Amendment to the NASA Research Announcement Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences

This amendment establishes a new program element in Appendix C.26 of ROSES-2007 entitled “Discovery and Scout Mission Capabilities Expansion.” This new program element solicits mission concept proposals for small planetary missions that require a nuclear power source, such as the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) currently under development by NASA.

The Discovery and Scout Mission Capabilities Expansion program is intended to foster exploration in the planetary science community of missions enabled by nuclear power by encouraging the formation of mission design teams, beginning the discussion of necessary engineering trades, and discovering the breadth of missions possible with the addition of the ASRG technology to the Discovery and/or Mars Scout programs. Mission design assistance for these mission concepts will be offered by NASA during the 6 month studies. NASA Headquarters will also use the evaluation of these missions when considering expanding the mission capabilities of the Discovery and Mars Scout programs to include radioisotope power systems.

This solicitation solicits only concept studies for planetary science missions appropriate to the Discovery and Mars Scout programs; it does not solicit technology development, flight instrumentation, or any kind of hardware development. Notices of Intent to propose are due November 2, 2007, and proposals are due November 30, 2007.

On or about September 20, 2007, this Amendment to the NASA Research Announcement “Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) 2007” (NNH07ZDA001N) will be posted on the NASA research opportunity homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ (select “Solicitations” then “Open Solicitations” then “NNH07ZDA001N”).