the notice required by FAR 5.201. All questions and responses concerning this notice shall be emailed to Meredith Link at meredith.link@nasa.gov. Organizations who believe they can fulfill these requirements without any detrimental impact to the program schedules supported by this work should fully identify their interest and capabilities in writing to the above email address no later than 3:30 pm EDT, May 20, 2020. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether a competitive procurement is in the best interest of the Government.