Inactive

***This announcement is hereby amended as of March 11, 2021 to include the third set of answers provided to the questions received to date for this announcment.*** ***This announcement is hereby amend... ***This announcement is hereby amended as of March 11, 2021 to include the third set of answers provided to the questions received to date for this announcment.*** ***This announcement is hereby amended as of March 7, 2021 to include the second set of answers provided to the questions received to date for this announcment.*** ***This announcement is hereby amended as of March 2, 2021 to include the first set of answers provided to the questions received to date for this announcment.*** The Satellite and Information Acquisition Division (SIAD) of NOAA's Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO) is seeking information on behalf of the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS), Office of Space Commerce (OSC) on existing or planned commercial sensors and tracking services for objects orbiting Earth and related capabilities that will be available in the 2022 through 2030 timeframe. This Request for Information (RFI) is for informational purposes only; it is not a request for proposals or a solicitation for a contract or grant award and it does not obligate the Government in any way. The Government will not reimburse respondents for any costs associated with responding to this request. I. BACKGROUND: NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce (OSC) is exploring the viability of commercial tracking data of active satellites and debris in preparation of future OSC Space Situational Awareness (SSA) products. The US Air Force (USAF), and now the United States Space Force (USSF), has been monitoring and managing space assets, including live objects and debris, ever since the former Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, in 1957. Currently, USSPACECOM delegates SSA and military Space Traffic Management (STM) to the USSF 18th Space Control Squadron (18 SPCS), located at Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA. The 2020’s have brought tremendous growth to the satellite industry, resulting in a large increase of commercial satellites in orbit. The 18 SPCS is finding its SSA/STM mission focused more and more on managing commercial objects, tracking approximately 5,000 active satellites and over 20,000 debris objects. These numbers are expected to continue to increase in the foreseeable future. II. PURPOSE: In response to executive branch directives, and the Government’s effort to leverage commercially available data and services, OSC is seeking information from commercial satellite tracking providers on data products, services, and capabilities to support development of an Open Architecture Data Repository (OADR) for commercial space situational awareness. OSC's primary interest is in commercial data sources to fill coverage gaps in existing government tracking assets. The ability to track debris and other objects that are not currently well-tracked and the capability to track objects in the southern hemisphere are of particular interest. Also of interest is the capability to task observation assets to refine orbit estimates of high-priority objects on an ad-hoc basis and the capability to track calibration satellites. Information on both current capabilities and data sources that will be available in the 2022 through 2030 timeframe is desired. Responses to this RFI will be used to inform plans for OADR development and other acquisition activities related to commercial space situational awareness by OSC and other government agencies. In such studies, commercial data may be acquired, processed, evaluated, assessed for potential operational uses, and archived. OSC may also be interested in pursuing joint public/private partnerships (PPPs) to develop commercial data sources where current capabilities are not sufficiently mature. III. DATA PRODUCTS OF INTEREST: The specific types of data products and examples of data product characteristics that are of interest to OSC include, but are not limited to: Observations (Measurements made of a space object’s coordinates (e.g., position and velocity) at a particular time, for example using an optical telescope or a radar). Define format and content of data Coordinate frame, uncertainty estimation / characterization Describe known biases and methods for correcting Describe data collection methodology Tasked vs. search Task prioritization schemes Describe sensor characteristics relevant to observation data Minimum detectable RCS / visual magnitude and variance Sensor sensitivity, probability of detection Number of concurrent tracks / objects per sensor Search capacity (if applicable) and field of regard / field of view Describe any dependence on US government data sources Date and time constants DOD / space-track.org catalog State Vector (Position (r) and velocity (v) that together with their time (epoch) (t) uniquely determine the trajectory of the orbiting body in space) and Covariance (the uncertainty of the state of the space object). Define format and content of data Coordinate frame(s), association with contributing observations Describe algorithms for state/covariance determination Astrodynamics models, orbit fitting (Batch LSQ, Kalman filter, etc.), environmental models (atmospheric drag, solar radiation pressure) Algorithms to estimate covariance realism, covariance modifications (inflation, etc.) Describe dependence of provided state/covariance (if any) on US government data sources (space-track.org states, etc.) Describe whether objects are related back to US government state catalog, or independently maintained using sensor collections only Describe cadence of state updates as a function of