NASA is funding studies
that aim to understand more about Venus, Jupiter's moon Io and a unique and
highly active icy moon of Neptune, Triton. These selected studies will develop
concept studies for new missions.
Although they are not official missions yet and some ultimately
may not be chosen to move forward, the selections focus on compelling targets
and science that is not covered by NASA's active missions or recent
selections, the US space agency said on Friday.
"These selected missions have the potential to transform
our understanding of some of the solar system's most active and complex
worlds," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission
Directorate.
"Exploring any one of these celestial bodies will help
unlock the secrets of how it, and others like it, came to be in the
cosmos," Zurbuchen added.
The four investigations were selected as part of NASA's
Discovery Programme that invites scientists and engineers to assemble a team to
design exciting planetary science missions that deepen what we know about the
solar system and our place in it.
Each of the four nine-month studies will receive $3 million to
develop and mature concepts and will conclude with a concept study report, NASA
said.
After evaluating the concept studies, NASA will continue
development of up to two missions towards flight.
Venus, Jupiter's supervolcanic
moon Io and Neptune's big satellite Triton are in NASA's crosshairs.
Those three cosmic objects are the focus of the four finalists
for NASA's next round of Discovery missions. The Discovery Program develops
relatively low-cost robotic-exploration efforts; each one is capped at $500
million, excluding costs for the launch vehicle and mission operations.
"These
selected missions have the potential to transform our understanding of some of
the solar system's most active and complex worlds," Thomas Zurbuchen,
associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement Thursday (Feb. 13), when
the finalists were announced.
"Exploring any one of these celestial bodies will help
unlock the secrets of how it, and others like it, came to be in the
cosmos," he added.
The teams behind the
four mission concepts will each receive $3 million to continue maturing their
ideas over the next nine months, culminating in the submission of study reports
to NASA. Agency officials will then evaluate these reports, eventually choosing
up to two missions for continued development toward flight.
Two of the missions could end up getting off the ground. Indeed,
that happened during the previous Discovery round; in January 2017, NASA
announced that both the Lucy and Psyche missions would proceed to launch (in 2021 and
2022, respectively).
Return to Venus
Two of the four newly announced finalists target Venus. DAVINCI Plus (Deep Atmosphere
Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry and Imaging Plus) would send a
probe down through the thick Venusian air, gathering data that would help scientists
better understand how the hellishly hot planet's atmosphere has changed over
time.
0 Comments