WHERE next for NASA? The agency has chosen five potential missions for its Discovery programme, and handed out $3 million to each to develop the concepts.
Two proposed missions aim to send a spacecraft to study Venus. DAVINCI would dive into the planet’s dense, toxic atmosphere to study its chemical composition, while VERITAS would map the surface in high resolution.
The others have asteroids in their sights. Psyche would visit a large asteroid that appears to be made from iron and nickel, just like Earth’s core. Another craft, Lucy, would visit the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter, which orbit either side of the gas giant. A final mission, a space telescope called NEOCam, would be stationed near Earth and watch asteroids from afar. NASA will choose one or two of these missions to receive $500 million next September.
This article appeared in print under the headline “NASA’s next move”
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