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NASA Planned Missions
Overview NASA has about several missions to other worlds planned for the next few years. They include:
New Horizons No spacecraft has yet visited Pluto, but in 2006, NASA plans on sending a probe. The New Horizons mission is slated to visit this far-away world and to send back images and data. It will then continue through the Kuiper Belt, taking images and data on hopefully several Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs). The main objectives for Pluto and Charon are to characterize the global geology and morphology, map the surface compositions, and characterize the atmosphere of Pluto and its escape rate. Other objectives include studying time variability of Pluto's surface and atmosphere, imaging and mapping areas of Pluto and Charon at high-resolution, characterizing Pluto's upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and energetic particle environment, search for an atmosphere around Charon, refine bulk parameters of Pluto and Charon (such as mass and diameter), search for additional satellites and rings, and then to characterize one or more KBOs. The craft is slated to be launched on January 11, 2006, at 19:07 UT. It will proceed to Jupiter, receiving a gravity assist in late February or early March of 2007. The target time of arrival is July 14, 2015. The encounter period will begin approximately six months before the closest approach. Long-range imaging will include mapping of Pluto and Charon. New Horizons will fly within 9600 km (6000 miles) of Pluto at the closest approach and will come as close as 27,000 km (16,800 miles) to Charon. During the encounter, the craft should be able to obtain images at 25 m/px resolution and 4-color global day side maps at 1.6 km resolution. Spectrally, it should be able to obtain data at 7 km/px resolution globally and 0.6 km/px resolution for selected targets. After passing by Pluto, New Horizons will be headed to the Kuiper Belt where multiple KBOs on the order of 50-100 km (31-62 miles) in diameter are expected to be targeted for encounter and similar measurements to those made at Pluto. This phase of the mission should last between 5 to 10 years. Dawn
The mission is slated to be launched on June 17, 2006 from Cape Canaveral. However, there have been technical and managerial problems that have put it into "stand-down" mode, which has interrupted final preparations for launch. A report is expected to be prepared by February 2006. The launch window is nearly a year long, so even a significant delay in the launch date should not affect the mission. Assuming the launch takes place on time, the craft will circle the sun five times, which will include a Mars flyby in February 2009. Dawn should reach Vesta on in October 2011, and will orbit Vesta for 7 months at orbits as high as 700 km (435 miles) and as low as 120 km (75 miles). In May 2012, it will leave Vesta for Ceres, the largest known asteroid in the solar system. It should reach Ceres in August 2015. It will orbit Ceres for another 6 months at orbits as high as 890 km (553 miles) and as low as 140 km (87 miles). The original mission budget was $373 million. Phoenix This is a small Scout mission with a lander designed to study the surface and near-surface environment of a landing site in the high-northern latitudes of Mars. Phoenix was selected for the 2007 launch from four proposals for future Scout missions to Mars. The other three missions were: Sample Collection for the Investigation of Mars (SCIM), Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Survey (ARES), and Mars Volcanic Emission and Life scout (MARVEL). Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a Moon orbiting mission scheduled to launch in the Fall of 2008. The first mission of NASA's Robotic Lunar Exploration Program, it is designed to map the surface of the Moon and characterize future landing sites in terms of terrain roughness, usable resources, and radiation environment with the ultimate goal of facilitating the return of humans to the Moon. The following measurements are listed as having the highest priority: Characterization of deep space radiation environment in lunar orbit, geodetic global topography, high spatial resolution hydrogen mapping, temperature mapping in polar shadowed regions, imaging of surface in permanently shadowed regions, identification of putative deposits of appreciable near-surface water ice in polar cold traps, assessment of meter and smaller scale features for landing sites, and characterization of polar region lighting environment. A primary goal of the mission is to find landing sites suitable for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). Preliminary plans call for the LRO to be launched from Kennedy Space Center in October 2008 on a Delta II (2925-10) but this could be upgraded to a 2925H-10, an Atlas V or a Delta IV. It will take 4 days to reach the Moon and enter an initial orbit with a periselene altitude of 100 km (62 miles) which will then be lowered. The mission is expected to last for one year in a 30-50 km (19-31 mile) altitude lunar polar orbit. This may be followed by an extended mission of up to 5 years in a higher altitude low-maintenance orbit. The satellite is expected to have a launch mass of about 1000-1200 kg, with 500-600 kg of this being propellant. The platform will be three-axis stabilized and power of about 400 W will be provided by solar arrays and stored in Li-ion batteries. Communications will be via S-band for uplink and low rate downlink and Ka-band for high rate downlink (100-300 Mbps). The final design is expected soon, and the spacecraft will have the capability of carrying about 100 kg of scientific payload which will be composed of: A high resolution (one meter or better) camera to acquire images of small scale landing site hazards and document lighting conditions at the lunar poles; a laser altimeter to measure landing site slopes and search for polar ices; a neutron detector to search for water ice and characterize the space radiation environment; a radiometer to map the temperature of the lunar surface to identify cold traps and possible lunar ice deposits; a Lyman-alpha mapper to observe the lunar surface in ultraviolet, looking for surface ices and frosts and imaging permanently shadowed regions; and a cosmic ray telescope to investigate background space radiation. NASA has also signed an agreement with the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office to cooperate on the development of a miniature synthetic aperture radar sensor to map the Moon's surface. Total payload power requirement is estimated at 100 W. The total budget for the mission from development through first year operations is $90 million. Europa Orbiter --
