MODIFICATION
18 -- Request for Information: Lasercom Technical Demonstration - Government Exchange Meeting (GEM) Information - Aerospace Facilities Map
- Notice Date
- 8/26/2009
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- NAICS
- 517919
— All Other Telecommunications
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Air Force, Air Force Space Command, SMC - Space and Missile Systems Center, 483 North Aviation Blvd, El Segundo, California, 90245-2808
- ZIP Code
- 90245-2808
- Solicitation Number
- SMC-31
- Point of Contact
- David Block, Phone: 310-653-9656
- E-Mail Address
-
david.block@losangeles.af.mil
(david.block@losangeles.af.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Aerospace Facilities Map Government-Industry Exchange Meeting (GEM) Information Request for Information (RFI): Lasercom Tech Demo (LTD) THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. THIS REQUEST IS FOR PLANNING PURPOSES, AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN INVITATION FOR BIDS, A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS, A SOLICITATION, A REQUEST FOR QUOTES, OR AN INDICATION THE GOVERNMENT WILL CONTRACT FOR THE ITEMS CONTAINED IN THIS NOTICE. THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT REIMBURSE RESPONDENTS FOR ANY COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH SUBMISSION OF THE INFORMATION BEING REQUESTED OR REIMBURSE EXPENSES INCURRED TO INTERESTED PARTIES FOR RESPONSES. THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT INTEND TO AWARD A CONTRACT ON THE BASIS OF THIS RFI OR TO OTHERWISE PAY FOR THE INFORMATION SOLICITED. Background & Description This Request for Information (RFI) by the USAF Space and Missile Center (SMC) seeks to determine availability of the US industrial technology and manufacturing base to fulfill a need for a Lasercom Technical Demonstration (LTD) satellite system. LTD must demonstrate: a) a laser communications (Lasercom) capability, and b) a flexible, rapidly deployable, medium weight class geosynchronous satellite bus for LTD and other potential future demonstration payloads. An LTD acquisition could potentially start in Government Fiscal Year 2011 (FY11), with the goal to provide on-orbit capability FY15 through FY20 that enables payload demonstration and evaluation and residual operational capability. Included are: a satellite bus with a high-rate IF/RF subsystem as a secondary payload, a Lasercom primary payload (supplied by a government laboratory or a contractor), satellite planning/control, and a high-rate deployable RF ground station. A bus dedicated to only the LTD payload or co-hosting with other commercial or military payloads may be considered, so long as all LTD objectives can be met. User terminals and their mission planning/control are not included. SMC solicits industry's experience, concepts, and capabilities relevant to possible LTD architectures and system design. Responses should address your experience fielding geosynchronous space vehicles and demonstration payloads in rapid, time-certain, low cost programs. Demonstrated innovation is encouraged, and consideration of all possible solutions (i.e. use of commercial, Government, and/or military systems and components) may be entertained. Developing within budget and schedule constraints will be critical to successfully fielding LTD. Responses should describe the sufficiency of your existing technology and manufacturing bases, or show how they would be qualified and proven flight ready within the demanding schedule constraint. Respondents may address only the satellite & ground elements, only payload, or all. No telephone inquiries will be accepted. All inquiries (technical, contractual, administrative), questions, or clarifications of any kind must be submitted via email to the (POC) listed below. Regarding this RFI, direct contact or one-on-one meetings with a contracting officer, program manager, or technical parties, is not allowed, apart from the Government Exchange Meetings described later in the RFI. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or to otherwise pay for the information solicited. Objectives Objectives of this RFI include the following: • Gather information on the industry technology and manufacturing base for LTD • Gather information on industry experience in: architecture, system, payload, components, and technologies relevant to LTD • Gather information regarding industry's experience in rapidly developing, demonstrating, designing, fabricating, integrating, testing, and operating hi-tech, demonstration payloads (particularly those relevant to LTD) • Gather programmatic (schedule, cost, risk) information relevant to LTD • Support preliminary acquisition documentation and strategy development for a potential LTD Topics for Responses Briefly and clearly describe your experience in concepts and approaches relevant to LTD at the following levels: architecture; system, satellite, and ground; payload; and critical components (such as laser diodes). Provide experience/approaches of minimum, value-added Mission Assurance, System Engineering, and business processes that still achieve confidence in rapid delivery and flight. Include citations of specific historical and current development programs & capabilities. Responses