Call for a Medium-size mission opportunity in ESA's Science Programme for a launch in 2025 (M4)
19 August 2014
Through this Call for Missions the Director of Science and Robotic Exploration solicits from the broad scientific community proposals for the competitive selection of mission concepts to be candidate for the implementation of a medium-size, or M-class, mission (M4) for launch in 2025.
Direct link to this Call page:
http://sci.esa.int/2014_M4_Call
Update 2 December 2014 - A new Q&A page is now available here, providing answers to several questions related to this Call that were collected following the briefing meeting.
Interested parties planning to submit a proposal are requested, as indicated below, to send a Letter of Intent by 16 September and will be invited to attend a briefing meeting on 26 September (date TBC).
The present Call is open to proposals for both European-only missions and missions in collaboration with international partners.
The selected mission will be implemented in the framework of ESA's Cosmic Vision 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.
The schedule for the issue of the Call and the proposal evaluation process is:
| Release of Call for M4 mission | 19 August 2014 |
| Letter of Intent submission deadline | 16 September 2014, 12:00 (noon) CEST |
| Briefing meeting (ESTEC) | 26 September 2014 (TBC) |
| Proposal submission deadline | 15 January 2015, 12:00 (noon) CET |
| Selection of missions for study | March 2015 |
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 16 September 2014, at 12:00 (noon) CEST, 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.
LOI 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).
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LOI submission form
The deadline has passed
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The LOI shall have a maximum length of 4 A4 pages, minimum font size 11 pt.
A description of the purpose of the LOI and the expected content is available in the Call, which is included in the information package.
Proposal submission
Proposals 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).
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Proposal submission form
The deadline has passed
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Proposals shall be limited in length to 51 A4 pages (not including title page, appendices, bibliography, etc.), with a minimum font size of 11 pt, and a maximum file size of 70 Mbytes.
A description of the expected proposal content is available in the Call and the Annex, which are included in the information 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 26 September (date TBC), 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.
Contact
The main contact point for this Call is:
Luigi Colangeli
Head of the Coordination Office for the Scientific Programme
ESA SRE-CS
ESTEC
Postbus 299
2200 AG Noordwijk
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 - 71 565 3573
Fax: +31 - 71 565 4791
Email: luigi.colangeli
esa.int