ESA Venus Express Opportunity

Dear Colleague,

The purpose of this letter is to draw your attention to the European Space
Agency (ESA) Venus Express Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for the
selection of Interdisciplinary Scientists (IDS) for ESA's Venus Express
mission.

This ESA AO solicits the participation of the scientific community in the
Venus Express Program to further the scientific return of the selected
investigations, science themes, and the mission as a whole. The ESA AO is
open to the U.S. science community. The deadline for receipt of proposals
by ESA is March 15, 2006. The ESA AO is available from ESA at
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=3870.

Any scientist from a U.S. institution who is selected by ESA as a Venus
Express IDS will be invited to submit a proposal to NASA for funding. NASA
has funding to support up to 3 Venus Express IDS for up to three years at
approximately $60K per year each.

Questions regarding the ESA Venus Express AO should be addressed to the ESA
point-of-contact identified in the AO. Questions regarding NASA's programs
may be addressed to Dr. Adriana Ocampo, Planetary Science Division, Science
Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546-0001;
Telephone: (202) 358-2152; E-mail: aco@nasa.gov.