detections (e.g., state updated with each successful track attempt, updates provided on a scheduled period, etc.) Describe choice of state epoch (e.g., last observation used in state update, epoch of nodal crossing, etc. Ephemeris (a listing of the trajectory of a space object over time) and Conjunction Assessment ((CA) the process of predicting the conjunction event by screening the ephemeris of a space object against a catalog of the ephemerides of other space objects). Ephemerides Define format and content of data Coordinate frame(s), time span and spacing Describe algorithms for ephemeris generation Astrodynamics models, environmental models, integration methods Describe any algorithms employed to assess and/or enforce covariance realism Conjunction Assessment Define format and content of conjunction alert messages Describe algorithm(s) employed for conjunction screening and assessment Probability of Collision (PC) computation approach, dimensional reduction, Monte Carlo approaches, etc. Describe any methods employed for validation Describe any supporting information (states of conjuncting objects, etc.) provided with conjunction assessment messages IV. OTHER DATA PRODUCT CHARACTERISTICS: The following characteristics are also requested for each of the Data Product (if applicable) listed in Section III. Coverage/tasking. Describe data coverage for observations, state/covariance, ephemerides, CA Orbital regime(s): LEO, MEO, GEO, cislunar, etc. Cadence / revisit rate and any related dependencies Inclination, altitude / range etc. Geographic coverage (longitude, latitude, etc.) Describe routine coverage vs. special tasking What classes or sets of objects are routinely tracked as part of normal operations? Include specific details on calibration objects (object IDs, normal cadence of revisit, etc.) Describe process for special tasking, and any known limitations or system trades Impacts of special tasking on routine coverage Object types, regimes, orbits that present challenges to tasking and tracking, including day/night, phase angle considerations, etc. Standards Conformance. Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Other applicable standards Calibration Satellite Tracking. Capability to conduct observations and generate ephemeris data on calibration satellites whose orbits are well-defined from laser ranging or owner/operator GPS measurements Utilization of other astronomical objects or laboratory means to calibrate and validate data products Data Attributes. Size Precision Quality Provenance Availability Latency of observation Latency of delivery Archiving and historical preservation Mutable/immutable Data rights and licensing arrangements Data Delivery Methods. Data delivery latency Data delivery methods (API, FTP, via removable media, etc.) Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) alignment Presentation Layer – XML, JSON, TLE, etc. Session Layer – REST, HTTP, AMQP Security Controls (e.g., NIST) Encryption (at-rest and in transit) Access Authentication Non-repudiation Provenance V. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: Responses are due no later than 4:00pm on Monday, March 21, 2022. Late submissions will not be accepted or reviewed. In order to ensure timely response and consideration of your feedback, we ask each company to limit itself to one (1) response. Please submit all responses to this RFI via Google Forms using the link below: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fTh8Qsq57YU6Q82ObchObkW1y7VHJIeGNsl7vQr-Ues/edit It is highly recommended that respondents draft their responses outside of the Google Form and then copy and paste responses into the form to avoid loss of data. There are no character limits associated with Google Form. When providing multiple responses within a question, please start a paragraph for each response (i.e. click "enter" twice). Responders will automatically receive a copy of their response from "Google Forms". VI. DISCLAIMER AND USE OF INFORMATION: This RFI does not guarantee that the Government will issue a solicitation or award a contract for supplies or services. No specific solicitation is planned to follow this RFI; however, the responses could impact the Government’s decision to release multiple solicitations in the future. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable government regulations. Any material received will be public domain unless clearly marked (on each page) as proprietary. The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for proprietary information not properly identified. Respondents are hereby notified that as part of this evaluation, NOAA intends to share the information obtained from this market research with Interagency Council on the Advancement of Meteorological Services (ICAMS) Working Group on Non-Governmental Data, which comprises representatives from NOAA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Department of the Interior. The Working Group intends to use this information to foster interagency coordination on approaches to purchasing space-based commercial weather data for operational use within the Federal Weather Enterprise. Respondents are also notified that in the process of evaluation, agencies may use Federally Funded Research and Development Centers and support contractors. Not responding to this RFI will not preclude an entity from submitting a proposal to any subsequent NOAA solicitations. Please email your questions or comments regarding the RFI to Darrin Holland (Contract Specialist) at darrin.holland@noaa.gov and Gion Lalican (Contracting Officer) at gion.lalican@noaa.gov. Respondents are advised that questions, comments and Government responses may be posted publicly on SAM.gov, although the identity of the requesting organization will be withheld.