Sources Sought: Lunar Exploration Ground Sites (LEGS) Public Private Partnership

1. Purpose  NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) is conducting market research to identify capable commercial entities interested in supporting the Lunar Exploration Ground Sites (LEGS) Public Private Partnership (3Ps) initiative. This Sources Sought notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation or a commitment by the Government.  NASA seeks information from industry regarding commercially viable approaches for providing communications and navigation services supporting lunar and cislunar missions. Responses will assist NASA in refining acquisition strategy, evaluating commercial capabilities, assessing schedule feasibility, and determining the appropriate level of competition and small business participation. No solicitation exists at this time.  2. Background  NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Program is developing expanded communications and navigation capabilities to support missions operating beyond Geostationary Orbit (GEO) and throughout cislunar space.  The LEGS initiative is intended to augment existing Near Space Network (NSN) capabilities through infrastructure and services that provide high-availability direct-to-Earth (DTE) communications coverage for missions operating from 36,000 kilometers (km) in Geostationary Orbit (GEO) to cis-lunar and other orbits out to 2 million km. NASA intends for the architecture to support lunar exploration activities associated with the Artemis campaign, NASA’s Moon Base, and broader Moon-to-Mars objectives.  NASA is exploring partnership models that leverage commercial investment, infrastructure development, and operational expertise while enabling NASA mission support requirements.  3. Desired Capability Outcomes  NASA is interested in commercial approaches capable of achieving the following preliminary deployment objectives:  Phase 1: At minimum, three (3) lunar DTE ground stations providing continuous coverage capability should be operational by July 2027 to support initial NASA mission requirements.  Phase 2: A redundant architecture consisting of at minimum six (6) globally distributed lunar DTE ground stations (two per operational region) is desired by July 2028.  Phase 3: Expanded network capacity and resiliency consisting of up to nine (9) lunar DTE ground stations (three per operational region) is desired by July 2029.  Ground stations proposed under this effort may include infrastructure associated with Category 1.2 of the Near Space Network Services (NSNS) contract or other commercially available capabilities.  4. Preliminary Technical Characteristics  The following preliminary technical characteristics are provided for planning purposes only and may be refined in any future solicitation:  X-band and Ka-band uplink and downlink capabilities  Communications coverage extending from GEO through cislunar space to approximately 2 million km  Continuous coverage with geographically distributed ground sites  Integration into an operational service architecture capable of supporting NASA missions  High-availability operational support and sustainment  Scalable network operations capable of supporting multiple simultaneous users and future mission growth  5. Government-Furnished Property (GFP)  NASA anticipates providing the following Government-furnished property as part of the partnership:  One (1) LEGS antenna subsystem installed at NASA’s White Sands Complex in Las Cruces, New Mexico  Site Acceptance Testing (SAT) support for the first NASA-provided antenna subsystem  Manufacture and storage of a second LEGS antenna subsystem  NASA will retain ownership of Government-furnished antennas throughout the period of performance. Final disposition of Government-furnished property will occur in accordance with NASA direction at contract completion.  6. Desired Partnership Structure  NASA is considering a Public Private Partnership (3Ps) model under which commercial partners would provide operational communications services while leveraging both Government-furnished and commercially developed infrastructure. NASA currently anticipates the following preliminary partnership characteristics:  Firm-Fixed-Price contract structure for end-to-end communications services  Period of performance of no less than five (5) years  NASA mission priority over non-Government users  Ability of the partner to commercially utilize excess network capacity and provide services to non-NASA customers within the emerging cislunar and commercial space communicat