NASA has narrowed options for the next mission on expeditions with the most potential. His first mission to Venus and retrieve samples from an asteroid or moon rocks.
On the first mission, NASA will send a spacecraft to investigate the air and land on the planet Venus, so that can know the differences in structure to the Earth. For missions to asteroids, the spacecraft will take samples of rocks as a material role in research to understand the origins of the solar system. Finally, missions to the moon rocks will also take samples to determine the beginning of the creation of the Earth and Moon system.
However, only one of three options that will get the green light in the form of funding amounting to U.S. $ 650 million to launch before December 30, 2018. Competition is the latest program by NASA to develop a mission to explore the solar system. "This is a project that inspires and inspire young scientists, engineers, and also the community," said Ed Weiler, an administrator at NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
NASA itself has set aside U.S. $ 3.3 million for each mission. With the funds, each mission is given the opportunity to complete their projects, feasibility, cost, and management plans. Proposal of three missions that have been received in July 2009 and the final decision will be announced in mid-2011. "All three proposals offer the best scientific values among the eight proposals that have been received by NASA this year," said Weiler.
Recent Programs New Fontier previous NASA has launched a mission into outer space and the second mission of the center under development. The first mission, New Horizons, launched in 2006 and is planned to the Planet Pluto in 2015. Meanwhile, the second mission will send a spacecraft to the Moon Juno in 2011 to perform in-depth study of the existing gas in the atmosphere and the air there.
