NASA’s Competition Model 2.0 puts science first in mission selection
Plans to revise how it selects science missions, shifting early competition toward scientific merit and reducing the material required from applicants. The…
How NASA chooses its science missions shapes which research ideas move toward spaceflight. The agency says nasa change selects science missions through a revised competition process, with an October 26 town hall planned to explain the approach.
NASA Science calls the new framework Competition Model 2.0, or CM2.0. It aims to speed up and simplify mission selection by asking teams to compete on the science first, rather than prepare detailed engineering, cost and implementation plans before those details are needed.
The change addresses a process NASA says has taken years and brought contract-management challenges, unpredictability and insufficient funding. For researchers, the revised first stage could mean less time assembling extensive proposals and a greater focus on the scientific case.
NASA Science will hold a virtual town hall from NASA Headquarters on Monday, October 26, to explain CM2.0 and answer questions. The agency says it will introduce the changes in stages and refine them with input from the science community.
NASA change selects science through a two-step process
Under the new first step, applicants will provide three elements: a compelling science case, a science implementation plan and a proof-of-concept mission design. NASA says the first-stage submission removes roughly half of the material currently required in an Announcement of Opportunity response.
The agency says that lighter initial proposal is intended to keep the first selection focused on scientific value. It also says the approach could give strong ideas fair consideration regardless of the size of the team supporting them.
NASA specifically says principal investigators without backing from a major university or commercial organization will receive fair consideration. Principal investigators at any NASA Center will remain eligible to respond.
The next stage would be a Mission Implementation Study. NASA says it would be conducted with one of its two Science Centers of Excellence, the Goddard Space Flight Center or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. For New Frontiers or Discovery missions, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate may award an implementation study under Goddard’s management to JHU/APL, depending on the science selected.
The study is intended to bridge pre-Phase A and Phase A, according to NASA’s description. The agency has not presented the changes as an immediate overhaul of every mission competition; it says some parts will take time to implement.
Large missions remain on a separate track
NASA says CM2.0 will not change how it manages its largest missions because that process has already been reformed. The agency points to a Large Mission Study conducted after the James Webb Space Telescope, which it says drew lessons from Webb and practices from successful flagship missions into a documented approach.
Under that approach, NASA will continue directing a flagship mission to a lead NASA Center. The center will then compete the science teams and instruments through targeted solicitations.
For the broader research community, the distinction matters: the announced two-step competition applies to mission classes covered by CM2.0, while NASA says its largest missions will continue under the existing reformed framework. The agency says it wants to reduce the time and resources spent on long competitions and direct funding toward high-priority science missions more quickly and affordably.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman empowered the Science Mission Directorate to act, according to the agency’s letter to the science community. NASA says predictability in delivering science will be a priority as it rolls out the model.
At the October 26 virtual town hall, NASA Science plans to explain the competition model and take questions from researchers.
Source: spacenews.com