to all or part of this RFI will be accepted. The LTD assumptions and characteristics under consideration are shown in appropriate sections below. LTD System Characteristics: • Approximately 12 month checkout over CONUS prior to transfer to Indian Ocean satellite location • On-orbit design life: 1 year minimum, with 5 years goal • Survivability: natural environment • Technical Maturity: to support desired 4-year deployment schedule, the Government strongly favors technologies assessed to be at TRL 6 or greater, where technology exists that is relevant to meeting LTD objectives 1. Satellite & Integration Briefly describe aspects of your company, products and services, and past programs, relevant to LTD, including rapidly delivering a satellite, launch support, and ground operations, and associated business and technical management approaches used. The Government is particularly interested in information related to integrating optical payloads, their associated high speed data processing, and collaboration with national laboratories. Discuss flexibility of your satellite bus to host other potential demo payloads, such as: high-rate RF relay with large aperture antenna(s), tactical EHF theater communications on the move, or small strategic EHF communications with V-band crosslinks. LTD Research & Development Satellite Characteristics: • To GEO via a medium weight class launch vehicle, no larger than an EELV medium (or equivalent) • Reference satellite bus payload (Lasercom and RF) support capability (assuming all equipment to support 4 user/lasercom accesses and RF ground link hosted on a single bus) o Mass: <700 lbs (TBR) o Power: <2500 W (TBR) • IF/RF payload subsystem (secondary payload) o Downlink to ground station within satellite line of sight (LOS) capable of supporting all received high-rate data simultaneously. Availability TBD, CER 10E-6 (TBR, sufficient so Lasercom links dominate error rates) o Uplink to support payload and user terminal command and control (C2): 10 Mbps per user terminal (TBR) plus satellite C2 • Satellite Bus o Star-tracker class position and pointing (bus notionally <1 milliradian), and station keeping sufficient to support a Lasercom payload o Support command and telemetry for both satellite and payload through both RF Payload and AF Satellite Control Network (S-Band), not simultaneously, protected by Type 1 cryptographic equipment. o Integration (incl. cleanliness) commensurate with LTD/optical payloads Ground Element Characteristics: • In-band: receives high-rate RF data and transmits control/telemetry data • Satellite C2 and telemetry operations by 50th SW, Schreiver AFB (SAFB). Operates through AFSCN for S-Band or through the GIG to an OCONUS deployable ground station for in-band. Assume GIG connectivity between a ground station within satellite LOS and: a) SAFB for satellite C2, b) site to deliver high-rate data, and c) remote site for Airborne platform C2. 2. Lasercom Payload Briefly describe aspects of your company products and services, and past programs, relevant to rapidly delivering a LTD payload, including business and technical management approaches used. The lasercom payload is to include optical terminals, as well as associated high speed electronics to 1) demodulate/decode and perform other required processing of uplink user data, and 2) multiplex received uplink streams and format/encode downlink streams for provision to the IF/RF downlink subsystem. Include a TRL assessment of your products, development risks, and risks in achieving rapid deployment schedule. The Government is also considering approaches in which a national laboratory would provide 1) the demonstration lasercom payload, or 2) a lasercom terminal reference design would be provided to industry for development and production. Provide approaches on how industry could best accomplish such a transition. LTD Lasercom Payload Characteristics: •Simultaneously communicate with 4 above-the-weather airborne User terminals •Each bi-directional link: receive 311 Mbps high-rate data and transmit 10 Mbps command/telemetry, with baseband to RF payload •Link CER 10E-4 (TBR), with 3 dB min. link margin, Availability TBD •Regional capability with Earth Field of View •Candidate Satellite terminal approx. 0.5 W, 10 cm aperture •Candidate Airborne User terminal approx 7W, 5 cm aperture •Mechanical environment, incl. uncompensated momentum: TBD •Thermal environment: incl. heat rejection at interface: TBD •Control/Telemetry interface: TBD 3. LTD Cost and Schedule Provide then-year phased NRE and RE cost estimates for: System Level costs (incl. System Engineering, Program Management, Integration & Test), Lasercom payload (if not assumed GFE), Satellite (including IF/RF subsystem), and ground station. Provide corresponding notional schedule for these elements. Briefly describe all elements included in your estimate. Identify cost and schedule drivers and key milestones (architecture or design choice breakpoints, etc) and risk areas. The government is only seeking information for market research purposes. Assume 4th quarter FY11 contract award, IOC 4th quarter FY15, and capability through FY20. Responses Interested parties are encouraged to submit a Statement of Capabilities (SOC) which includes the