Professional Services for At Home In Space Mission

PURPOSE
The purpose of this Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) is to signal the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) intention to enter into anon-competitive contract with:
Qualtrics, LLC

400 Qualtrics Dr., Suite 100
Provo, UT 84604

Corporate Mailing Address

2250 N. University Pkwy, 48-C
Provo, UT 84604

Phone Number: 801-374-6682

Fax Number: 866-562-9828

To supply the services described below.
An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows departments and agencies to post a notice, for no less than fifteen (15) calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that it intends to award a good, service or construction contract to a pre-identified contractor. If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the contracting authority may then proceed with the award. However, should a Statement of Capabilities be found to meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, then the contracting authority will proceed to a full tendering process.
You are hereby notified that the government intends to negotiate with one firm only as identified above. Should you have any questions concerning this requirement, contact the contracting officer identified herein.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WORK
The professional services required by the CSA are for software development and on-orbit operational support for the At Home In Space (Culture, Values, and Environmental Adaptation in Space) mission. The CSA requires a common data collection application (CDCA) to run offline (that is, without internet connection) on an Apple iPad resident on the International Space Station (ISS). The transfer of data from space, via National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) server protocols and downlink capabilities, to the ground will result in the necessity to merge the space data with other data set already acquired on the ground. Furthermore, the on-orbit activities will also be supported by the contractor to ensure data collection is successful.

At Home In Space Mission Background

The At Home In Space mission studies, via psychological surveys, the cultural characteristics of multicultural crews on long duration space flights aboard the ISS. There are two components to this mission:

• a ground-based Qualtrics, LLC, internet based survey used by the University of British Columbia for baseline data collection (BDC) prior to and after flight aboard the ISS;
• an off-line survey to collect data twice on-orbit by USOS crew members and to downlink via NASA-provided services.

This second component is the area where professional services are required.

Applicable Documents

The following documents outline standard and generic requirements for design and operation of ISS payloads. The requirements, in turn, ensure a simpler verification/qualification/certification and integration process for the payload. The latest revision of any listed document is applicable. If any requirements appear to be conflicting, the most stringent requirement must prevail.

ID #

Document

Revision

Title

AD1

ILSRA-2009-1207

Culture, values, and environmental adaptation in space proposal

AD2

SSP 41170

Configuration Management Requirement

AD4

OZ-10-056

Baseline

Payload Developers and Principal Investigators Payload Planning, Integration and Operations Primer

AD5

CSA-At Home In Space-RD-0001_IR

Initial Release (March 25 2015)

At Home In Space Experiment Requirements Document (ERD)

AD6

ISS CM 019

Rev 09/2011

General Use Laptops and Tablets (SSC’s and iPads) General Briefing

AD7

CSA-Space Culture -PL - 001

Draft

At Home In Space Operations Concept Plan

AD8

iPad App Portal – User Guide

Version 1.01 (June 25, 2015)

iPad App Portal User Guide

AD9

9F053-12-0608

2013-08-30

At Home In Space first phase contract: Space Culture ILSRA-2009 FY 12/13

AD10

9F008-14-0392

May 27 2015

At Home In Space second phase contract: At Home In Space Operations Support

AD11

SSP 50989

Draft baseline CR 14493

International Space Station IT Security Policy for Onboard Systems

Table 1: Applicable Documents

Reference documents

ID #

Document

Rev.

Title

RD6

N/A

Milestone Report template

RD7

N/A

Version 3

Final Report template

Table 2: Reference Documents

Definition of the Requirements:
At Home in Space Mission Outline

During an increment, up to 6 ISS USOS crewmembers actively pursue multiple tasks which have been scheduled on average a few years ahead of time. Some of these tasks are associated with scientific payloads/missions for which specific prime subject crewmembers have been recruited and trained while still on the ground.

Scheduling a payload/mission during an increment is the result of a payload integration process among ISS partners (CSA, NASA, ESA, JAXA, etc) which involves the production of multiple approval documents detailing the on-ground and on-orbit activities associated with the mission. These include ethics approvals, safety certificates, procedures, on-orbit resource requirements, etc. A vast majority of this work is ongoing since successive increments are always in the planning process. Also, crewmember recruiting, training and preparation for the next increment must be repeated until the number of subjects required for a successful mission conclusion has been attained.

