How did the sun's family of planets and minor bodies originate? Missions

For the first time in human history we know of planets around other stars and many of those other planetary systems look quite different from our own. Many have a planet like Jupiter, or even bigger, nearest to the Sun. If we are to understand why this is the case, and how likely it is that there are Earth-like planets elsewhere, we need to better understand how planets form.

*Sort missions by clicking Launch Date, A-Z, or PHASE column headers.

Launch Date	A-Z	Phase
19971016 October 15, 1997	Cassini The Cassini Mission is in the midst of a detailed study of Saturn, its rings, its magnetosphere, its icy satellites, and its moon Titan. Cassini also delivered a probe...	Operating
20070928 September 27, 2007	Dawn The Dawn mission intends to orbit Vesta and Ceres, two of the largest asteroids in the solar system. According to current theories, the very different properties of Vesta and...	Operating
20050112 January 12, 2005	Deep Impact The Deep Impact mission was selected as a Discovery mission in 1999. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Delta II rocket on January 12, 2005 and left Earth’s orbit toward...	Operating
20050112 January 12, 2005	Deep Impact Epoxi Extrasolar Planet Observation and Deep Impact Extended Investigation EPOXI is a follow-on mission to Deep Impact. This mission is part of SMD's Discovery...	Operating
20010808 August 08, 2001	Genesis The Genesis mission was designed to collect samples of the charged particles in the solar wind and return them to Earth laboratories for detailed analysis. This mission is...	Past
20110901 September 01, 2011	GRAIL The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission is a proposed Discovery Program mission to study the lunar interior. This mission is part of SMD's Discovery...	Under Study
20030509 May 09, 2003	Hayabusa The Hayabusa (formerly Muses-C) mission is to collect a surface sample of material from the small asteroid and return the sample to Earth for analysis....	Operating
20130101 2013	ILN International Lunar Net-work (ILN), aims to provide an organizing theme for all landed science missions in the 2010s by involving each landed station as a node in a...	Under Study
20110802 August 01, 2011	Juno The Juno mission is the next scientific investigation in the NASA New Frontiers Program. The mission's primary science goal is to significantly improve our understanding of...	Under Study
20110101 2011	LADEE Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is a NASA mission that will orbit the Moon and its main objective is to characterize the atmosphere and lunar dust...	Under Study
20160101 2016	Mars 2016 In 2016, the Astrobiology Field Laboratory (AFL), a pair of Mid-Rovers, or a set of three to four long-lived landers is planned for launch with the results of MRO’s and...	Under Study
20030610 June 10, 2003	Mars Exploration Rover - Spirit Mars Exploration Rover Spirit landed in Gusev crater on Mars in January 2004. The rover carries a sophisticated set of instruments that allow it to search for evidence of...	Operating
20030603 June 02, 2003	Mars Express (ASPERA-3) Mars Express is exploring the atmosphere and surface of Mars from polar orbit. The mission's main objective is to search for sub-surface water from orbit and deploy a lander...	Operating
19961107 19:00:00 USEastern November 07, 1996	Mars Global Surveyor Mars Global Surveyor is returning an unprecedented amount of data regarding Mars' surface features, atmosphere, and magnetic properties. Scientists are using the data...	Past
20110101 January 01, 2011	Mars Missions Beyond 2009 NASA is developing a long-term Mars exploration program that charts a course for the next two decades. This visionary program will build on scientific discoveries from past...	Under Study
20010408 April 07, 2001	Mars Odyssey The 2001 Mars Odyssey is an orbiter carrying science experiments designed to make global observations of Mars to improve our understanding of the planet's climate and...	Operating
20050813 August 12, 2005	Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will seek to find out about the history of water on Mars with its science instruments. They will zoom in for extreme close-up...	Operating
20030708 20:00:00 GMT-4 July 08, 2003	Mars Exploration Rover - Opportunity The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity landed at on a flat plain known as Meridiani Planum on Mars in January 2004. It carries a sophisticated set of instruments that allow...	Operating
	Mars Science Orbiter The Mars Science Orbiter (MSO) is a major infrastructure component for the next decade of Mars exploration. This mission is part of SMD's Mars Exploration...	Under Study
20130101 2013	Mars Scout 13 In the first round of the Mars Scout 2006 competition, two missions for 2011 were selected from 26 proposals for further evaluation in a concept study phase. The selected...	Under Study
20040804 August 03, 2004	MESSENGER MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) is a scientific investigation of the planet Mercury, the least explored terrestrial planet. This...	Operating
20080417 April 16, 2008	Chandrayaan-1 (M3) The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) is one of two instruments that NASA is contributing to India's first mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-1, which is scheduled to be launched in...	Development
20060120 January 19, 2006	New Horizons The New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission will help us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system, by making the first reconnaissance of Pluto and Charon. The mission...	Operating
20070805 August 04, 2007	Phoenix Phoenix seeks to verify the presence of the Martian Holy Grail: water and habitable conditions....	Operating
20040303 March 02, 2004	Rosetta The Rosetta Orbiter will study the origin of comets, the relationship between cometary and interstellar material and its implications with regard to the origin of the Solar...	Operating
19990207 February 07, 1999	Stardust Stardust is the first U.S. space mission dedicated solely to the exploration of a comet, and the first robotic mission designed to return extraterrestrial material from...	Past
	Stardust-NExT STARDUST-NExT - short for “New Exploration of Tempel-1” is a follow-on mission for STARDUST This mission is part of SMD's Discovery...	Operating

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How did the sun's family of planets and minor bodies originate? Missions