The NASA's Space Exploration Missions

Discovery Program
"NASA's Discovery Program gives scientists the opportunity to dig deep into their imaginations and find innovative ways to unlock the mysteries of the solar system. When it began in 1992, this program represented a breakthrough in the way NASA explores space. For the first time, scientists and engineers were called on to assemble teams and design exciting, focused planetary science investigations that would deepen the knowledge about our solar system.

As a complement to NASA's larger “flagship” planetary science explorations, the Discovery Program goal is to achieve outstanding results by launching many smaller missions using fewer resources and shorter development times. 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 program also seeks to improve performance through the use of new technology and broaden university and industry participation in NASA missions.

Discovery was among the first NASA programs to require a plan for education and public outreach, as NASA recognized the importance of communicating the excitement and meaning of space exploration to students and the public. Innovative methods that support national education initiatives are being developed to reach students of all ages.

All completed Discovery missions have achieved ground-breaking science, each taking a unique approach to space exploration, doing what's never been done before, and driving new technology innovations that may also improve life on Earth." ... more

Asteroid Watch - Mars Exploration - PlanetQuest - Spitzer - Solar System Exploration - Global Climate Change - Cassini - Mars Science Lab

The Mars Exploration Program
"The Mars Exploration Program is a science-driven program that seeks to understand whether Mars was, is, or can be, a habitable world. To find out, we need to understand how geologic, climatic, and other processes have worked to shape Mars and its environment over time, as well as how they interact today.

Mars is similar to Earth in many ways, having many of the same "systems" that characterize our home world. Like Earth, Mars has an atmosphere, a hydrosphere, a cryosphere and a lithosphere. In other words, Mars has systems of air, water, ice, and geology that all interact to produce the Martian environment.

What we don't know yet is whether Mars ever developed or maintained a biosphere--an environment in which life could thrive.

Four Science Goals for Mars Exploration:
Determine whether life ever arose on Mars - Characterize the climate of Mars - Characterize the geology of Mars - Prepare for human exploration" ... more

Operating Missions
Mars Opportunity - Mars Express - Mars Odyssey - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - Mars Science Laboratory - MAVEN (Development)

Past missions
Mars Climate Orbiter - Mars Spirit - Mars Global Surveyor - Mars Observer - Mars Pathfinder - Mars Polar Lander - Phoenix - ExoMars

Mars Science Laboratory
"With its rover named Curiosity, Mars Science Laboratory mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet's "habitability."

Mars Science Laboratory will study Mars' habitability
To find out, the rover will carry the biggest, most advanced suite of instruments for scientific studies ever sent to the martian surface. The rover will analyze samples scooped from the soil and drilled from rocks. The record of the planet's climate and geology is essentially "written in the rocks and soil" -- in their formation, structure, and chemical composition. The rover's onboard laboratory will study rocks, soils, and the local geologic setting in order to detect chemical building blocks of life (e.g., forms of carbon) on Mars and will assess what the martian environment was like in the past.

Mars Science Laboratory relies on innovative technologies:
Mars Science Laboratory will rely on new technological innovations, especially for landing. The spacecraft will descend on a parachute and then, during the final seconds prior to landing, lower the upright rover on a tether to the surface, much like a sky crane. Once on the surface, the rover will be able to roll over obstacles up to 75 centimeters (29 inches) high and travel up to 90 meters (295 feet) per hour. On average, the rover is expected to travel about 30 meters (98 feet) per hour, based on power levels, slippage, steepness of the terrain, visibility, and other variables." ... more

Mars Mission
MSL Science Corner - Goals - Technology - Launch Vehicle - Spacecraft - Rover - Instruments - Mission Timeline - Communications - Team - Where is Curiosity?

The Heliophysics Science Division
"The Heliophysics Science Division conducts research on the Sun, its extended solar-system environment (the heliosphere), and interactions of Earth, other planets, small bodies, and interstellar gas with the heliosphere. Division research also encompasses geospace -- Earth's uppermost atmosphere, the ionosphere, and the magnetosphere -- and the changing environmental conditions throughout the coupled heliosphere (solar system weather).

