NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Offering Discovery Program Grant for Planetary Science Investigations

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) intends to release an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for Discovery Program missions no earlier than (NET) June 2010. The Discovery Program conducts Principal Investigator (PI)-led space science investigations in SMD’s planetary programs under a not-to-exceed cost cap. It is anticipated that approximately two to three Discovery investigations will be selected for 9-month Phase A concept studies through this AO. At the conclusion of these concept studies, it is planned that one Discovery investigation will be selected to continue into Phase B and subsequent mission phases. There will be no Missions of Opportunity (MO) solicited as part of this AO. All MO are now solicited through the Stand Alone Missions of Opportunity Notice (SALMON) AO.

The AO will differ in the following significant ways 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.

The schedule for the solicitation is intended to be:
Release of final AO (target) – NET June 2010
Pre-proposal conference – ~3 weeks after final AO release
Proposals due – 90 days after AO release
Selection for competitive Phase A studies – March 2011 (target)
Concept study reports due – February 2012 (target)
Down-selection – July 2012 (target)
Launch readiness date – NLT December 31, 2017

The Draft Discovery AO is available by following the links at http://discovery.larc.nasa.gov/ . Proposers should read the Discovery AO carefully when it is released.

NASA has not approved the issuance of the Discovery AO and this notification does not obligate NASA to issue the AO and solicit proposals. The release date is subject to ongoing budget formulation activities. Any costs incurred by prospective investigators in preparing submissions in response to this notification or the Draft Discovery AO are incurred completely at the submitter’s own risk.

Further information will be posted on the Discovery Program Acquisition Page at http://discovery.larc.nasa.gov/ as it becomes available. Questions may be addressed to Dr. Michael New, Discovery Program Lead Scientist, Science Mission Directorate, NASA, Washington, DC 20546; Tel.: (202) 358-1766; Email: michael.h.new@nasa.gov.