NASA Science Mission Directorate is offering the Discovery 2010 Grant for Solar System Exploration Missions.

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. This solicitation will be open from June 7, 2010, through September 3, 2010. 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 late June or early July, in the Washington, DC, area; see http://discovery.larc.nasa.gov/ for details.

Proposers should be aware of the following major changes in this AO from the Draft Discovery Program AO (NNH10ZDA003J) released in December 2009:
• Launch vehicles in the “medium” and “high” performance classes with 4m fairings will be added as options. Costs to proposers for these options are currently being assessed.
• Proposed missions will be required to be compatible through PDR with three families of launch vehicles: Atlas V, Delta IV, and Falcon 9.
• The minimum requirements for taking advantage of technology-infusion cost cap incentives will be detailed in a new document in the Program Library entitled In-Space Propulsion Technologies Minimum Demonstration Requirements.
• The costs associated with NEPA, NLSA, and nuclear launch services for missions proposing to use ASRGs will be reduced to a firm, fixed cost of $20M (FY10).
• The justification for the use of X-band telecommunications for science data downlink will be clarified to explicitly follow Recommendation 23-1 of the Space Frequency Coordination Group: in deep-space X-band users will be limited to 12 MHz of bandwidth while at Mars X-band users will be limited to 8 MHz of bandwidth. Beyond these limits, missions will be required to use Ka-band. Aperture fees based on the standard formula will remain.
• Missions to the Martian surface will no longer be required to carry the Electra-lite UHF radio package. However, any UHF package used will be required to be interoperable with the current Mars UHF relay network.
• The latest allowable Launch Readiness Date (LRD) will be extended to December 31, 2017.
In addition to the listed major changes, this AO incorporates a large number of additional changes relative to the previous Discovery Program AO and the Draft Discovery Program 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. Michael H. New, Discovery Program Scientist, Planetary Science Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546; Tel.: (202) 358-1766; E-mail: Michael.H.New@nasa.gov (subject line to read “DISCOVERY AO”).

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