Community Announcements: New Frontiers 5 (NF5) Announcement of Opportunity (AO)

This notice has been reactivated and amended to add the seventh community announcement entitled “Seventh Community Announcement: Advance Notice Regarding Forthcoming Release of the New Frontiers 5 (NF5) Announcement of Opportunity (AO).”  Before sending comments or questions to the listed point of contact, please download and carefully read the full text of the PDF that has this file name “NF5UpdateAugust2023.”

This notice has been reactivated and amended to add the sixth community announcement entitled “Advance Notice Regarding Forthcoming Release of the New Frontiers 5 (NF5) Announcement of Opportunity (AO).”  Before sending comments or questions to the listed point of contact, please download and carefully read the full text of the PDF that has this file name “NF5UpdateMarch2023.”

This notice has been reactivated and amended to add the fifth community announcement entitled “Advance Notice Regarding Forthcoming Release of the New Frontiers 5 (NF5) Announcement of Opportunity (AO)”.  Before sending comments or questions to the listed point of contact, please download and carefully read the full text of the PDF file that has this file name “NF5UpdateSept2022.”

This notice has been reactivated and amended to add the fourth community announcement entitled “Schedule Update: New Frontiers 5 Announcement of Opportunity Community Announcement”.  Before sending comments or questions to the listed point of contact, please download and carefully read the full text of the fourth PDF file that has the file name “NF5UpdateJune2022.”

This notice has been reactivated and amended to add the third community announcement entitled “New Frontiers 5 (NF5) Announcement of Opportunity Release Date Delays”.  Before sending comments or questions to the listed point of contact, please download and carefully read the full text of the third PDF file that has the file name “NF5AOReleaseDateDelays.”

This notice has been reactivated and amended to add a PDF file name “Advance Notice Regarding NF5 AO Community Announcement.” Questions and feedback on this second community announcement entitled “Advance Notice Regarding New Frontiers 5 (NF5) Announcement of Opportunity” are due by February 19, 2021 to the listed point of contact.

A special notice from Lori S. Glaze, Ph.D., Director, Planetary Science Division, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC 20546-0001.

NASA has not approved the issuance of the New Frontiers 5 (NF5) Announcement of Opportunity; however, it is time to begin thinking ahead to the release of the draft NF5 Announcement of Opportunity (AO) through the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES) at https://nspires.nasaprs.com/. This beta.SAM special notice does not obligate NASA to issue the NF5 AO and solicit proposals. Any costs incurred by prospective investigators in preparing submissions in response to this special notice or community announcement are incurred completely at the submitter's own risk.

One of the challenges we all face when preparing for an AO is that the work everyone does, including at NASA Headquarters, is largely invisible outside of one’s immediate team. The Planetary Science Division (PSD) is sensitive to the fact that the contents of the AO have significant impacts on your workload and your mission concept. For these reasons, one of the goals for the NF5 AO is increased collaboration and communication with the community. To this end, the PSD asked the National Academies’ Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (CAPS) to weigh in on the mission theme list for NF5. CAPS recently released its report, which is available at the link below. SMD places great importance on the CAPS report and respects their role as the “keepers” of the Decadal Survey. Currently, we are considering their recommendations and plan to make a decision on those recommendations no later than this fall. 

As usual, the plan is to release a draft AO approximately one year before the final AO is released. Experience has shown that this is too late in the process to significantly influence either the AO or your proposals. As a result, comments on the draft AO usually result in tweaks rather than major changes. The NF5 team seeks to engage earlier with the community so that there is time to discuss the content of the AO and, just as importantly, time for Headquarters to debate the implementation of your ideas.

There are some major AO requirements that you simply must know as soon as possible. In some cases, adjustments to these requirements, such as extending the launch readiness date, can make a mission feasible (or not). PSD wants to finalize and share these major requirements ahead of the draft AO and wants to give you a chance to advocate for adjustments that may dictate the feasibility of your mission concept. 

All of the above requires collaboration and communication earlier than has been done in the past and a more structured engagement plan. Our engagement plan includes the following for the NF5 AO:

First, share major AO requirements, such as cost cap, launch readiness date, list of allowable mission themes, availability of radioisotope power systems, etc., in draft form in late October or early November 2020 and invite feedback before they are finalized. Conversations at various assessment group meetings will be important, so I encourage the assessment groups to add the NF5 AO to their agendas and invite the NF5 team to speak at an assessment group’s public meeting.

Second, share the near final form of the major requirements in March 2021 (estimate). The Planetary Science Division will host a virtual town hall to discuss the rationale driving them. Additional information on the content of the draft AO will be shared at this town hall.

Third, release of the complete draft AO for comment in October 2021 (estimate). I encourage the assessment groups to put the draft NF5 AO on their agendas and invite the NF5 team to discuss and receive feedback publicly again.