ESA Science & Technology - Call for a Medium-size mission opportunity for a launch in 2022

Direct link to this Call page:
http://sci.esa.int/2010_M_Call

The launch of the M-class mission selected through the present Call could be brought forward to approximately 2020 should the first L-class mission slip in time.

Depending on the proposals received, and on their scientific quality, a mix of smaller missions approximately equivalent, in terms of overall financial envelope and profile, to one M-class mission could also result from the present Call. The ceiling to the cost to ESA for an M-class mission is 470 MEuro.

The present Call also solicits proposals for European, ESA-funded contributions to missions led by international partners.

The schedule for the issue of the Call and the proposal evaluation process is:

Call information package

Full details of the Call are available in the information package. It contains the announcement letter, the Call document and the Annex. The package can be downloaded as a single zip file from the right-hand menu, under "Documentation".

Letter of Intent (LOI) submission

Prospective proposers are required to submit, by September 15, 2010, at 12:00 (noon) CET, a Letter of Intent (LOI) stating their intention to submit a proposal in response to the present Call. Submission of a LOI is mandatory; proposals not preceded by a corresponding LOI will not be considered.

Submissions are accepted exclusively in electronic form, in PDF format, using the online submission form that can be accessed below or from the right-hand menu (the form opens in a new window).

The LOI should have a maximum length of 1 A4 page, minimum font size 11 pt.

A copy of the LOI should be sent to the national funding agencies expected to play a major role in the funding of any mission element (in particular of the proposed payload).

A description of the purpose of the LOI and the expected content is available in the Call, which is included in the documentation package.

Letters of Intent may have as an attachment a list of questions the proposer would like to see addressed at the briefing meeting. This list is limited in length to 1 A4 page.

Proposal submission

Submissions are accepted exclusively in electronic form, in PDF format, using the online submission form that can be accessed below or from the right-hand menu (the form opens in a new window).

Proposals will be limited in length to 41 A4 pages (including any title page, appendices, bibliography, etc.), with a minimum font size of 11 pt, and a maximum file size of 50 Mbytes.

A description of the expected proposal content is available in the Annex, which is included in the documentation package of this Call.

Briefing meeting

Following the submission of a Letter of Intent, proposers will be invited to a briefing meeting, currently planned for 29 September, to be held at ESTEC (The Netherlands). Confirmation of the date and of the logistical details for the briefing meeting will be communicated to the contact points indicated in the Letters of Intent.

Cosmic Vision science themes

The selected mission will be implemented in the framework of ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 plan. The proposals submitted in response to the current Call can cover any science theme and topic of relevance to the Cosmic Vision plan. These science themes and topics are laid out in the ESA brochure "ESA BR-247: Cosmic Vision - Space Science for Europe 2015-2025", which is linked from the right-hand menu.

Contact

The main contact point for this Call is:

Dr. Fabio Favata
Head of ESA Science Planning and Community Coordination Office
Email: fabio.favataesa.int