Dark Energy Mission in Danger of Scrubbing

The Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) is a collaborative effort among a number of agencies in the United States and Europe, and was originally scheduled to scout for signs of dark energy, the force believed to be behind the ever-accelerating expansion of the Universe. NASA and the US Department of Energy (DOE) fail to get along with each other, and also with the European Space Agency (ESA), which is supposed to be their partner in the new project. The JDEM space probe was once considered very promising, but this year saw the first disagreements between the partners involved in its launch.

Not only did officials fail to get along for the mission, as scientists from the three agencies also do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to establishing the best method to select in searching for dark matter. Each science team wants to apply a different search pattern, and analysts say that the chances of the satellite being launched are considerably diminishing. This is a very poor moment to enter such trifles, considering that an international astrophysics panel is soon about to establish the most promising targets in the field over the next ten years, Nature News reports.

“This is an example of a satellite blowing up before it gets built,” University of Portsmouth astrophysicist Bob Nichol says. The UK expert is currently working on the European design concept of JDEM. Discovering as many details as possible about dark energy is a crucial step in boosting our knowledge and understanding of the Universe. Dark energy “is perhaps the biggest mystery of our time. It determines the fate of the Universe,” Goddard Space Flight Center JDEM project scientist Neil Gehrels explains.

The strength of dark energy is considered to be a determining factor in the ultimate faith of the Cosmos. That is to say, if the energy turns out to be too weak, then a “Big Crunch” may appear, in which gravity takes everything over, and compresses the Universe to an area the size of the dot at the end of this sentence. If dark energy is at a very large level, then it may cause a shred in the Universe, blowing everything up. There are numerous scenarios that exist related to this element, but it's very difficult to assess their viability, seeing how we don't know very much about dark energy itself.