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NASA
Narrows Discovery Mission Candidates to Three
NASA selected three
candidate low-cost Discovery missions, down-selecting from 26
proposals that were  submitted
last August. Each group will get US$450,000 in funding from NASA
during the upcoming four-month study period. Following detailed
studies of each of the new candidate Discovery missions, NASA will
pick one of the three proposals late in 2001 for full development.
The launch date for the Discovery mission that is selected is set
for no later than September 30, 2006.
The Kepler mission
is a space telescope specifically designed to detect Earth-sized
planets around stars in the Sun's neighborhood of the galaxy. Over
Kepler's four-year mission some 100,000 stars are to be scanned. The
space observatory could detect up to 500 Earth-sized planets and up
to 1,000 Jupiter-sized planets. William Borucki of NASA's Ames
Research Center, San Francisco, California will lead the Kepler
mission. The mission would cost US$286 million.
The Interior
Structure and Internal Dynamical Evolution of Jupiter (INSIDE
Jupiter) mission would study how planetary systems originate and
evolve, as well as how both physical and chemical processes
determine the characteristics of the planet. Edward Smith of JPL
will lead INSIDE Jupiter. The mission would cost US$296 milion.
The
Dawn mission intends to orbit the asteroids Vesta and Ceres. Each
asteroid is expected to be very different in composition.
Christopher Russell of the University of California at Los Angeles
would lead Dawn. The mission would cost US$271 million.
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