NASA's Planetary Science , Division sponsors a competitive program of small spacecraft missions with the goal of performing focused science investigations that complement NASA's larger planetary science explorations at relatively low cost. The goal of the Discovery program is to launch many smaller missions with fast development times to increase our understanding of the solar system by exploring the planets, dwarf planets, their moons, and small bodies such as comets and asteroids. Discovery missions are solicited from the broad planetary science community approximately every 2 years. Active missions within the Discovery program include several with direct scientific or engineering connections to potential future missions to the edge of the solar system and beyond. In addition to those in the Discovery program are the missions of the New Frontiers program. The first New Frontiers mission. is the New Horizons mission to Pluto, which will explore this 38-AU distant dwarf planet and potentially some Kuiper Belt objects beyond. The Discovery program's Dawn mission, when launched in mid-2007, will use ion drive as its primary propulsion system. Ion propulsion is one of only two technologies that appear feasible for early interstellar precursor missions with practical flight times. The Kepler mission will explore the structure and diversity of extrasolar planetary systems, with an emphasis on the detection of Earth-size planets around other stars. Kepler will survey nearby solar systems searching for planets that may fall within the habitable zone,' a region surrounding a star within which liquid water may exist on a planet's surface - an essential ingredient for life as we know it. With its open and competitive approach to mission selections, the Discovery program affords scientists the opportunity to propose missions to virtually any solar system destination. With its emphasis on science and proven openness to the use of new technologies such as ion propulsion, missions flown as part of the program will test out technologies needed for future very deep-space exploration and potentially take us to these difficult and distant destinations.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff über TIB

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    NASA's Discovery Program: Moving Toward the Edge (of the Solar System)


    Beteiligte:
    Johnson, Les (Autor:in) / Gilbert, Paul (Autor:in)

    Kongress:

    5th Symposium on Realistic Near-Term Advanced Scientific Space Missions ; 2007 ; Aosta, Italy


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2007-07-02


    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Konferenz)


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch






    NASA's Discovery Program

    Kicza, M. / Vorder Bruegge, R. / International Academy of Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1995


    NASA's Discovery Program

    Kicza, Mary | Online Contents | 1995