Commercial Spacesuits Services RFI and RFP

[yg1968]

NASA is embracing a new strategy for procuring #Artemis spacesuits - by shifting acquisition of the exploration extravehicular activity (xEVA) system to a model in which NASA will purchase spacesuit services from commercial partners. Learn more:

Artemis Generation Moonwalkers, Space Station to Use Spacewalk Services Developed Through NASA-Industry Partnerships:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/artemis-generation-moonwalkers-space-station-to-use-spacewalk-services-developed-through

The RFI is attached.

Links:

https://www.nasa.gov/jsc/procurement/xevas

https://sam.gov/opp/e102f3c6746646669301d31b30debd6f/view

https://sam.gov/opp/832e8b3a9dac4a6aa7158e1ab7972920/view

https://twitter.com/KathyLueders/status/1383487930228826113

Final RFP: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=53612.msg2309291#msg2309291

Pre-proposal conference: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=53612.msg2297666#msg2297666

Schedule: https://www.nasa.gov/jsc/procurement/xevas/schedule

Source selection statement: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=53612.msg2377486#msg2377486

Updates on spending: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=53612.msg2377586#msg2377586

[yg1968]

The following is NASA’s estimate of the number of flight-rated suits that may be needed to support NASA requirements for EVA services capability for the above missions, however hardware provision is to be determined by the contractor to meet ISS and Lunar EVA needs:

•ISS: 6 (including 4 on-orbit and 2 spares)
•Lunar: 16 (14 Artemis and 2 Gateway)

[yg1968]

See also this related tweet:

https://twitter.com/NASAProcurement/status/1382549392217960450

[yg1968]

The Industry Day slides have been posted (attached).

https://procurement.jsc.nasa.gov/xevas/

https://sam.gov/opp/e102f3c6746646669301d31b30debd6f/view

[soltasto]

The Industry Day slides have been posted (attached).

https://beta.sam.gov/opp/e102f3c6746646669301d31b30debd6f/view

Is it possible to know who was attending? Would be nice to know which companies are interested, but I guess that information is not public.

[AnalogMan]

The Industry Day slides have been posted (attached).

https://beta.sam.gov/opp/e102f3c6746646669301d31b30debd6f/view

Is it possible to know who was attending? Would be nice to know which companies are interested, but I guess that information is not public.

Lists of participants in industry briefings are often posted a few days after the event - we'll have to see if that happens in this case.

[AnalogMan]

No industry participants list yet, but the RFI was modified with the following:

Additional Questions for Industry

NASA is seeking additional information from Industry to help inform the procurement strategy for the xEVAS requirements. Interested parties should provide responses to the questions below to the Contracting Officer [...] by 4:00 p.m. (Central) on May 21, 2021.

1. NASA is contemplating a period of performance of 12 years for the xEVAS requirements. Up to how many
    years do you think is reasonable to price for a contract of this duration?

2. How should the Government approach the establishment of small business goals in the solicitation?

3. What are the drawbacks (if any) to the potential CLIN structures presented as considerations at
    Industry Day?

4. How should NASA’s strategy and/or requirements take into consideration any constraints with respect
    to parallel operations in training, ISS ops, Artemis Ops, etc.  For example, supporting training events
    on the same day as an EVA.

5. What is an effective way to price the service requirements (e.g. pricing by EVA, by number of total
    EVA hours used or by number of assigned EVA crewmembers which covers all EVAs needed during their time
    on-orbit, etc)?

6. How would you suggest pricing to include initial crewmember suit/tool training (for example Astronaut
    Candidates), proficiency (for example Astronaut Cadre) and Flight Specific EVA and IVA assignments
   (for example Flight Assigned crewmembers)?

7. What is the recommended approach with respect to export control to ensure astronaut training is fully
   inclusive of both US and International Partner Astronauts?

8. Will the requirement for certified cost and pricing data for negotiation, for actions falling under
    an exemption, affect your business plan/approach?

