NASA is offering the Earth Venture-2 Grant for the Earth System Science Pathfinder Program

NNH11ZDA012O
Release Date: June 17, 2011
Proposals Due: September 29, 2011

With this amendment, the proposal due date for NASA Announcement of Opportunity (AO) NNH11ZDA012O, “Earth Venture 2,” has been delayed to September 29, 2011. In order to give more time to proposers who are without power because of Hurricane Irene, this amendment delays by two weeks the proposal due date for the EV-2 AO.

On or about September 1, 2011, Amendment No. 3 to the NASA Announcement of Opportunity “Earth Venture 2” (NNH11ZDA012O) will be posted on the NASA research opportunity homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ (select “Solicitations” then “Open Solicitations” then “NNH11ZDA012O”).

Questions concerning the Earth Venture 2 AO may be addressed to Dr. Ramesh K. Kakar, Earth Science Division, Science Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC 20546-0001; Telephone: 202-358-0240; E-mail: Ramesh.K.Kakar@nasa.gov (subject line to read “EARTH VENTURE 2 AO”).

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is releasing a NASA Announcement of Opportunity (NNH11ZDA012O), Earth Venture-2 (EV-2). Earth Venture is an element within the Earth System Science Pathfinder (ESSP) Program that conducts Principal Investigator (PI)-led Earth science investigations relevant to SMD’s Earth Science Division. NASA expects to select one EV-2 mission to proceed into formulation and implementation. Launch Readiness Date (LRD) is to occur no later than April 30, 2017. The proposed missions must support the goals and objectives of the ESSP Program and the EV-2 element.

This solicitation will be open from June 17, 2011, through September 15, 2011. Upon the release date, the full text of the AO and all appendices will be available electronically at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ . A preproposal conference will be held in mid-July, in the Washington, DC, area; see http://essp.larc.nasa.gov/EV-2/ for details.

Participation is open to all categories of organizations (U.S. and non-U.S), including educational institutions, industry, not-for-profit organizations, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs), NASA Centers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and other Government agencies.

Proposers should be aware of the following major changes in this AO from the Earth Venture-2 Draft AO (NNH11ZDA010J) that was released on February 15, 2011.
* The organizations which will provide evaluation services to NASA for this AO have been specified (Section 4.2.1).
* Policy sections have been added describing orbital constellations (Section 4.5.5) and end-of-mission requirements (Section 4.5.6)
* Proposals must demonstrate how the proposed investigation will fully achieve the proposed objectives (Section 5.1.1)
* Interface requirements for ISS-based investigations have been stated more explicitly (Section 5.9.4).
* Significant clarifications have been made in the description of constraints and requirements for proposing alternative access to space (Section 5.9.5).
* The requirement for selected PI-led teams to attend NASA’s PI-led Team Masters Forum is explicitly stated (Section 7.4.2).
* All individuals affiliated with the proposed investigation without being listed as team members on the proposal cover page must be entered in NSPIRES (Appendix B, Section A.2).
* The Small Business Subcontracting Plan shall be provided in an appendix (Appendix B, Section J.11).
In addition to the listed major changes, this AO incorporates a large number of additional changes relative to the previous ESSP Program AO and the Draft EV-2 AO, including both policy changes and changes to proposal submission requirements. All proposers must read this AO carefully, and all proposals must comply with the requirements, constraints, and guidelines contained within this AO.

Direct questions specifically regarding this solicitation to: Dr. Ramesh K. Kakar, EV-2 Program Scientist, Earth Science Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546; Tel.: (202) 358-0240; E-mail: Ramesh.K.Kakar@nasa.gov (subject line to read “EV-2 AO”).

This notice constitutes a NASA Research Announcement as contemplated in FAR 6.102(d)(2).