Infrared spectrometer for a potential clarreo Tender in USA - 3123193

Procurement Summary

Country: USA

Summary: Infrared spectrometer for a potential clarreo pathfinder mission

Deadline: 31 Jul 2015

Posting Date: 22 Jun 2015

Other Information

Notice Type: Tender

TOT Ref.No.: 3123193

Document Ref. No.: IRS_CLARREO_PATHFINDER

Competition: ICB

Financier: Self Financed

Purchaser Ownership: -

Tender Value: Refer Document

Purchaser's Detail

Name: Login to see tender_details

Address: Login to see tender_details

Email: Login to see tender_details

Login to see details

Tender Details

Nasa/larc is hereby soliciting information about potential sources for the infrared spectrometer (irs) for a potential clarreo pathfinder mission. No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released it will be synopsized in fedbizopps and on the nasa acquisition internet service. It is the potential offerors responsibility to monitor these sites for the release of any solicitation or synopsis.

Clarreo mission background the goal of the climate absolute radiance and refractivity observatory (clarreo) mission is to improve our understanding of climate change by providing high accuracy measurements of the change in key climate variables over decadal timescales (wielicki b.a. Et al. 2013 climate absolute radiance and refractivity observatory (clarreo): achieving climate change absolute accuracy in orbit. Bull. Amer. Met. Soc., 93, 1519-1539). Examples of such variables include global and zonal mean surface temperature, tropospheric lapse rate and humidity, cloud fraction, snow and ice cover, and aerosol optical depth. The original clarreo mission included an infrared spectrometer (irs) to observe thermal emission, an ultraviolet to near infrared spectrometer to observe reflected solar radiance, and a global satellite navigation system receiver to study atmospheric thermal structure using radio occultation. The focus of this request for information (rfi) is the irs. For climate variables that produce signatures in infrared radiance, the equivalent trends in brightness temperature are on the order of 0.2 k per decade. Quantifying such trends with high confidence requires measurements with an absolute radiometric accuracy of 0.1 k or better (coverage factor of k=3, or roughly 99% confidence interval). To verify such high accuracy, sensors must carry on-orbit calibration references traceable to systme international d units (si) standards. The data will be used both to start a global mean spectral radiance record and to provide an on-orbit reference for calibrating other sensors, including polar-orbiting sounders such as the cross track infrared sounder (cris), the atmospheric infrared sounder (airs), and the infrared atmospheric sounding interferometer (iasi). Clarreo pathfinder assumptions langley research center (larc) seeks organizations which, by following the response instructions (below), demonstrate their ability to supply a complete irs or significant subsystems for it.

As proposed in the president s fiscal year (fy) 2016 budget, the clarreo pathfinder mission (including the irs), a technology demonstration mission, is to start in fy2016 with a launch to the international space station (iss) in fy2019, followed by two years of operations. To meet this schedule, larc requires delivery of the irs by the end of the first quarter (q1) of fy2019 to allow time for integration on the express pallet adapter (expa), testing, and shipping to the launch site. The irs is expected to operate from iss express logistics carrier (elc) 1, site 3 or 8. Larc will provide the command, data, and power interface adapter to iss, and will be responsible for integration of the irs with the expa with integration support provided by the irs supplier.

