14 DAY TRIAL // Last November, the American space agency released a series of Announcements of Opportunity for Explorer Missions and Explorer Missions of Opportunity. Now, NASA selected 11 of the proposals it received in response for further investigations.
All of these concepts are for future science missions, and are focused on studying our planet's atmosphere, the Sun, our galaxy, or Earth-like extrasolar planets orbiting around distant stars.
The 11 selections that made the final cut were determined to be supported by the most feasible development plans, and also to carry the best science value under NASA's terms and conditions.
By February 2011, the space agency had received 42 proposals in response to both Explorer Mission and Mission of Opportunity requests. Of the six EM proposals selected, five will be awarded a $1-million grant for further study, and another will receive a technology development grant.
“NASA continues to seek opportunities to push the cutting edge of science. Innovative proposals like these will help us better understand our solar system and the Universe,” explains the chief scientist at the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington DC, Paul Hertz.
All selected proposals will have until 2013 to submit detailed mission concept studies. NASA announced its intentions to select one or two EM proposals, as well as one or more MO proposals.
“Five Explorer Mission proposals were selected from 22 submitted in February. Each team will receive $1 million to conduct an 11-month mission concept study. Mission costs are capped at $200 million each, excluding the launch vehicle,” a NASA press release explains.
“In addition, one Explorer Mission proposal was selected for technology development and will receive $600,000. Five Mission of Opportunity proposals were selected from 20 submissions. Each will receive $250,000 to conduct an 11-month implementation concept study,” the document adds.
In no specific order, some of the selected proposals are: the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON), the Fast INfrared Exoplanet Spectroscopy Survey Explorer (FINESSE), the Observatory for Heteroscale Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling (OHMIC) and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).
Other selected proposals are the Atmosphere-Space Transition Region Explorer (ASTRE), the Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD), the Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) and the Coronal Physics Investigator (CPI).
The list is rounded up by the Gal/Xgal U/LDB Spectroscopic/Stratospheric THz Observatory (GUSSTO), the Ion Mass Spectrum Analyzer for SCOPE (IMSA), and the Exoplanetary Circumstellar Environments and Disk Explorer (EXCEDE).