NASA Headquarters Earth Independent Operations (EIO) Partnerships in Anomaly - Request for Information (RFI)
Overview
Buyer
Place of Performance
NAICS
PSC
Set Aside
Original Source
Timeline
Qualification Details
Fit reasons
- NAICS alignment with historical contract wins in similar service areas.
- Scope strongly matches core technical capabilities and delivery model.
Risks
- Past performance thresholds may require one additional teaming partner.
- Potential clarification needed on staffing minimums before bid/no-bid.
Next steps
Validate eligibility requirements, assign capture owner, and schedule partner outreach to confirm teaming strategy before submission planning.
Quick Summary
NASA Headquarters (HQ) is conducting a Request for Information (RFI) for Earth Independent Operations (EIO) Partnerships in Anomaly. This RFI seeks market research on technologies, facilities, and workforce capabilities to enable human crews to operate independently during Mars missions with significant communication delays or outages. Responses are due by February 18, 2026.
Purpose & Scope
The NASA Mars Campaign Office (MCO) aims to revolutionize human spaceflight operations by developing technologies for crew independence from Earth-based ground support during critical operations. This RFI specifically targets the "Anomaly Response" portfolio, focusing on novel computing methods, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), to support crew-led diagnostics and response planning for unpredicted operational anomalies.
NASA is interested in technologies that are sufficiently established in commercial applications but may not be spaceflight-specific, as well as facilities for testing and organizations with relevant workforce expertise. The scope includes:
- System Diagnostics: Anomaly detection, fault isolation, ranking.
- Fault Hypothesis Generation: Unknown fault isolation, inference, uncertainty estimation.
- Procedure Synthesis: Generating and optimizing novel procedures.
- Procedure Validation: Ensuring safety and effectiveness of new procedures.
- Crew Decision Support: Providing diagnostic information and situational awareness.
Technologies should be robust to limited compute, intermittent data, complex systems, and evolving configurations, providing human-understandable rationale. NASA encourages responses considering both spaceflight and dual-use terrestrial applications.
Requested Information
NASA HQ is soliciting capability statements from all interested domestic parties, including all socioeconomic categories of Small Businesses and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI). Responses should detail the technology or capability, identify its type (technology, facility, workforce), relevant Anomaly Response objectives, current maturity, existing commercial use cases, and results from prior use or testing.
Key Clarifications & Context
This RFI is for planning purposes and market research only and does not constitute a commitment to issue a solicitation or take action. It is explicitly stated that this RFI is not currently planned to lead to an RFP. NASA seeks to understand the state-of-the-art in industry and academia. Responses will help determine appropriate competition levels and/or small business subcontracting goals for future acquisitions. Interaction between crew and autonomous systems is in scope, preserving crew authority and ability to override actions.
Timeline & Submission
- Response Due Date: February 18, 2026, 11:59 PM EST.
- Submission Format: Electronic submission to Andres.Martinez@nasa.gov in Adobe PDF format, maximum 10 pages (12-point Times New Roman, single space, 1-inch margins). Total file size limited to 10MB.
- Point of Contact: Andres Martinez, Domain Lead, Earth Independent Operations, NASA Headquarters (Andres.Martinez@nasa.gov).