NASA Planetary Missions: Investigations For Five Future Plans Selected

NASA's Discovery Program has selected five potential planetary missions, narrowed down from 27 total submissions, to be refined and polished in the next year. They will then to be narrowed down to one or two to be chosen next year as official missions, with flight opportunities as soon as 2020, according to a NASA release.

Three of these submitted proposals have close ties to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. The submissions will study Venus, and a variety of asteroids and near-Earth objects.

Each mission investigation team will get $3 million to begin studies and analyses on concept design. NASA will select the final one or two missions by Sept. 2016, to be allowed to continue development until launch. Any of the selected missions will then receive additional estimated funding of $500 million, excluding the costs of post-launch operations and launch vehicle funding.

"The selected investigations have the potential to reveal much about the formation of our solar system and its dynamic processes," John Grunsfeld, an astronaut and associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said. "Dynamic and exciting missions like these hold promise to unravel the mysteries of our solar system and inspire future generations of explorers. It's an incredible time for science, and NASA is leading the way."

The Discovery Program began in 1992, with the mission to sponsor frequent, funding-capped solar system exploration missions fueled by highly focused scientific goals. Thus far, the program has funded 12 missions, including MESSENGER, Dawn, Stardust-NExT, Deep Impact, Genesis and GRAIL, and is currently completing development of InSight.

The selections and their plans are as follows:

1. Near Earth Object Camera (NEOCam)

A JPL-related mission, NEOCam would set out to discover tenfold the amount of near-Earth objects than have been discovered to date. NEOCam would also set out to characterize these objects. Its principal investigator is Amy Mainzer of JPL.

2. Lucy

Managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Lucy would perform reconnaissance of the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter, which are thought to hold vital clues to the history of the solar system. Harold Levison of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Co., is the manager of the project.

3. Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI)

DAVINCI is a mission tied to Goddard as well, setting out to do a 63-minute descent onto Venus, during which it would study the chemical composition of Venus's atmosphere. Its data could help determine if Venus has active volcanoes on the surface today, and how the surface interacts with the atmosphere, scientific questions that have been high-priority for many years. Lori Glaze, of Goddard, is the principal investigator.

4. The Venus Emissivty, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy mission (VERITAS)

Another JPL-managed project, led by principal investigator Suzanne Smrekar of JPL, VERITAS would produce high-resolution, global topography and imaging of Venus's surface, as well as produce the first maps of deformation and surface composition of Venus.

5. Psyche

The third JPL project, Psyche would set out to explore planetary core origins by studying the metallic asteroid Psyche. The asteroid is considered to be a likely survivor of a "hit-and-run" incident with another object, which stripped off the rocky outer layers of the protoplanet. Linda Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University is the principal investigator.

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