NSA SMD Draft Discovery 2014 Announcement of Opportunity
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is releasing draft text for an Announcement of Opportunity (AO) to solicit Principal Investigator (PI) led space science investigations for the Discovery Program. The draft text can be downloaded from the NSPIRES web page either by following this link or by going to https://nspires.nasaprs.com/selecting “Solicitations”, then “Open” under the “View Solicitations” heading and searching for Discovery 2014 or NNH14ZDA009J. Comments on this draft text are due to the point of contact below by July 16, 2014. It is anticipated that Step-1 proposals will be due late in calendar year 2014.
The goal of NASA’s Discovery Program is to provide frequent flight opportunities for high quality, high value, focused, planetary science investigations that can be accomplished under a not to exceed cost cap.
The AO Cost Cap for a Discovery mission is $450M in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 dollars, not including the cost of the Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) or any contributions. Any selected mission will launch no later than December 31, 2021.
Proposers should be aware of the following major changes in this AO from previous Discovery Program AOs.
• Foreign instrument contributions are now limited to one-third of the PI Managed Instrument Cost (the sum of the NASA costs for elements 4.0 (Science) and 5.0 (Payload) in the standard Work Breakdown Structure).
• A standard launch capability is offered as GFE. Higher performance or larger fairing will be charged to the PI Managed Mission Cost. Use of a lower than standard performance launch service will result in an increase in the AO Cost Cap.
• Mission operations in Phase E are no longer under the AO Cost Cap.
• Proposers are now required to use one of a short list of parametric cost models as a validation exercise and to report the input file and results in their submission.
• A variety of NASA developed technologies are available for infusion into missions.
• Mission of Opportunity investigations are not solicited through this AO.
This AO is based on SMD’s Standard PI led Mission AO. In addition to the changes listed above, proposers should be aware of the following changes in this AO from the language in the Standard PI led Mission AO.
• Requirements 71 and B 52 have been added to require provision of parametric cost model input file(s), to provide the opportunity for additional proposed cost information, and to facilitate a more transparent evaluation of proposals.
• Requirements 22-24 and B-8 have been added to accommodate the possible additions of Technology Demonstration Options and the required Engineering Science Investigation.
In addition to the listed major changes, this AO incorporates a large number of additional changes relative to previous Discovery Program AOs, 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.
All comments and questions should be directed to the Lead Discovery Program Scientist, as designated below, by the comment due date given above. Comments are preferred in writing and may be sent by E-mail; the character string “Discovery 2014 AO” (without quotes) should be included in the subject line of all transmissions. The identity of those submitting comments will be held in confidence. Answers to questions about this Draft AO will be made available on the Discovery Program Acquisition website http://discovery.larc.nasa.gov.
Lead Discovery Program Scientist
Science Mission Directorate NASA Headquarters
300 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20546
Phone: (202) 358-1766
E-mail: michael.h.new@nasa.gov