For each recruited prime subject crewmember, the following stages must be performed: training and procedure run-through, pre-flight baseline data collection (BDCs), in-flight data collection, post-flight BDCs and debriefings.

The pre-flight stage, including recruitment and training of the astronauts, will extend for several years and involves one BDC via an internet based survey. Likewise, the post-flight stage will require two BDCs, also via an internet based survey. This service, provided by Qualtrics, LCC, is currently managed via the University of British Columbia.

The in-flight or on-orbit stage will last up to 6 months for each recruited prime subject crewmember. During this time, two survey-based offline sessions will be scheduled and executed. These sessions may last close to 1 hour each, and may require ground support to guide the crewmember through the survey. Mission support must be provided by CSA, and will be supported by the University of British Columbia and the professional services contractor. This support will be affected remotely for both the University of British Columbia and the professional services contractor.

The At Home in Space mission will extend over several years, given the limited number of prime subjects + insurance subject who will sign up, and given CSA's limited crew time allocation per increment. It is hypothesized that no more than 4 prime subjects per year will participate in this mission. Given this and that the target is to study twelve (12) prime crew members + one (1) insurance subject, it is expected that the on-orbit operations will last at least 4 years, ending in fiscal year 2018/2019.

Core Tasks

Development of CDCA, Integration and Verification Tasks

The development of the CDCA, integration and verification tasks consists of:

1. Develop an offline CDCA for the ISS Apple iPad that provides for an enterprise survey platform to run the University of British Columbia’s experiment per AD1, AD5, and AD7;
2. Provide information and support to develop the security information folder, following the NASA server configuration, for the NASA Space Station Computer (SSC) per AD8;
3. Assist in the integration of the CDCA by supporting the Flight Readiness Integration work to be performed on site at NASA’s JSC, Houston, Texas per AD5 and AD8;
4. Test and validate the offline CDCA at the JSC Software Development and Integration Lab (SDIL) facility to ensure it meets SSC protocols, processes and mission requirements as outlined in AD5 and AD8;
5. Maintain configuration control of the CDCA and of the security information folder.

Operational Support of CDCA Task: Acquisition of Subject Data Set

The contractor must support the acquisition of Subject Data Set for prime subject crewmembers via in-flight operations per AD1, AD5, and AD7. The contractor must provide as-required-support to ensure that the in-flight activities are performed adequately by the prime subject crewmember. The contractor must also provide as-required-support to ensure that the data and measurements captured during experimental activities are valid. This task may include but is not limited to:

1. Must provide support via on-call status (telephone and email) the inaugural in-flight data collection session and subsequent in-flight sessions. May be called upon to provide real-time answers to questions from prime subject crewmembers or on-console operators
2. Remote terminal connectivity may be arranged by CSA or other Agencies to allow remote support per operational requirements as outlined in AD7;
3. May require to provide support by telephone and e-mail prior to and post mission activities;
4. Must provide data validation and data integration after each session, within 24 hours of NASA’s downlink of data.
5. Must report to the CSA on the preliminary quality findings of the Subject Data Set analysis; that is, the data captured from an on-orbit subject session is of sufficient quality and completeness to allow for first integration with pre- and post-flight data, and then for the analysis by University of British Columbia to proceed. This will be provided via written status reports for each data collection. These status reports are integral to ensuring that the data captured is viable and does not require further subject session planning.

Note that the following tasks are not part of these core tasks:

Crew Training: Given CSA’s limited crew time allocation, crew training support for the software developed will not be required. This implies that the CDCA must be user-friendly, easily operated by crew members in space and must meet NASA requirements for ID Security and be certified custom enterprise Apple App (AD11).

BDC Execution: The contractor will not directly support the crew members executing the pre-flight and post-flight activities.

