NASA Science Rewrites How It Picks Missions, Putting the Science Case First

NASA Science will explain a new way to compete and select missions, called Competition Model 2.0, at a virtual town hall from NASA Headquarters on Monday, October 26, the agency said in a letter to the science community.

The letter is signed by Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, and is posted on science.nasa.gov. The time of the town hall is not given in the letter.

What NASA says it is changing

Fox writes that NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman directed the Science Mission Directorate to speed up the delivery of science. In her words, the directive is to reduce the time and resources spent on long competitive processes and to focus funding on the highest-priority missions in every NASA Science division.

The core idea, as Fox puts it, is to "compete on the science first." Proposals will be science-focused. They will not need detailed engineering plans, cost figures and implementation work until those are truly needed to make a decision.

Fox's letter also admits the current system has been hard on the people who use it. She writes that it has taken years to move mission concepts through the present two-step process, and that this has often come with contract management challenges, unpredictability and not enough funding.

How it works, by mission size

The largest missions, the flagships, are not changing. Fox writes that NASA already reformed that process after the James Webb Space Telescope, through a Large Mission Study. Flagships keep that approach: NASA directs the overall mission to a lead NASA Center, then competes the science teams and instruments through targeted solicitations.

The mid-size missions move to a new two-step competition. The letter describes it this way:

- Step 1 asks for three things: a science case, a science implementation plan and a proof-of-concept mission design. Fox says that removes roughly half of the material now required in an Announcement of Opportunity, which is NASA's formal call for proposals.
- Step 2 is a Mission Implementation Study, carried out with Goddard Space Flight Center or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The letter says NASA may award an implementation study for New Frontiers or Discovery missions to JHU/APL, managed by Goddard, depending on the science selected.

The letter says the choice narrows to a single mission partway through Phase A, the early design stage. Teams not selected are freed from carrying their concepts through the rest of that phase on their own.

On timing, the letter says the changes cut the time from the call for proposals to the Step 2 selection by up to 45 percent. It puts the original timeline at 35 months and the new one at about 19.5 months.

A second group of missions follows the same two-step approach with a wider field of implementers, including universities and industry. The letter says that group also sees a reduction of up to 45 percent. Teams led by a Principal Investigator, the scientist who leads a mission, can ask at Step 1 to be paired with a Goddard or JPL team.

The smallest missions move to a single-step competition with a smaller review team and virtual site visits. Fox writes that the time to final selection drops from about 32 months to about 19 months, a cut of up to 40 percent.

Context: who gets a fair look, and what stays strict

Fox says the lighter first step opens the door wider. A strong idea, she writes, is judged on its merits rather than on the size of the team behind it, so Principal Investigators without a major university or commercial backer get fair consideration. NASA investigators at any NASA Center remain eligible.

The letter also leans on industry. Teams will be expected to use commercial buses, subsystems and multi-mission operations where they offer a technical or cost benefit. Fox says NASA will keep checking the commercial landscape, building on its recent Science as a Service Request for Information.

One detail shows the discipline is not loosening. The letter says cost and schedule control remains mandatory in every mission class, and that breaching control thresholds will carry consequences of up to and including mission termination.

It also says directing work at Goddard and JPL will save taxpayer dollars and cut unnecessary competition among NASA Centers. The letter gives no dollar figure for those savings.

What is next

The town hall is scheduled for Monday, October 26, from NASA Headquarters, and NASA says it will answer questions from the community there. Fox writes that some changes will take time to fully implement, that NASA will roll them out in stages, and that it will refine them with the community's input.

What the letter does not say is which specific missions or solicitations will be the first to use CM2.0. That is not in the record yet. The town hall is the next place to ask.

Stay curious.

Find more at spacedew.com and @boggleriley on X