following information: a) A non-proprietary one page cover sheet should identify this RFI number & title, your organization(s), responder's technical and administrative points of contact - including names, titles, postal address, phone and fax numbers, email addresses, and CAGE code (if applicable). b) An executive summary with a one page limit should summarize the key ideas. c) Your response to the topics, in minimum 12 point font. d) Significant claims or reports of success must be justified with specific citations, URLs, and/or references. All RFI Responses must consist of one original and three paper copies of all material and two CD ROMs of all material, in Microsoft Word 2007, and/or Adobe PDF 9.0. Label each disk clearly with: this RFI #, respondent organization, and point(s) of contact. Limit your response to no more than 20 pages written (incl. figures & tables) regarding topics related to Lasercom Payload, and no more than 20 pages written (incl figures & tables) regarding all other topics, including cost. Responses from small, disadvangtaged businesses are encouraged. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code and small business size standard for this effort is 517919 and $25M respectively. RFI responses (original and designated number of hard copies, and CD ROMs) must be delivered to the point of contact (POC) listed below. Responses to this RFI are due no later than 4:00PM, Local Time, El Segundo, CA, on 2 October 2009. To the extent possible, all responses should be unclassified and for general access by the Government, other evaluators, and other respondents. All material provided (responses, discussions, questions/answers, and other data) that is not related to competition sensitive or contractor proprietary material may be provided (without attribution) to other respondents. Any material provided may be used in development of future solicitations. Any proprietary information submitted must be clearly and separately identified and marked and will be appropriately protected. The Government will NOT be responsible for any proprietary information not clearly marked. Any classified responses must meet the format and delivery instructions described in this RFI. In addition, classified delivery must be arranged in advance. Responses at classification levels above DoD SECRET are discouraged, but may be considered. Classified responses must include identification of their source of classification guidance. Responses should include the name and telephone number of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss responses with Government representatives. Possible Government/Industry Exchange Meetings (GEMs) Two phases of GEMs are planned. First, between 7-14 days (TBR) after RFI release, the Government plans a GEM at SMC consisting of a common session with all interested respondents, followed by brief (1 hour - TBR) one-on-one sessions with individual respondents (as requested). This GEM will include questions/clarifications on the questions posed or LTD characteristics provided in this RFI. Second, between 60-75 days after RFI release, the Government may request GEMs with individual respondents (a maximum of 1 GEM each) to enable questions/clarifications on their RFI responses. Because of space limitations, the number of participants per organization may be restricted. GEM participants must be US citizens and must submit visit requests. Attendance at GEMs will be voluntary. SMC will not provide any cost reimbursement for GEM attendance. Disclaimers and Notes This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a program or contractual solicitation. SMC is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of submissions or of the information received, or to provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted under this RFI. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. Participants in review and evaluation of responses may include: The Government; Federally Funded R&D Centers (such as The Aerospace Corp, Lincoln Laboratory, and MITRE); Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) contractors (such as BAH, LinQuest and MCR); all are bound by appropriate non-disclosure requirements. Regarding this RFI, no contact is allowed with these organizations except as may be arranged in advance with the point of contact (POC) listed below. Point of Contact (POC) Contracting POC: David Block, PCO, Phone: (310) 653-9656, Fax (310) 653-9837; Email: david.block@losangeles.af.mil Additional Information Additional information listed below may be requested from the POC identified above. • For payload: typical satellite environment and interface definition • Airborne User terminal - space interface definition • Terminal - Space channel model Attachments to this RFI: 1. LTD RFI: Reference Optical Channel Link Budget & Module(s) 2. LTD RFI: System & Interface Characteristics 3. Government-Industry Exchange Meeting (GEM) Information 4. Aerospace Facilities Map
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/USAF/AFSC/SMCSMSC/SMC-31/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: To be Determined, United States
- Record
- SN01926929-W 20090828/090827000019-07c8fd611c056b9791d7a2f77582340b (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |