NASA is investigating outsourcing use of the unique capabilities of its Huntsville, Ala.-based Marshall Space Flight Center, according to a notice posted on Federal Business Opportunities.
NASA could open up Marshall’s Environmental Test Facility (ETF), Flight Robotics Laboratory (FRL) and X-ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF) to enhance the use of capabilities to support government, university and commercial activities. Capabilities include a combination of expertise, labs, tools and facilities.
The ETF operates in a variety of vacuum chambers nominally used to develop and qualify flight hardware for space environments. The FRL features a Dynamic Overhead Target Simulator (DOTS), a robotic arm with an 800-pound payload capacity that can move in pre-canned motions or be used in a closed-loop fashion for sensor testing, video testing, proximity operations, docking and capture testing.
The XRCF is an optical, cryogenic and X-ray vacuum test facility. Its extremely clean, thermally-controlled vacuum chamber is a horizontal cylinder 20 feet in diameter and 65 feet long capable of achieving temperatures from 20 Kelvin to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The XRCF, considered the world’s largest X-ray optical test facility, enables development, performance, and calibration testing of grazing-incidence X-ray optics, detectors and telescopes.
NASA Marshall spokeswoman Shannon Ridinger said recently in an e-mail that six companies have responded to this RFI as of April 9. Ridinger said Marshall is in the process of formulating a ballpark cost estimate for planning purposes that would be tailored once a potential partner’s requirements are defined. Ridinger said each Marshall facility is a separate entity, but if a potential customer was interested in using more than one facility, that would be considered.
Marshall’s facilities currently have the capacity to support commercial space companies, Ridinger said.
“Our focus is developing new relationships with external communities and outside agencies, strengthening current ones and sharing the expertise and capabilities…so our partners can harness the technologies available at our facilities to further support the nation’s space exploration goals,” Ridinger said.