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NASA has selected two finalists for the fourth New Frontiers mission: a spacecraft that would retrieve a sample from 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and a drone that would explore multiple locations on Saturn's moon Titan:
In the first proposed mission, Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return, or Caesar, a spacecraft would go to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, previously explored by the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, and bring back a small chunk to Earth for closer study.
In the second mission, named Dragonfly, a robotic drone would be sent to Titan, Saturn's largest moon, which has a seas of hydrocarbons. The drone would be able to fly from one location to another and to perform detailed explorations of various terrains.
[...] Each team now will get $4 million and about one year to flesh out its idea. NASA will decide in mid-2019 which one of the two to build. The selected mission is to launch by the end of 2025.
The CAESAR mission to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko would scoop up 100 grams of material and return it to Earth... by 2038. CAESAR would be aided by Rosetta's precise measurements of the comet. The Dragonfly mission would make most of its observations on the ground of Titan, but would be able to fly hundreds of kilometers through Titan's atmosphere to land repeatedly. Flight on Titan is significantly easier than on Earth due to its 1.45 (Earth) atmospheres of pressure and 0.14g surface gravity.
The Enceladus Life Signatures and Habitability (ELSAH) and Venus In Situ Composition Investigations (VICI) concepts will also receive funding for technology development.
The previous New Frontiers missions were:
- The New Horizons flyby mission to Pluto, launched on January 19, 2006, which is currently en route to 2014 MU69.
- The Juno mission to Jupiter, launched on August 5, 2011. Perijove 10 (9th science flyby) was on December 16, and Perijove 11 will occur on February 7, 2018.
- The OSIRIS-REx mission, launched on September 8, 2016, which will arrive at the 0.5 km asteroid 101955 Bennu in August 2018 and return a sample to Earth by 2023.
Also at NASA, The Verge and Air & Space.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday December 21 2017, @04:20PM (5 children)
They should pick the Titan drone, right?!
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by fishybell on Thursday December 21 2017, @04:46PM (4 children)
Why stop at one?
I don't see any reason (except the current budget) to not go through with all of them.
The problem seems very solvable; just give them more money. The DoD has a bunch they didn't ask for, so just funnel it over.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday December 21 2017, @05:37PM
It's not like the Military hasn't benefited in some way from research and experiments conducted by NASA. I assume the NASA research and experiments aren't geared towards military applications, but that doesn't mean nothing of use could possibly come from it. Plus, rocket science is cool. I would be very happy, if some of the Military funds went to NASA. I might even be happier, if those funds went directly towards SpaceX, Blue Origin, etc.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Thursday December 21 2017, @05:41PM
Why stop there? 1 billion-dollar mission every ~5 years? Why not 5 new missions every year!? Multiplying the New Frontiers expenditure by roughly 25 sounds like a lot of money, but we could always pull it out of the DoD/Pentagon.
But unless you spearhead a successful campaign to give NASA an extra billion to launch both, we are stuck with this choice. Congress can choose to throw extra money at NASA for specific missions, as they have done with Europa Clipper [wikipedia.org]. There is lobbying and excitement [arstechnica.com] behind Europa Clipper, although maybe too much since they have no plans to drill into the ocean.
The funding that Enceladus Life Signatures and Habitability [wikipedia.org] and Venus In Situ Composition Investigations [wikipedia.org] receive could help those be realized in a future competition or just as missions NASA wants to select.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday December 21 2017, @07:00PM (1 child)
> The DoD has a bunch they didn't ask for, so just funnel it over.
That's not how it works. They will find a way to use that money, regardless on the number of new enemies we need to be told the empire has. Put a provocative buffoon at the helm, and call everyone who facepalms a mortal enemy.
We need to find an excuse for Titan to be a strategic and propaganda objective, and suddenly we'll get the dozens of drones, soon followed by manned missions, that we'd all like to see. The extra 50B the pentagon just got, matched by the Chinese, would open up many opportunities.
Instead, we get the Pentagon a raise, NASA gets a flat budget, which will get cut in a few years to pay for our brand-new tax maybe-cuts...
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Thursday December 21 2017, @07:23PM
"I hear there's liquid hydrocarbons on the surface of Titan."
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 21 2017, @05:28PM (3 children)
It almost sounds like, "You guys got some pictures, and crashed - we're going to bring back a piece of the rock!"
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Thursday December 21 2017, @05:59PM
Comets can be time capsules of the early solar system. Not sure if that status is affected by it swinging by the Sun and outgassing, but there you have it.
It's probably a fine idea for a mission, and having the benefit of great imagery of 67/P makes it easier to successfully gather the sample. But Titan is very important. It's the only rocky object other than Earth in our solar system with a dense atmosphere and surface lakes (of hydrocarbons). Which is why we landed a probe [wikipedia.org] there in the first place. But it was almost an afterthought in terms of capabilities and a small part of the overall Cassini mission. With a nuclear-powered drone, we could do more observations on Titan than what is possible on Mars with rovers.
Titan is a good candidate for human exploration/colonization [wikipedia.org] due to its atmosphere. And it seems we could fly around there by using human-powered gliders. And like many other icy objects, it may have a subsurface liquid water ocean capable of supporting life.
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(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday December 21 2017, @07:29PM (1 child)
Hey, how can be pursue the every nerd's dream of mining the asteroids and comets if we can't eve grab a shovel full of dirt?
Once we grab a teaspoon sample, we are just moments away from full scale smelters melting those suckers down and 3D Printing Space Stations, right?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday December 22 2017, @02:13AM
A good mission can check off a bunch of technology demonstration and space achievement boxes.