NASA missions to Venus, near-Earth objects by 2020

NASA’s Discovery program is narrowing down its list of potential missions, including several different trips to Venus, as well as a study of asteroids near Jupiter.

Out of a total 27 science investigation submissions, United States space agency NASA has shortlisted 5 for further refinement from which only 2 will be selected for flight opportunities as early as 2020, the agency has announced. Two of the selected concepts would visit Venus, while asteroids are the objects of interest for the other three.

The finalists now get up to $3 million each to pursue a more detailed proposal. NASA will select the final one or two missions by September 2016, to be allowed to continue development until launch.

Any of the selected missions would cost about $500 million, not including the launch vehicle or the cost of post-launch operations.

NASA’s Discovery Program requested proposals for spaceflight investigations in November 2014. VERITAS’ goal would be toproduce global, high-resolution topography and imaging of Venus’ surface and produce the first maps of deformation and global surface composition. “It’s an incredible time for science, and NASA is leading the way”, he said in a statement.

Another JPL concept called Near Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) aims to find ten times the number of near-Earth objects that’s been discovered thus far. NEOCam would also set out to characterize these objects.

Two of those five concepts want to take a closer look at the second planet from the sun: the first one is called Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry and Imaging or DAVINCI. DAVINCI would study the chemical composition of Venus’ atmosphere during a 63-minute descent.

The Psyche project, too, plans to investigate smaller space rocks, flying to the metal-rich asteroid of the same – believed to be the result of a nasty collision with another planetary body – to work out how planetary cores are formed. Its data could help determine if Venus has active volcanoes on the surface today, and how the surface interacts with the atmosphere, scientific questions that have been high-priority for many years.

According to Space.com, NASA selected five finalists as part of its Discovery Program, which aims to fund exploration missions within the solar system. This asteroid is likely the survivor of a violent hit-and-run with another object that stripped off the outer, rocky layers of a protoplanet. The program has funded and developed 12 missions to date, including MESSENGER, Dawn, Stardust, Deep Impact, Genesis and GRAIL, and is now completing development of InSight.