SUBMILLIMETER ENCELADUS LIFE FUNDAMENTALS INSTRUMENT (SELFI) IS A THREE-YEAR MATURATION OF INSTRUMENTS FOR…

Public award description

SUBMILLIMETER ENCELADUS LIFE FUNDAMENTALS INSTRUMENT (SELFI) IS A THREE-YEAR MATURATION OF INSTRUMENTS FOR SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION (MATISSE) PROJECT. SELFI WILL DEVELOP A FLEXIBLE AND POWER-EFFICIENT SPECTROMETER TO MEET THE REQUIREMENTS FOR A MISSION TO ENCELADUS IN ORDER TO 1) INVESTIGATE THE COMPOSITION, ABUNDANCE, THERMAL STRUCTURE, AND TRANSPORT WITHIN THE PLUMES, AND 2) CHARACTERIZE THE SOURCE REGION AND PROCESSES FROM WHICH THE PLUMES EMERGE. IN ORDER TO ACCOMPLISH MISSION SCIENCE OBJECTIVES, THE PROJECT WILL DEVELOP A HIGH SENSITIVITY RECEIVER COMPRISED OF A SPECTROMETER FRONT END (SFE) AND A DIGITAL SPECTROMETER ASSEMBLY (DSA). THE SFE FEATURES TWO SUB-ASSEMBLIES: THE SUBMILLIMETER-WAVE ASSEMBLY (SWA), AND THE MICROWAVE ASSEMBLY (MWA). THE SWA IS COMPRISED OF A SUBMM-WAVE ANTENNA, SUBMM-WAVE LOW NOISE AMPLIFIERS (LNAS), AND A SUBMM-WAVE SPLITTER FILTER MIXER AMPLIFIER (SFMA). THIS STATEMENT OF WORK DOCUMENT DEFINES THE SPECIFICATIONS AND WORK REQUIREMENTS REQUIRED BY VIRGINIA DIODES INC. (VDI) TO DESIGN, FABRICATE, AND DELIVER THE SELFI SFMA. THE SFMA IS A SECOND-HARMONIC MIXER ASSEMBLY THAT WILL DOWN-CONVERT A 531 - 600 GHZ SUBMMWAVE INPUT TO TWO RADIO FREQUENCY (RF) OUTPUTS, EACH SPANNING 4.5 - 40 GHZ. THE SPECTROMETER FRONT END (SFE) WILL PROVIDE A 10.4111 GHZ PLO TO THE SFMA. VDI WILL DEVELOP THE SUBMM-WAVE ASSEMBLY TO DOWN-CONVERT FREQUENCIES SPANNING 530 TO 600 GHZ TO MICROWAVE FREQUENCIES. DETAILED PERFORMANCE AND INTERFACE REQUIREMENTS, AS WELL AS THE COMPLETE LIST OF DELIVERABLES, ARE GIVEN IN THE DRAFT SOW FROM NASA PROVIDED IN THE APPENDIX OF THIS DOCUMENT. THE FOLLOWING BULLETIZED LIST SUMMARIZES THE DELIVERABLES IN THAT DRAFT SELFI SOW: - VDI SHALL COMPLETE AN ARCHITECTURE TRADE STUDY - VDI SHALL BUILD, TEST, AND DELIVER A PROTOTYPE RECEIVER - VDI SHALL BUILD, TEST, AND DELIVER AN ENGINEERING MODEL (EM) RECEIVER - VDI SHALL PROVIDE AN END ITEM DATA PACKAGE (EIDP) WITH EACH RECEIVER - REVIEWS AND MEETINGS REQUIRED FOR THIS CONTRACT