NASA SMEX AO Amendment 1: Focused Opportunity for Solar Orbiter

With this amendment, the NASA Announcement of Opportunity NNH07ZDA003O, “Explorer Program: Small Explorers (SMEX) and Missions of Opportunity,” now includes a Focused Opportunity for Solar Orbiter (FOSO).

A new Section 10 is added to the SMEX AO. Section 10 describes a proposal opportunity for investigations that include the provision of instruments or sensors for the European Space Agency (ESA) led Solar Orbiter mission.

In general, the requirements for FOSO proposals are the same as the requirements described in the SMEX AO for Mission of Opportunity proposals. However FOSO proposals must conform to scientific, technical, cost, and management requirements that are specific to the Solar Orbiter opportunity. A joint accommodation study of selectable FOSO proposals will be conducted with ESA, and selections of NASA-provided instruments will be coordinated with ESA’s selection of ESA-provided instruments.

The due date for FOSO proposals is February 1, 2008, which is later than the due date for other SMEX proposals.

On or about October 22, 2007, Amendment No. 1 to the NASA Announcement of Opportunity ” Explorer Program: Small Explorers (SMEX) and Missions of Opportunity” (NNH07ZDA003O) will be posted on the NASA research opportunity homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ (select “Solicitations” then “Open Solicitations” then “NNH07ZDA003O”).

Technical or scientific questions concerning FOSO may be addressed to Dr. Madhulika Guhathakurta, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546-0001; Telephone: (202) 358-1992; E-mail: Madhulika.Guhathakurta@nasa.gov.

Programmatic questions concerning the SMEX AO may be addressed to Dr. Hashima Hasan, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546-0001; Telephone: (202) 358-0692; E-mail: hhasan@nasa.gov.