NASA Cooperative Agreement Notice for 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Large Mission Concept, Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared (LUVOIR) Systems Studies

National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) FY2017
NNG16401001C
2020 Astrophysics Decadal Large Mission Concept Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared (LUVOIR) Systems Studies at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
A Cooperative Agreement Notice for LUVOIR Systems Studies

TABLE OF CONTENTS
i Summary of Key Information
1.0 Description of the Opportunity
2.0 Study Requirements
3.0 Submission Instructions and Due Dates
4.0 Selection and Evaluations Factors
5.0 Personal Identity Verification of Contractor Personnel
Appendix A: Budget Summary
Appendix B: Example of Milestone Costing Schedule
Appendix C: Cooperative Agreement Collaboration Statement Template and Example
Appendix D: Enclosure to Grant Information Circular (GIC 06-02)
PIV Card Issuance Procedures in accordance with Grant and Cooperative Agreement Handbook § 1260.35 Investigative Requirements (January 2004)
Appendix E: Certifications, Assurances, and Representations

i. CAN No: Summary of Key Information
Objective: To award cooperative agreements for partnerships with United States commercial business that will meet the goal of developing large ultraviolet optical infrared (LUVOIR) systems studies to meet specific NASA needs at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), as well as those of the partner. This goal will be accomplished by selecting Offerors who will cooperatively share in the cost of LUVOIR system studies.

Eligibility: Open to United States commercial businesses

Submission Summary and Key Dates:
This CAN will follow a single step process for proposal submissions. The Offeror may submit a proposal at any time prior to the proposal due date noted below. NASA will assess each proposal submitted up to the proposal Open Period due date.

FY17 CAN Call for Proposals Release Date December 22, 2016
FY17 CAN Proposal Due Date: February 17, 2017, 5:00 PM EST
FY17 CAN Proposal Selection and Award Notifications: March 15, 2017
FY17 CAN Cooperative Agreement Award and Study Start: April 3, 2017

Note: Submissions that are incomplete will not be accepted. Submissions submitted after the stated proposal due date will not be accepted for this FY17 CAN.

Submissions: Wanda Moore, NASA GSFC: wanda.b.moore@nasa.gov

FY17 CAN Proposal Evaluation Panel: A committee of LUVOIR science, technology, and engineering civil servant team members as well as additional independent civil servant science, technology, and engineering NASA GSFC personnel.

FY17 Selection Official: NASA GSFC’s LUVOIR Study Manager.

Awards:
GSFC resource contribution awards will be $10,000 to $100,000, matched or exceeded by Offeror contributions. Contributions can be cash, in-kind (non-cash) resources or a combination of each.

Expected number of awards: Businesses may choose to propose individually or partner with other companies together. Potential partnerships are encouraged to propose for the joint development of systems engineering studies and trades that meet the LUVOIR team and GSFC needs. Depending on the number of individual and partner proposals received and the associated deliverables, up to 10 pending acceptable proposals may be awarded depending on the award amount. NASA GSFC reserves the right not to award any proposals depending on the quality of the proposals received and the availability of funds.
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Study Duration: Up to 12 months

Awards will be subject to the provisions of the NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement Handbook, Section D at https://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/pub_library/grantd.html.

Potential awardees are hereby notified the provisions set forth in the NASA Grant and Cooperative Agreement Handbook, Section D at § 1274.9 are to be incorporated in and made a part of all cooperative agreements with commercial firms. When included, the provisions at § 1274.902 through § 1274.909 and the provisions at § 1274.933 through § 1274.942 are to be incorporated in full text substantially as stated in this regulation. When required, the provisions at § 1274.910 through § 1274.932, may be incorporated by reference in an enclosure to each cooperative agreement. For inclusion of provisions in subcontracts, see Exhibit A of this subpart 1274.9, and § 1274.925.
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Additionally, the following requirements apply to all awards:
o 2 CFR Part 170, Reporting Subaward and Executive Compensation Information;
o 2 CFR Part 175, Award Term for Trafficking in Persons; and
o 2 CFR 182, Government-wide requirements for Drug-Free Workplace
 Intellectual Property Resulting from Awards
o Intellectual property provisions shall be subject to the terms and conditions at 14 CFR 1274.
o Data Rights: NASA wishes to disseminate data and material produced under this awards as broadly as possible with minimal restrictions. While recipients are not restricted in their own use and distribution of data first produced in performance of an award, NASA’s goal is to reduce restrictions on dissemination and use of data to the greatest extent possible, consistent with the terms and conditions of the award. Data rights differ based on whether data is first produced under an award or instead was developed at private expense outside the award.
o Limited Rights Data”: The U.S. Government will not normally require delivery of confidential or trade secret‐type technical data developed solely at private expense prior to issuance of an award, except as necessary to monitor scientific/technical progress and evaluate the potential of proposed technologies to reach specific scientific/technical and cost metrics.
o Government rights in Technical Data Produced under Awards: The U.S. Government normally retains unlimited rights in technical data produced under awards, including the right to distribute to the public. However, invention disclosures may be protected from public disclosure for a reasonable time in order to allow for filing a patent application.
o Invention Rights: Recipients that are Small Businesses or nonprofit organizations may elect to retain title to their inventions pursuant to the Bayh-Dole Act (35 U.S.C. § 202). Large business recipients are subject to section 20135 of the National Aeronautics and Space Act (51 U.S.C. § 20135) relating to property rights in inventions. Title to inventions made under an award by a large business recipient initially vests with NASA. However, these recipients may request a waiver to obtain title to inventions made under the award. Such a request may be made in advance of the award or within 30 days thereafter. Even if a waiver request is not made, or denied, a large business recipient may request a waiver on individual inventions made during the course of the award.
Point of Contact for Questions: All general questions about this notice and questions regarding technical Study collaboration with potential GSFC civil servant partners shall be submitted, by email only, to the NASA Contracting Officers, Wanda Moore, wanda.b.moore@moore@nasa.gov.

Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN)
LUVOIR Mission Concept System Studies at GSFC
1.0 Description of the Opportunity
1.1 Background
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is located in Greenbelt, MD and is a science center with world class scientists in astrophysics, Earth science, heliophysics and Solar System science. GSFC has end-to-end capabilities in all aspects of state-of-the-art component, sub-system, and instrument and mission engineering, including design, development, integration and test, launch, on-orbit operations, communications and navigation, and satellite servicing for all sizes of missions from suborbital through space flight missions. In addition, GSFC has vast expertise in providing safety and mission assurance as well as instrument and project management for the wide array of science instruments and missions aforementioned. GSFC offers this proven combination of science, engineering, and project management expertise as the foundation of its continuing success in formulating and implementing suborbital and space flight missions. With GSFC’s record of managing all five Hubble Space Telescope (HST) servicing missions, managing the soon-to-be-launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) since the 2011 Re-Plan, and managing the development of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), all with multiple national and international partner institutions, GSFC is poised to leverage this knowledge and expertise. These three NASA-developed missions were the highest priority large mission concepts identified by their respective Astrophysics Decadal Committees.

NASA Headquarters (HQ) has chartered and is partially sponsoring the maturation of four (4) large strategic mission concept studies prior to the 2020 Astrophysics Decadal Survey to provide four scientifically compelling mission concepts with existence-proof point-designs that are feasible and executable with respect to technical, cost, and risk considerations. Each of these four mission concepts is community-led by Science and Technology Definition Teams (STDTs), whose expert members were appointed by NASA HQ. The four large mission concepts being studied, in alphabetical order, are:
1. Far Infrared Surveyor (FIRS), recently renamed by their STDT to the Origins Space Telescope (OST)
2. Habitable Exoplanet Imager (HabEx)
3. Large Ultraviolet Optical Infrared (LUVOIR) Surveyor
4. X-Ray Surveyor (XRS)

Each mission concept has been assigned to a NASA center to be supported by an engineering team to develop a point design that meets the science goals defined by their respective STDT. NASA HQ assigned the LUVOIR mission concept to GSFC.

In the post-HST, post-JWST era, LUVOIR will be poised to deliver transformative science, as HST has done, across all of astrophysics, including Cosmic Origins (COR), Exoplanet Exploration (ExEP), and Physics of the Cosmos (PCOS), as well as Solar System science. One of LUVOIR’s key science goals includes the search for Earth 2.0: searching for life in our solar neighborhood by surveying a statistically meaningful number of exoplanets in the habitable zone around sun-like stars, directly imaging the exoplanets, and characterizing their atmospheres to search for biosignatures.

GSFC will work with the LUVOIR STDT in formulating the most scientifically compelling, technically feasible, and cost effective LUVOIR mission concept. The LUVOIR Team intends to provide the Decadal Survey and the astrophysics community with a mission concept that has a range of scalable architecture options associated with different cost/schedule risks and with different levels of science capability. These options may, in turn, have different levels of starting maturity, and therefore, different degrees of feasibility depending on progress developing the necessary technologies. Therefore, the LUVOIR Study Team plans to produce two scalable LUVOIR point designs that meet the science requirements set by the LUVOIR STDT.

With limited internal resources, LUVOIR and GSFC plan to bring to bear the expertise of industry, academia, government agencies, and national laboratories. GSFC will coordinate and engage this broad community expertise via this Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) to leverage their expertise and resources to perform systems engineering trades and analyses to help inform the STDT’s decisions on LUVOIR architectures.

It is important to recognize that the mission architecture(s) and/or point design(s) developed by the LUVOIR STDT and study team and presented to the 2020 Decadal will not be the actual mission architecture(s) that will be built, even if prioritized. Therefore, any products of this CAN are not setting mission requirements for a LUVOIR mission concept. Rather, the partners selected from this CAN will help inform current trades and determine notional paths for an existence proof design (or designs) that will be independently costed by The Aerospace Corporation or an equivalent entity.

A key to delivering a feasible and executable LUVOIR existence-proof point-design that could win the 2020 Decadal is the depth of understanding, and ability to convey that depth of understanding, of how different science needs drive the cost, schedule, and risk of the conceptual design. It is vital to be able to understand the science per dollar value and what steps can be taken in engineering and technology to reduce costs. This will enable the STDT to develop a more comprehensive understanding of their science requirements and what capabilities are truly essential for enabling mission objectives, and what needs may deliver too little science return given their impact on mission schedule, cost, and risk.

For more information on the LUVOIR mission concept, please visit our public website at: http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/luvoir/

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