Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission AO, Commerce Business Daily 20 Dec 2000

Primary Sponsor: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Deadline: 3/19/2001

KEYWORDS

COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY ISSUE OF DECEMBER 22,2000 PSA#2753

SOL AO-01-OSS-01

DUE 031901

POC Dennis Bogan, Discipline Scientist, Phone (202) 358-0359, Fax (202) 358-3092

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) intends to release a NASA Announcement of Opportunity (AO 01-OSS-01) Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission, on or after January 19, 2001. This AO will solicit proposals for investigations that require the development of a complete mission to the Pluto-Charon system and the Kuiper Belt beyond, including expendable launch vehicle and the spacecraft that carries the science instrumentation package. There are no restrictions on the launch date but the mission must reach Pluto by 2015. This announcement also cancels the Pluto-Kuiper Express portion of a previous AO for science instrumentation only, AO 99-OSS-04, entitled “Deep Space Systems Program Including Europa Orbiter, Pluto-Kuiper Express, and Solar Probe,” and no selections will be made pursuant to the Pluto-Kuiper Express portion of that AO. The reason for this action is that NASA believes that a new competition for a complete mission will minimize costs and maximize the scientific return.

Competition under this AO will closely follow the model of the AO’s released for the Discovery Program. Participation is open to all categories of organizations, foreign and domestic, including educational institutions, industry, nonprofit organizations, NASA centers, and other Government agencies. Upon the release date, specific guidance for proposal preparation will be contained in the AO which will be available on the World Wide Web site: http://spacescience.nasa.gov/research.htm . A Draft AO is expected to be available on that site on or after December 26, 2000. Further information can be obtained from Dr. Denis Bogan, Research Program Management Division, Code SR, Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546-0001; E-mail: (dbogan@hq.nasa.gov); TEL: (202) 358-0359. Comments on the Draft AO may be submitted to Dr. Bogan through close of business on January 10, 2001. This notice constitutes a broad agency announcement as contemplated in FAR 6.102 (d) (2). WEB: Click here for the latest information about this notice,
http://nais.msfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/EPS/bizops.cgi?gr=D&pin=04#AO-01-OSS-01.

Posted 12/20/00 (D-SN509332). (0355)

KEYWORDS:

00A000400 National Aeronautics and Space Administration
001015001 Aeronautics
001015000 SPACE SCIENCES
001014001 Instrumentation Scientific
000000018 Equipment & Instrumentation