AMENDMENT No. 1 TO THE NASA RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (NRA) ENTITLED "RESEARCH
OPPORTUNITIES IN SPACE SCIENCE (ROSS) 2003," NRA 03-OSS-01, RELEASED
JANUARY 31, 2003

On or about February 10, 2003, Amendment No. 1 to NASA Research
Announcement "Research Opportunities in Space Science 2003" (NRA 03-OSS-01)
will be posted on its homepage Web site at
http://research.hq.nasa.gov/code_s/nra/current/NRA-03-OSS-01/index.html
that establishes a new Program Element A.1.9 in Appendix A, entitled "Call
for Mission Concepts: Einstein Probes." This new program element solicits
proposals for mission concept studies, where each proposed mission is
focused on one of the following science goals: 1) Determine the nature of
the dark energy that dominates the Universe; 2) Search for the imprint of
gravitational waves from inflation in the polarization of the cosmic
microwave background; and 3) Survey the Universe for black holes. Each
science topic, and the focused Einstein Probe mission to address it, have
been identified as part of the Structure and Evolution of the Universe
(SEU) theme's Beyond Einstein roadmap developed in support of the 2003 NASA
strategic plan (see http://universe.nasa.gov for more information). The
Einstein Probes are currently planned to be fully competed, scientist-led
mission opportunities with the goal to launch one such mission every three
years, starting about 2010. An Einstein Probe is envisioned as costing
between $350M to $500M (real year $). It is expected that approximately
three mission concepts for each of these three science topics will be
selected for further study.

Notices of Intent to propose are due April 4, 2003, and proposals are due
June 13, 2003.

Further information about this new program element is available from Dr.
Nicholas White, Program Scientist, Astronomy and Physics Division, Code SZ,
Office of Space Science, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546-0001; TEL:
(202) 358-0357; FAX: (202) 358-3096; E-mail: Nicholas.E.White@....