NEW YORK: The proposals are in for a new NASA robotic mission for launch in 2021 to explore the solar system, and scientists have submitted concepts for probes to the moon, planets, asteroids and comets for a chance to win $450 million in federal funding.
Scientists had to send in their proposals by Feb. 18 for consideration by NASA managers as the next mission in the space agency’s Discovery program, a series of relatively low-cost, focused science probes aimed at exploring the solar system.
Jim Green, director of NASA’s planetary science division, said Feb. 19 that the agency plans to select at least two finalists from the proposals in May to receive $3 million federal grants for detailed concept studies. NASA should pick a single winner by September 2016, he told a meeting of the Outer Planets Assessment Group.
“We’ll rapidly get down to making some announcements as soon as we can get through the evaluation,” Green said.
The mission must be ready for launch by the end of 2021, and must cost no more than $450 million, excluding the launcher, which NASA pays from a separate account.
Up to one-third of the mission’s cost can come from international partners without counting against the $450 million cost cap.
The concept selected by NASA will become the 13th mission in the agency’s Discovery program, which started in the early 1990s and had its first launch in 1996.
Discovery missions launched to date include the Mars Pathfinder rover mission, the NEAR Shoemaker probe that first orbited an asteroid, and the Stardust project, which returned samples of comet and interstellar dust to Earth.
NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft currently orbiting Mercury, the planet-hunting Kepler telescope, and the Dawn mission now approaching the dwarf planet Ceres were also developed and launched under the auspices of the Discovery program.
The 12th Discovery mission, the InSight Mars lander, is due for launch in March 2016 to touch down on the red planet and measure its seismic activity.
The competition now underway will end with the selection of the 13th Discovery mission.
NASA hopes to infuse the next mission with new technologies, offering up government-furnished equipment with incentives to sweeten the deal for principal investigators leading each proposal.
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