Federal award (DEFINITIVE CONTRACT, fiscal year 2021)
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
Awarding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Funding agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration / National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Period of performance: 2017-04-03 to 2022-05-02
Current total value of award: $4616495.57
Description: RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, ANALYSIS, AND SATELLITE LASER RANGING (SLR) OPERATIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES FOR THE SPACE GEODESY NETWORK AND SENSORS CALIBRATION OFFICE.  THIS CONTRACT IS FOR LASER RANGING OPERATIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES FOR ARTIFICIAL EARTH SATELLITES, AND THE MAINTENANCE AND CALIBRATION OF THE MCDONALD LASER RANGING SYSTEM (MLRS) LOCATED ON MCDONALD OBSERVATORY IN FORT DAVIS, TEXAS WHICH IS PART OF THE NASA SATELLITE LASER RANGING (SLR) NETWORK.  THESE SERVICES ARE A CONTINUATION OF THE SCIENTIFIC AND ENGINEERING MISSION OPERATIONS SUPPORT FOR THE NASA SLR PROGRAM. THE SERVICES INCLUDE OPERATIONS OF A SATELLITE LASER TRACKING STATION, DATA ANALYSIS, DATA ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL OF MLRS DATA PRODUCTS IN SUPPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL LASER RANGING SERVICE (ILRS), THE INTERNATIONAL EARTH ROTATION SERVICES (IERS), AND THE GLOBAL GEODETIC OBSERVING SYSTEM (GGOS), AS APPROPRIATE.  THIS PROCUREMENT IS FOR THE ACQUISITION OF SERVICES TO SUPPORT LASER RANGING OPERATIONS TO ARTIFICIAL EARTH- SATELLITES, AND THE MAINTENANCE AND CALIBRATION OF THE MLRS. MLRS IS EQUIPPED TO PERFORM LASER RANGING TO SATELLITE AND LUNAR TARGETS.  THIS PROCUREMENT SHALL ALSO PROVIDE FOR DATA ANALYSIS, DATA ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL OF MLRS DATA PRODUCTS IN SUPPORT OF THE ILRS, IERS, AND GGOS, AS APPROPRIATE. THESE ACTIVITIES SHALL INCLUDE UPDATED GEOCENTER TIME SERIES ESTIMATES EVALUATION OF NEW AND RETURNING SLR STATIONS AS PART OF THE NORMAL ACCEPTANCE TESTING RESOLUTION OF SPECIFIC STATION COORDINATE PROBLEMS RE-EXAMINATION OF THE SLR ESTIMATES OF THE EARTH'S GRAVITATIONAL COEFFICIENT (GM) AND THE IMPACT ON SCALE WITHIN THE INTERNATIONAL TERRESTRIAL REFERENCE FRAME (ITRF) PRECISION ORBIT DETERMINATION AND VERIFICATION AND PARTICIPATION IN ILRS, IERS, AND GGOS WORKING GROUP MEETINGS.