9. What types of xEMU PDR/CDR data would be most helpful/highest priority: requirements/ops cons,
    system/component descriptions, test/analysis data, or detailed design information?

https://beta.sam.gov/opp/d40bd4b1022f4e478c88b84ebe7cb1e8/view

[yg1968]

I am not sure when this was posted on the procurement website but it has a timeline of what the next steps in the process will be:

Milestone  -   Plan  -  Actual

Sources Sought Synopsis   4/14/2021  -   4/14/2021
Requirement Request for Information   4/27/2021  -  4/27/2021
Release Draft Request for Proposal   6/18/2021   
Draft Request for Proposal Responces Due   07/08/2021   
Release Request for Proposal   08/12/2021   
Pre-Proposal Conference   08/20/2021   
Proposals Due   09/16/2021   
Contract Award   12/16/2021

https://procurement.jsc.nasa.gov/xevas/schedule.asp

[yg1968]

I was going through the RFI once more, here are a few more things that are worth noting in that document:

Additionally, NASA, Industry and Academia have spent several years progressing technologies to support operations in environmental extremes beyond LEO. NASA is currently designing and developing the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU). NASA plans to continue maturing the design of the xEMU (Critical Design Review currently expected in spring/summer of 2022) in parallel with a procurement for commercial EVA services. NASA intends to make available, all technical data to which the Government has license to disclose related to the design and development of the xEMU in order to aid Industry in development of their own commercial EVA services capability. This data can be accessed using the link below and following directions provided on the website.

NASA desires to maximize competition and to find ways to incentivize industry’s financial contribution in the EVA services development with a goal of achieving one or more EVA service demonstrations as early as 2024, and the full suite of commercial EVA services beginning as soon as feasible thereafter, to meet the continued NASA demand. NASA plans to enable a continual competitive environment, balancing cost, schedule, and technical risk thru a contract structure that will enable multiple industry partners to provide services during the life of the ISS & Artemis Programs.

It is currently anticipated that the Government will have requirements for approximately two to three Lunar EVAs per year.

[AnalogMan]

NASA responses to questions received at the Industry Day (on May 13, 2021) have been posted in a Q&A document today.

Can be found at:
https://sam.gov/opp/6b234296a1484bd685240667c45f8b08/view

Copy also attached.

Answer to Q10 indicates that an "interested parties" list should have been attached to the Q&A document, but there isn't one.  Maybe it will be added as a separate document later.

[AnalogMan]

The list of Interested Parties from the industry day presentation has been posted at last.

Link to notice: https://sam.gov/opp/714020f32c4c42f4bac25403405ef3d4/view

(copy of list attached)

[yg1968]

The list of Interested Parties from the industry day presentation has been posted at last.

Link to notice: https://sam.gov/opp/714020f32c4c42f4bac25403405ef3d4/view

(copy of list attached)

Among them is Blue Origin and SpaceX.

[DreamyPickle]

Does it make sense for SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop space suits? If they could just buy them from the same suppliers as NASA it would be perfectly fine.

[tbellman]

Does it make sense for SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop space suits? If they could just buy them from the same suppliers as NASA it would be perfectly fine.

They might want to be that supplier...

And even if they are not selected as the NASA supplier, whether it makes sense to develop their own suits, depends on what price that other supplier would charge them, if those suits fit the purposes SpaceX and Blue Origin wants them for, can make them in enough quantities, and so on.

[oldAtlas_Eguy]

Does it make sense for SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop space suits? If they could just buy them from the same suppliers as NASA it would be perfectly fine.

They might want to be that supplier...

And even if they are not selected as the NASA supplier, whether it makes sense to develop their own suits, depends on what price that other supplier would charge them, if those suits fit the purposes SpaceX and Blue Origin wants them for, can make them in enough quantities, and so on.

