Several of you have contacted me to ask whether there will be changes in the schedule for the SMEX Phase A concept studies and in their evaluation.
There have been, and will continue to be, many impacts to everyone's schedules from the events of last week. Of particular relevance for evaluation of SMEX study reports is the availability of the evaluation teams managed by the Support Office at Langley (the "TMCO teams"). These resources are oversubscribed and the evaluation schedules for all of the Space and Earth science AO's is carefully choreographed. Last week's shut down is having a serious impact on the schedules for evaluation currently underway (e.g. Discovery) and on upcoming evaluations (e.g. Pluto, MIDEX, ESSP).
There will be an impact on the SMEX evaluation schedule. We will continue to reassess the situation this week. By next week I should be able to tell you (i) what the impact is on the evaluation schedule and (ii) whether the concept study report due date will be extended.
At the moment, it seems likely that there will be a significant impact, and that the due date will be extended. However there is a possible (but unlikely) scenario where there is no impact. So I am not prepared to announce any definitive decisions this week.
Paul Hertz
Explorer Program Scientist
NASA Headquarters Responsible Office: Code SZ
Last Updated: 17 October 2001
Author: Paul Hertz (Code SZ)