Scientists in the Heliophysics Science Division develop models, spacecraft missions and instruments, and systems to manage and disseminate heliophysical data. They interpret and evaluate data gathered from instruments, draw comparisons with computer simulations and theoretical models, and publish the results. The Division also conducts education and public outreach programs to communicate the excitement and social value of NASA heliophysics." ... more

Heliophysics Missions
ACE - AIM - CINDI/CNOFS - Cluster-II - BARREL (in development)

NASA Science: Heliophysics
We live in the extended atmosphere of an active star. While sunlight enables and sustains life, the Sun's variability produces streams of high energy particles and radiation that can harm life or alter its evolution.

Under the protective shield of a magnetic field and atmosphere, the Earth is an island in the Universe where life has developed and flourished. The origins and fate of life on Earth are intimately connected to the way the Earth responds to the Sun's variations.

Understanding the Sun, Heliosphere, and Planetary Environments as a single connected system is the goal of the Science Mission Directorate's Heliophysics Research Program. In addition to solar processes, our domain of study includes the interaction of solar plasma and radiation with Earth, the other planets, and the Galaxy. By analyzing the connections between the Sun, solar wind, planetary space environments, and our place in the Galaxy, we are uncovering the fundamental physical processes that occur throughout the Universe. Understanding the connections between the Sun and its planets will allow us to predict the impacts of solar variability on humans, technological systems, and even the presence of life itself.

We have already discovered ways to peer into the internal workings of the Sun and understand how the Earth's magnetosphere responds to solar activity. Our challenge now is to explore the full system of complex interactions that characterize the relationship of the Sun with the solar system. Understanding these connections is especially critical as we contemplate our destiny in the third millennium. Heliophysics is needed to facilitate the accelerated expansion of human experience beyond the confines of our Earthly home. Recent advances in technology allow us, for the first time, to realistically contemplate voyages beyond the solar system." ... more

Heliophysics Missions
ACE - AIM - CINDI/CNOFS - Cluster-II - Geotail - Hinode (Solar-B) - IBEX - RHESSI - SOHO - SDO - STEREO - THEMIS - TIMED - TWINS - Voyager - Wind

In Development
BARREL - IRIS - MMS - RBSP - Space Environment Testbeds

NASA Planetary Science
NASA is at the leading edge of a journey of scientific discovery that promises to reveal new knowledge of our Solar System's content, origin, evolution and the potential for life elsewhere. NASA Planetary Science is engaged in one of the oldest of scientific pursuits: the observation and discovery of our solar system's planetary objects. With an exploration strategy based on progressing from flybys, to orbiting, to landing, to roving and finally to returning samples from planetary bodies, NASA advances the scientific understanding of the solar system in extraordinary ways, while pushing the limits of spacecraft and robotic engineering design and operations. Since the 1960s, NASA has broadened its reach with increasingly sophisticated missions launched to a host of nearby planets, moons, comets and asteroids.

NASA Planetary Science continues to expand our knowledge of the solar system, with spacecraft in place from the innermost planet of our Solar System to the very edge of our Sun's influence.

Big Questions
    - How did the sun's family of planets and minor bodies originate?
    - How did the solar system evolve to its current diverse state?
    - How did life begin and evolve on Earth, and has it evolved elsewhere in the Solar System?
    - What are the characteristics of the Solar System that lead to the origins of life? " ... more

The Planetary Missions
Cassini - Dawn - EPOXI - GRAIL - Juno - Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter - MESSENGER - New Horizons - Rosetta Stardust
Under Study: International Lunar Network - In Development: LADEE - MAVEN - OSIRIS-REx

NASA Science Astrophysics
"People have gazed at the stars, given them names, and observed their changes for thousands of years. NASA joined the ancient pursuit of knowledge of our universe comparatively recently.

Goals
The science goals of Astrophysics are breathtaking: we seek to understand the universe and our place in it. We are starting to investigate the very moment of creation of the universe and are close to learning the full history of stars and galaxies. We are discovering how planetary systems form and how environments hospitable for life develop. And we will search for the signature of life on other worlds, perhaps to learn that we are not alone.

NASA's goal in Astrophysics is to "Discover how the universe works, explore how the universe began and developed into its present form, and search for Earth-like planets".

