Discovery is an ongoing program that offers the scientific community the opportunity to assemble a team and design exciting, focused investigations that complement NASA's larger planetary science explorations. The goal is to achieve outstanding results launching many smaller missions using fewer resources and shorter development times than past projects with comparable objectives. The main objective is to enhance our understanding of the Solar System by exploring the planets, their moons, and small bodies such as comets and asteroids.
The Difference Between Then.......
In the past, NASA announced plans to explore a certain planet or region of space and solicited independent bids and competitions for spacecraft, operations, and science investigations. These missions were very large in scope, carrying many instruments, involving large groups of people, taking many years to get organized and launched, and often costing billions of dollars. |
The philosophy of Discovery is to solicit proposals for an entire mission, put together by a team comprised of people from universities, industry, government laboratories and small businesses led by a Principal Investigator (PI). The PI develops the scientific objectives and instrument payload. The team brings together the skills and expertise needed to carry out a mission from concept development through data analysis. The PI is responsible for assuring that cost, schedule and performance objectives are met.
Discovery seeks to keep performance high and expenses low by using new technologies and cost caps. The cost for the entire mission (design, development, launch vehicle, instruments, spacecraft, launch, mission operations, data analysis, education and public outreach) must be less than $425 million. The development time from mission start to launch can be no more than 36 months. The intent is to have a mission launch every 12 to 24 months.
NASA is committed to the principles of open competition and merit review as a key to excellence. Proposals are chosen through an extensive competitive peer review process. Proposals require careful tradeoffs between science and cost to produce investigations with the highest possible science value for the price.
ADDRESSING NASA'S MISSION AND GOALS
The 2006 NASA Strategic Plan identifies the following goal for Planetary Science : "Advance scientific knowledge of the origin and history of the solar system, the potential for life elsewhere, and the hazards and resources present as humans explore space."
NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has responsibility for defining, planning and overseeing NASA's space and Earth science programs.
The Solar System Exploration Roadmap, published by NASA in September 2006, is drawn as a 30-year planning horizon, against the backdrop of the Presidential Initiative, "The Vision for Space Exploration." It excludes the Moon and Mars, which are covered in other Roadmaps. The scientific foundation of the Roadmap is a set of fundamental questions based on five objectives adopted in 2003 by NASA's then Office of Space Science, in response to the National Research Council's Decadal Survey, but modified to reflect the context of the exploration goals of the Vision for Space Exploration:
- How did the Sun's family of planets and minor bodies originate?
- How did the Solar System evolve to its current diverse state?
- What are the characteristics of the Solar System that led to the origin of life?
- How did life begin and evolve on Earth and has it evolved elsewhere in the Solar System?
- What are the hazards and resources in the Solar System environment that will affect the extension of human presence in space?
The Roadmap describes a balanced series of small (Discovery Program), medium (New Frontiers Program), and large (flagship) class missions and their enabling technologies, supported by a balanced program of research and analysis, and creative education and public outreach.
The Science Plan for NASA's Science Mission Directorate 2007-2016 further defines NASA's vision for the scientific exploration of our planet, other planets and planetary bodies, our star system in its entirety, and the universe beyond.
All these documents can be accessed on the SMD's Science Strategy web page, which contains Current Strategy Documents, Community Input documents, and Past Strategy Documents.
THE ROLE OF THE DISCOVERY PROGRAM
To accomplish its prime objective of enhancing our understanding of the Solar System, the unique approach of the Discovery Program is to:
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