Other Integration and Operational Responsibilities

The contractor must support CSA’s partners (NASA) and client operational integration activities including but not limited to:

1. Prepare and update necessary documentation and fulfill requirements for the NASA payload integration, verification and certification activities scheduled for mid-December 2015.
2. Assist CSA in developing and providing NASA documentation such as crew flight procedures, if required;
3. Review various integration documents produced by NASA (server configurations, Apple iPad configurations, etc);
4. Support activities around operational on-orbit status meetings; nominally, twice per 6 month period.

Schedule: Development of CDCA and Integration Task

The development of the CDCA along with the security information folder for the Apple iPAd and NASA server configuration must be completed by mid-December 2015. This schedule is a NASA-driven requirement due to the flight testing, validation and integration window which closes in December 2015.

Schedule: Operational Support

The operational support window begins in January 2016 and may end by Fiscal Year 2018/2019, depending on subject recruitment.

Contractual Deliverables

The following is a list of contractual deliverables organized via milestones:

1. Milestone 1: CDCA Development, Verification and Integration (due December 31^st 2015)

1. Delivery of Apple iPAd off-line CDCA, including security protocol server folder as presented in section Core Tasks;
2. Milestone Progress report;
3. Trip report.

1. Milestone 2: Operational Support of CDCA Task: Acquisition of Subject Data Set*

1. Delivery of operational support as presented in section Core Tasks;
2. Milestone Progress report, including preliminary Data Analysis reports if and when applicable;
3. Midterm operational review report;
4. Final Report;
5. Contractor’s Disclosure of FIP.

   * The Milestone Dates for the operational support will follow increment stages. So for Increment 45/46, which runs from September 2015 to March 2016, the Milestone partial payment will be done January 15 2016; Increment 47/48, the Milestone partial payment will be done February 15 2016, etc. Further specifics of these dates are available in the complete statement of work.

DURATION

The contract will be awarded for the both the Development of CDCA, Integration and Verification Tasks and the Operational Support of CDCA Task. The projected timeframe for these tasks are as follows:
Development of CDCA, Integration and Verification: December 7^th 2015 to December 31^st 2015
Operational Support of CDCA: January 1^st 2016 to March 31^st 2019

ESTIMATED COST
The estimated cost of the proposed contract, including options, is $ 87,000 US, taxes extra.

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION
The CSA considers the Qualtrics, LLC, offline Apple iPad Enterprise application to be in a unique position to fulfill the requirement for the following reasons:

1. Ethics approval has been granted for the Qualtrics platform for the ground-based survey support. To change the platform for the ground survey baseline data collection is not feasible since ethic approvals would have to be sought again, thereby introducing important delays into the schedule. In addition, USOS crew members have all ready begun to be recruited based on this platform and they have performed the survey online via Qualtrics internet-based survey software on the ground.
2. No Canadian-based company is known to support the type of survey software platform required (offline enterprise App that runs on an Ipad) to achieve the on-orbit science requirements.
3. The CSA requires access to the Qualtrics survey data servers for on-orbit and on the ground data reconciliation. For IP reasons, Qualtrics may refuse to provide access.
4. Cost associated with development of offline CDCA are lower since the offline application platform all ready exists.
5. Schedule window associated with the offline CDCA is small and Qualtrics can support the required integration and verification testing window imposed by NASA given that the offline application platform all ready exists.

To the best of our knowledge, there is no other provider with this unique combination of assets and skills that are necessary for the successful completion of the specified tasks.

LIMITED TENDERING REASON:
The contract is proposed under the Government Contracting Regulations, Section 6 (d) that states “only one person or firm is capable of performing the contract”.
This requirement is not subject to the trade agreements.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
The Canadian Space Agency has determined that any intellectual property rights arising from the performance of the Work under the resulting contract will belong to the company, on the following grounds:
- the main purpose of the contract, or of the deliverables contracted for, is to provide professional services.

SUBMISSION OF STATEMENT OF CAPABILITIES
Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the services/goods described herein, may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this Notice on or before the closing date of this Notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.
The CSA file number, the contracting officer's name and the closing date of the ACAN must appear on the outside of the envelope in block letters or, in the case of a facsimile transmission, on the covering page. E-mail submission will not be considered.
The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement.
Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.