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Question: After reviewing the details of this call for proposals, I wanted to confirm that for this event during NITEC the NATO Space Centre is not interested in presentations on capabilities that continuously monitor and assess the cybersecurity posture of the ground systems that connect space assets. Is that fact?
Answer: When it comes to this specific call for proposals and problem statement, capabilities monitoring cybersecurity posture are not in the scope of the call. The responsibility for monitoring the cybersecurity posture and overall cyber health of the space ground segment is coordinated through the NATO Cyber Operations Centre in close cooperation with the Nations that manage the individual capabilities. For this call for proposals, the interest is in the ability to access and interpret the collected data required for effective Space Situational Awareness (SSA).
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Question: The Terms Of Reference refer to the objective of receiving technology proposals, which focus on space applications that can be used in the NATO Space Centre in AIRCOM for SSA. With the stated aim of the pitch day to "identify" applications, and the submission form appearing to be solely focused on application-based products, what if any opportunity is there to submit SSA services? A certain services-based approach is ensuring that SSA/SDA digital technologies are developed in a coherent manner such that they (1) align to strategic objectives, (2) deliver maximum operational benefit and (3) avoid a 'bolt-on' accessorisation approach to capability deployment. This approach has resulted in the Agile (DevSecOps) design, development and deployment of a digital ecosystem, which is capable of integrating open standards-based SSA applications. My question is can a company make a Space Pitch Day submission based upon the provision of these services into NCI Agency and NATO's Space Centre?
Answer: The provision of SSA services would be a welcome pitch for consideration, and is not excluded from consideration by the board. Systems capable of, and considering the integration of open standards-based SSA applications are interesting and within scope of the Space Pitch Day.
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Question: Certain SSA applications that are under development, which could address two of the six suggested SSA development areas of interest, are currently at a low TRL. The "what is on offer" section doesn't explicitly mention funding to further develop applications such that they could be productised and deployed into a live NATO Space SSA system, we are wondering how NCI Agency is proposing to invest in and support winning submissions to bridge the TRL gap such that novel technologies and be integrated into live SSA operations?
Answer: Any requirement for further funding to support development and integration of technologies must be agreed by the Alliance as a separate process. Innovative approaches that are low TRL are within the scope of the Space Pitch day.
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Question: The submission form requests a 'predicted cost of and prerequisites for NATO deployment'. This is a broad and unbounded question, which to answer would depend upon several factors including NATO's non-functional requirements such as the digital security and data assurance of the NATO Space Centre information ecosystem and supporting architecture, and the intended classification level for operations, e.g. high side, and NATO's position on IP.
Answer: NATO operations are predominantly connected through high side and the provision of SSA would be anticipated to be integrated into the NATO Automated Identification System (AIS) at the level.
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Question: Could you please clarify "Solutions that can use open standards such as ESRI REST, OGC WMS, OGC WMC, OGC WFS and OGC KML will be advantageous". We would like to understand the parameters.
Answer: In order to ease interoperability among systems, result/outputs (basically the information provided by the software presented) should be in the formats listed, or exportable in such formats.