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At the behest of Director General Space (DG Space), the Department of National Defence has issued an invitation to tender for proposals related to a space-based surveillance system.
Specifically, DG Space is looking at engineering and costing studies in three streams: Constellation Design concept, Data Exploitation concept and Alternate mission type design concept (non-SAR) for a space-based surveillance system.
Stream 1 – Constellation Design Concept
Scope: DG Space requires a detailed engineering and costing analysis to be conducted on a space-based surveillance system constellation design concept that best meet its requirements, as described in its SBS-RD (Space-Based Surveillance Requirements document). Follow-on analysis may also be required.
Engineering and costing analysis of a Constellation design concept.
The Contractor must conduct a detailed review of the SBS-RD and develop an engineering and costing analysis of Synthetic Aperture Radar based constellations. The proposed design concepts must address all of the priority 1 and 2 requirements, and at a minimum, 50% of the remaining priorities 3-5 listed in the SBS-RD. A summary of these requirements and priorities are listed in Appendix B to Annex A-1.
The constellation design concepts are required to include technology that is or will be at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7-9 in 3-5 years, as defined in Appendix C to Annex A-1.
The engineering and costing analysis is to be written in accordance with the template in Appendix A and must at minimum include the following:
- Tasking, Telemetry, and Communications requirements;
- Communications links (frequency, bandwidth);
- Constellation composition, size and orbit(s);
- Recommended sensors/ sensor types, secondary payload, duty cycle, bus, frequency band(s);
- Detailed analysis of the sensor parameters (swath, resolution, Noise Equivalent Sigma Zero (NESZ), ambiguity, bandwidth, scene size);
- Technology, primary and secondary payload(s) and operating parameters across the space-based surveillance system;
- Identification of any possible requirements that cannot be met;
- Identification of all potential risks with their associated mitigation strategy, including the impact statement and probability of occurrence; and
- A detailed options analysis of proposed constellation design concepts including scalable cost estimates of multiple revisit times and resolutions. The cost estimates of the proposed constellation design concepts must contain a detailed description of the assumptions made in establishing the Work Breakdown Structure level 2 cost estimates. The estimates must clearly illustrate the cost-benefit analysis of the recommended design options and describe the trade-offs made with their associated costing.
Stream 2 – Data Exploitation Concept
Scope: DG Space requires a detailed engineering and costing analysis to be conducted on a space-based surveillance system data exploitation design concept that best meet its requirements, as described in its SBS-RD (Space-Based Surveillance Requirements document). Additional analysis may also be required.
Engineering & costing analysis of a data exploitation design concept.
The engineering and costing analysis is to be written in accordance with the template in Appendix A and must at minimum include the following:
- Communications links (frequency, bandwidth if appropriate);
- Ground segment technology and configuration;
- Collection, data handling;
- Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination (PED);
- Data Archiving, retrieval and storage;
- Cross domain connectivity;
- Identification of any requirements that cannot be met;
- Identification of all potential risks with their associated mitigation strategy, including the impact statement and probability of occurrence; and
- A detailed options analysis of the proposed exploitation concept including scalable cost estimates. The cost estimates of the proposed design concepts must contain a detailed description of the assumptions made in establishing the Work Breakdown Structure level 2 cost estimates. The estimates must clearly illustrate the cost-benefit analysis of the recommended design options and describe the trade-offs made with their associated costing.
Stream 3 – Alternate Mission Concept
Scope: DG Space requires a detailed engineering and costing analysis to be conducted on a space-based surveillance system alternate mission type (non-SAR) design concept that best meet its requirements, as described in its SBS- RD (Space-Based Surveillance Requirements document). Additional analysis may also be required.
Engineering and costing analysis of an alternate mission design concept.
The engineering and costing analysis is to be written in accordance with the template in Appendix A and must at minimum include the following:
- Tasking, Telemetry, and Communications requirements;
- Communications links (frequency, bandwidth);
- Constellation composition, size and orbit(s);
- Recommended sensors/ sensor types, secondary payload, duty cycle, bus, frequency band(s);
- Detailed analysis of the sensor parameters (swath, resolution, Noise Equivalent Sigma Zero (NESZ), ambiguity, bandwidth, scene size);
- Technology, primary and secondary payload(s) and operating parameters across the space-based surveillance system;
- Identification of any possible non-compliance or requirements that cannot be met;
- Identification of all potential risks with their associated mitigation strategy, including the impact statement and probability of occurrence; and
- A detailed options analysis of proposed constellation design concepts including scalable cost estimates of multiple revisit times and resolutions. The cost estimates of the proposed constellation design concepts must contain a detailed description of the assumptions made in establishing the Work Breakdown Structure level 2 cost estimates. The estimates must clearly illustrate the cost-benefit analysis of the recommended design options and describe the trade-offs made with their associated costing.
Proposals are due January 13, 2020.