The budget available for design, fabrication, assembly, and test of the irs is $20 m. Reserve is held at the project level and is not included in the instrument budget. The instrument must meet iss program requirements to receive a certificate of flight (cof) and be manifested to iss. Clarreo pathfinder will be a class d/category 3 mission as specified in npr 7120.5e, with the requirements tailored as necessary to meet the limited budget available. System and subsystem performance requirements are provided in the following sections. System requirements the baseline irs design includes a fourier transform spectrometer (fts), ambient temperature deep-cavity blackbody and space views for calibration, and a variable temperature blackbody for radiometric scale verification. Although other system architectures will be considered, the offerer must show how the key requirements of wide spectral coverage, uniform well-understood instrument line shape, and independent verification of calibration accuracy as detailed below are to be met if an fts is not used. Spectral coverage: 200 cm-1 2000 cm-1 required, extension to 2760 cm-1 desired. Note: the longwave cutoff is assumed to result from the cesium iodide (csi) beamsplitter and is somewhat flexible as long as the limiting optic is the beamsplitter substrate. Resolution: 0.5 cm-1 unapodized (1 cm maximum optical path difference in the interferometer) bands: the deleterious effects of a number of imperfections in an fts can be reduced by limiting the bandwidth of a detector to a single octave, or at least making sure that the raw signal strength as a function of frequency is more or less evenly distributed across the band. Attempting to cover the full spectral range on a single detector is not likely to meet radiometric accuracy requirements for all scene temperatures. Spatial ifov: the field of view at nadir shall be between 25 km and 100 km, imaged onto a single pixel. For: the earth shall be viewed at nadir only; cross-track coverage not required. Cross-track and in-track compensation for iss motion during interferogram acquisition is desirable but not required if image motion during an fts scan is less than a few percent of the ifov. Geolocation knowledge: absolute geolocation of the nadir footprint shall be known to better than 1.5 km. This will likely require a star tracker attached to the irs frame due to significant flexing in the iss structure. Nadir bias: the irs shall view earth at nadir to within 0.2 degrees. Coverage/repeat interval: the in-track interval between nadir views shall not exceed 225 km. Temporal earth views shall be bracketed by space and calibration blackbody views to minimize the effect of instrument drift. The space/earth/blackbody sequence will in turn alternate with a space/verification system/blackbody sequence, where the verification system is used to provide si traceability. The interval between earth views shall meet coverage requirements described above. Radiometric dynamic range: the irs shall meet all performance specifications for scenes with brightness temperature between 190 k and 320 k. Nedt: at a brightness temperature of 250 k, the precision for a single calibrated nadir spectrum shall be 0.999 variable temperature blackbody emissivity: 0.9995 emissivity knowledge: better than 0.0003 absolute temperature accuracy: 0.03 k (k=3), si traceable on orbit using phase change cells. Temperature stability: better than 0.03 k over 8s ambient calibration source temperature: floats with instrument, ~273 k to ~313 k verification blackbody temperature: controlled, set point adjustable from 200 k to 320 k detector subsystem (includes detectors, camera optics, and signal conditioning electronics.) far-infrared channel: 1 mm diameter uncooled pyroelectric detector coupled to a compound parabolic concentrator (cpc) with camera optics that form a telecentric image of the 20 mm interferometer exit pupil onto the cpc entrance aperture. D* 2x108 cm hz0.5/w over the modulation frequency range 50-500 hz. Used for 200 cm-1 to ~650 cm-1. Mid and short wave channels: split the second interferometer output port. Camera optics can image a single pupil onto side-by-side detectors, or image can be split onto separate focal planes. Both detectors are cooled; if detectors are not side-by-side, a credible cold focal plane geometry must be presented. One detector covers ~650 cm-1 to ~1400 cm-1; the second covers ~1400 cm-1 to 2000 cm-1, with potential extension to 2760 cm-1. If detectors exhibit nonlinearity it needs to be correctable to better than 0.003% over the range of brightness temperatures from 200 k to 320 k. Response instructions responses to this rfi are 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.

A response to this rfi 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 responders would provide (at no cost to nasa) conceptual subsystem or instrument designs and drawings (with sufficient details to enable accurate mass, volume, power, telemetry requirements), operational concepts, calibration and characterization definition and planning, payload constraints/interface analysis, technical risk analysis, and would participate in cost and schedule analysis. Responses, and the ability for responders to meet the above subsystem and instrument system requirements, will be assessed by larc. Respondents deemed fully qualified will be considered in any resultant solicitation for the requirement.

All responses shall be submitted to nasa larc via e-mail by july 31, 2015 to: david.c.beals@nasa.gov and robert.b.gardner@nasa.gov .
A -- research & development

naics code:

541 -- professional, scientific, and technical services/541712 -- research and development in the physical, engineering, and life sciences (except biotechnology)
541 -- professional, scientific, and technical services/541712 -- research and development in the physical, engineering, and life sciences (except biotechnology)

for help: federal service deskaccessibility

added: jun 19, 2015 6:52 am

Documents

 Tender Notice