BO and SpaceX outyear goals for the quantities is for a significant factor increase over that NASA is after. BO and SpaceX need to secure their own supply chains for such suits that will satisfy their flight/mission demands. Relying on NASA setting it up will not work. NASA is looking for from 4 to 12 suits a year (NOTE the 12 figure is for after 2030). But SpaceX and BO by 2030 is planning for usage of 50 to 100 new suits a year each by 2030. They definitely need to set up their own supply chain for suits. Without a secure supply chain for suits it could severely impact flight rates for lack of suits.

[AnalogMan]

A draft request for proposals (RFP) was issued yesterday.  Industry feedback requested for no later than August 17, 2021. Current plan is to release the final RFP around September 20, 2021, with contract awards NET March 2022.

There are a bunch of fairly boring administrative documents that are publicly available to view, but the interesting stuff is restricted to authorized parties.

Link: https://sam.gov/opp/1ddea0dd9b564a6d9e2c33b7058dac3e/view

I've attached a copy of the draft RFP (all 296 pages of it) - most of it consists of contract clauses.

[Robotbeat]

… But SpaceX and BO by 2030 is planning for usage of 50 to 100 new suits a year each by 2030. …

where is this information coming from? Or is this just speculation?

[yg1968]

1.2 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

The objective of the xEVAS contract is to procure safe, reliable, and cost-effective Commercial EVA services to meet NASA’s EVA availability requirements for the ISS, Artemis and advanced human spaceflight missions. NASA is seeking an extensible xEVA System architecture that can adapt to meet current and future NASA mission requirements. NASA’s intent is to transition from the traditional Government-owned hardware model to an “EVA as a Service” model. The goal is to achieve one or more EVA service demonstrations as early as 2024, and the full suite of commercial EVA services beginning as soon as feasible thereafter to meet the continued NASA demand. It is NASA’s goal to become one of many customers for commercial EVA services. To this end, NASA will utilize the xEVAS contract to enable private industry to develop their capabilities so that they can eventually provide spaceflight hardware, software, and mission integration and operations EVA services on a commercial basis. To accomplish this, NASA will utilize this contract to obtain services and deliverables via Task Orders (TOs) that will be competed between contract awardees.

The xEVA System when fully developed, will enable the International Space Station (ISS) Program to transition to the Contractor’s EVA service and accomplish the NASA’s Artemis exploration missions beginning with the Artemis III mission.

[yg1968]

4.1 ARTEMIS REQUIRED CAPABILITY

The Contractor shall provide the capability for 2 crew to perform EVA tasks (reference xEVA-EXP-042, xEVA Concept of Operations) from Human Lander System (HLS) on the Lunar surface with the interfaces, environments, crew anthropometric sizes, and metabolic rates as defined in xEVAS-SRD-001, xEVA System Requirements.

The Contractor shall provide the capability for any pairing of EVA designated crew to perform EVAs during their mission.

The Contractor shall provide the capability to support at least one Artemis mission per year.

The Contractor shall provide the capability to execute up to five EVAs within a 6-day period for early Artemis missions, with this growing to additional EVAs over longer time periods for later Artemis missions.

The Contractor shall ensure all necessary hardware to support each EVA designated crewmember is available within two years from crew assignment to support planned launch dates.

The Contractor shall provide the capability to perform training in appropriately sized hardware within one month of crew being EVA designated.

The Contractor shall provide the required tools and crew aids to perform NASA mission objectives such as mobility and transport, surface engineering, construction, science and contingency operations.

[yg1968]

The requirement for 2 crew EVAs for the Moon puzzles me. For example, Blue Origin's cabin on its lander would have to be depressurized as it doesn't have an airlock. For four astronaut lunar missions, wouldn't all four astronauts need EVA suits for the depressurization?

Based on what NASA said on its Industry Day presentation (see below), I am guessing that the 2 crew EVAs requirement is a minimum.

NASA forecasts 60+ unique EVA’s to occur, with at least 2 crew members participating per EVA, over the next decade (120+ individual EVA’s).