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NASA Selects Explorer Mission of Opportunity Investigations

Written by thomas · Filed Under Aeronautics News 

June 20, 2008

thomas

WASHINGTON, June 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — NASA has selected two
science proposals to be the agency’s next Explorer Program Mission of
Opportunity investigations. One activity will study black holes and other
extreme environments in the universe. The other will determine how the
Earth’s outer atmosphere responds to external forces.

The first investigation will provide a U.S. science instrument to the
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s New exploration X-Ray Telescope, or
NeXT. The telescope, currently planned for launch in 2013, will open a new
observing window on X-rays and the study of astrophysical phenomena. NASA’s
proposed funding for the instrument and operations is $44 million.

The other investigation will fly an atmospheric remote sensing
instrument package aboard a yet-to-be-determined future commercial
satellite. The investigation initially will be funded at approximately
$250,000 for a concept study to aid in a NASA decision on further
development.

“These selections offer unique and cost-effective science
opportunities,” said Charles Gay, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s
Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “They expand NASA’s science
through partnerships with international and commercial organizations.”

The two investigations were selected from among 17 proposals received
by NASA earlier this year. They were evaluated by peer reviewers. The
selected proposals are:

— High-Resolution Soft X-Ray Spectrometer (SXS) for NeXT, Principal
Investigator Richard L. Kelley, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt Md.
The SXS will probe matter in extreme environments; investigate the nature
of dark matter on large scales in the universe; and explore how galaxies
and clusters of galaxies form and evolve.

— Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD), Principal
Investigator Richard Eastes, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Fla.
GOLD will increase our understanding of the temperature and composition in
the ionosphere; and provide understanding of the global scale response of
the Earth’s thermosphere and ionosphere.

NASA’s Explorer Program is designed to provide frequent, low-cost
access to space for heliophysics and astrophysics missions with small to
mid-sized spacecraft. The program is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md., for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

SOURCE NASA

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