IGF::OT::IGF OTHER FUNCTIONS - THE CONTRACTOR SHALL DEVELOP A SET OF PARAMETRIC MASS ESTIMATING RELATIONSHI…

Public award description

IGF::OT::IGF OTHER FUNCTIONS - THE CONTRACTOR SHALL DEVELOP A SET OF PARAMETRIC MASS ESTIMATING RELATIONSHIPS (MERS) FOR USE IN PREDICTING THE COMPONENT MASSES OF FUTURE SMALL LAUNCH SYSTEMS. THIS ACTIVITY IS MOTIVATED BY NASA S NEED TO AUGMENT ITS INTEGRATED ROCKET SIZING (INTROS) MERS THAT WERE PRIMARILY DEVELOPED TO SUPPORT CONCEPT DESIGN STUDIES OF LARGER LAUNCH SYSTEMS. THE NEW MERS WILL HELP NASA BETTER PREDICT THE COMPONENT MASSES FOR FUTURE SMALL LAUNCH SYSTEMS (ROUGHLY 200,000 LB GROSS MASS AND SMALLER ELVS). TO GENERATE THIS PRODUCT, THE CONTRACTOR SHALL COLLECT COMPONENT MASS DATA FOR SMALL LAUNCHERS (AT A MINIMUM FOR SUBSYSTEMS LISTED BELOW; POWER, AVIONICS, ACTUATORS, REACTION CONTROL) FROM PUBLICLY AVAILABLE SOURCES SUCH AS ONLINE DATABASES, AIAA CONFERENCE PAPERS, VENDOR WEBSITES, ETC. TO GUIDE THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE CANDIDATE LAUNCH SYSTEMS LIKELY TO BE IMPORTANT TO NASA S NEEDS OVER THE NEXT DECADE, THE CONTRACTOR SHALL CONDUCT A HIGH-LEVEL ASSESSMENT OF SMALL PAYLOAD MISSION CONCEPTS AND CANDIDATE SMALL LAUNCHERS SUCH AS FALCON 1, PEGASUS, ANTARES, AND SMALL INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHERS. THESE ASSESSMENTS WILL BE USED TO HELP NASA AND THE CONTRACTOR UNDERSTAND NEW BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES ALONG WITH ENHANCING CURRENT ACTIVITIES. USING THE LAUNCHERS IDENTIFIED ABOVE, THE CONTRACTOR SHALL DEVELOP PARAMETRIC CURVE FITS OF THE COMPONENT MASS DATA THAT CORRESPOND WELL TO THE OBSERVED DATA TRENDS. KEY PARAMETERS SHALL BE IDENTIFIED TO USE AS INDEPENDENT VARIABLES IN THE CURVE FITS. THE MERS SHOULD PREDICT SUBSYSTEM MASS AS AN OUTPUT VARIABLE. THE RESULTANT CURVE FITS SHOULD BE VALIDATED TO THE EXTENT POSSIBLE WITH THE LIMITED DATASETS EXPECTED.