CANCELLED This mission is proposed and has not yet been finalized. The current proposal calls for an orbiter to use radar to study the supposedly thin icy crust of Europa, one of the largest moons of Jupiter. The radar probing would determine how thick the ice is and if there is any water underneath it. Other instruments would image Europa at a resolution of approximately 100 m (330 feet), map the topography, and characterize the effects that the tidal forces of Jupiter and the other moons have on it. The mission would reach Jupiter in 2010. After one to two years of orbiting Jupiter, the craft would be put into a 200 km (124 mile) orbit above Europa. After approximately one month around Europa, radiation exposure would render the craft useless. Mars Scientific Laboratory A long duration rover (mobile scientific laboratory) equipped to perform many scientific studies of Mars, to be chosen competitively, is planned for a late 2009 launch. The primary scientific objectives of the mission will be to assess the biological potential of at least one target area, characterize the local geology and geochemistry, investigate planetary processes relevant to habitability, including the role of water, and to characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation. Instruments include a multi-spectral mast camera, micro-imager, descent imager, laser ablation chemistry camera, alpha-particle-X-ray-spectrometer, X-ray diffraction/X-ray fluorescence instrument, radiation assessment detector, gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer/laser spectrometer, and a neutron detector. The mission is planned to last at least one martian year (687 days). The landing site has not been chosen, but will be selected based on an assessment of its capacity to sustain life. A synthetic aperture radar satellite developed with Italy is also being considered for the 2009 launch window to Mars. A Mars Telecommunications Orbiter planned for launch in 2009 to support other Mars missions has been cancelled. Mars Scientific Laboratory A long duration rover (mobile scientific laboratory) equipped to perform many scientific studies of Mars, to be chosen competitively, is planned for a late 2009 launch. The primary scientific objectives of the mission will be to assess the biological potential of at least one target area, characterize the local geology and geochemistry, investigate planetary processes relevant to habitability, including the role of water, and to characterize the broad spectrum of surface radiation. Instruments include a multi-spectral mast camera, micro-imager, descent imager, laser ablation chemistry camera, alpha-particle-X-ray-spectrometer, X-ray diffraction/X-ray fluorescence instrument, radiation assessment detector, gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer/laser spectrometer, and a neutron detector. The mission is planned to last at least one martian year (687 days). The landing site has not been chosen, but will be selected based on an assessment of its capacity to sustain life. A synthetic aperture radar satellite developed with Italy is also being considered for the 2009 launch window to Mars. A Mars Telecommunications Orbiter planned for launch in 2009 to support other Mars missions has been cancelled. Mars 2011 - no information is available at this time Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) is a proposed mission to orbit three of the Galilean satellites, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, which may have subsurface oceans and possibly the ingredients for life. The spacecraft will be launched by a conventional chemical rocket, but once in space will be driven by an ion propulsion system. The system consists of electric thrusters powered by a small nuclear reactor. Ions are propelled out the back of the craft to provide thrust. This system will also be used to place the spacecraft in close orbits about each of the three moons. The mission is still in the early planning stages but has four primary science goals related to the Jovian moons: Study their interior structure, the evolution and current state of their surface and subsurface, their habitability, and how the various components of the Jovian system operate and interact. Possible instrumentation includes a high resolution imager, high power radar systems, laser altimeter, and magnetic field, plasma, and radiation sensors. 
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The
Dawn mission will rendezvous and orbit asteroids 4 Vesta and 1 Ceres.
The main objectives are to learn about the asteroids' internal structure,
density, shape, size, composition, mass, surface structure, craters,
and magnetism. From all of this, scientists will be able to learn about
the thermal history, size of the core, role of water in the evolution
of the asteroid, and what - if any - meteorites found on Earth came from
these. The data that is returned will include visual and spectrographic
imagery, gravity fields, any magnetism, element abundances, and topographic
profiles.