Three broad scientific questions emanate from these goals.
    - How does the Universe work
          . How do matter, energy, space, and time behave under the extraordinary diverse conditions of the cosmos?
    - How did we get here?
          . How did the universe originate and evolve to produce the galaxies, stars, and planets we see today?
    - Are we alone?
          . What are the characteristics of planetary systems orbiting other stars, and do they harbor life?" ... more

NASA Earth Science
Earth is a complex, dynamic system we do not yet fully understand. The Earth system, like the human body, comprises diverse components that interact in complex ways. We need to understand the Earth's atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and biosphere as a single connected system. Our planet is changing on all spatial and temporal scales. The purpose of NASA's Earth science program is to develop a scientific understanding of Earth's system and its response to natural or human-induced changes, and to improve prediction of climate, weather, and natural hazards.

A major component of NASA's Earth Science Division is a coordinated series of satellite and airborne missions for long-term global observations of the land surface, biosphere, solid Earth, atmosphere, and oceans. This coordinated approach enables an improved understanding of the Earth as an integrated system. NASA is completing the development and launch of a set of Foundational missions, new Decadal Survey missions, and Climate Continuity missions." ... more

Space Earth Missions
ACRIMSAT - Aqua - Aquarius - Aura - CALIPSO - DISCOVER-AQ - Earth Observing-1 (NMP) - GOES I - M - GRACE - Jason-1 - LAGEOS 1&2 - Landsat 7 - NOAA-N - OSTM - QuikSCAT - SeaWinds - SORCE - Suomi NPP - Terra - TRMM

Under Study: CLARREO - DESDynI - ICESat-2      In Development: AirMOSS - ATTREX - CARVE - GOES N - P - GOES-R - GPM - HS3 - LDCM - NPOESS - OCO-2

The International Space Station

"The International Space Station (ISS) Program's greatest accomplishment is as much a human achievement as it is a technological one-how best to plan, coordinate, and monitor the varied activities of the Program's many organizations.

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the ISS. The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

The International Space Station Program brings together international flight crews, multiple launch vehicles, globally distributed launch, operations, training, engineering, and development facilities; communications networks, and the international scientific research community.

Elements launched from different countries and continents are not mated together until they reach orbit, and some elements that have been launched later in the assembly sequence were not yet built when the first elements were placed in orbit.

Operating the space station is even more complicated than other space flight endeavors because it is an international program. Each partner has the primary responsibility to manage and run the hardware it provides.

Construction, assembly and operation of the International Space Station requires the support of facilities on the Earth managed by all of the international partner agencies and countries involved in the program." ... more

The Voyager Mission
"The mission objective of the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM) is to extend the NASA exploration of the solar system beyond the neighborhood of the outer planets to the outer limits of the Sun's sphere of influence, and possibly beyond. This extended mission is continuing to characterize the outer solar system environment and search for the heliopause boundary, the outer limits of the Sun's magnetic field and outward flow of the solar wind. Penetration of the heliopause boundary between the solar wind and the interstellar medium will allow measurements to be made of the interstellar fields, particles and waves unaffected by the solar wind.

Mission Characteristic
The VIM is an extension of the Voyager primary mission that was completed in 1989 with the close flyby of Neptune by the Voyager 2 spacecraft. Neptune was the final outer planet visited by a Voyager spacecraft. Voyager 1 completed its planned close flybys of the Jupiter and Saturn planetary systems while Voyager 2, in addition to its own close flybys of Jupiter and Saturn, completed close flybys of the remaining two gas giants, Uranus and Neptune.

Interstellar Mission.
At the start of the VIM, the two Voyager spacecraft had been in flight for over 12 years having been launched in August (Voyager 2) and September (Voyager 1), 1977. Voyager 1 was at a distance of approximately 40 AU (Astronomical Unit - mean distance of Earth from the Sun, 150 million kilometers) from the Sun, and Voyager 2 was at a distance of approximately 31 AU.

It is appropriate to consider the VIM as three distinct phases: the termination shock, heliosheath exploration, and interstellar exploration phases. The two Voyager spacecraft began the VIM operating, and are still operating, in an environment controlled by the Sun's magnetic field with the plasma particles being dominated by those contained in the expanding supersonic solar wind. This is the characteristic environment of the termination shock phase. At some distance from the Sun, the supersonic solar wind will be held back from further expansion by the interstellar wind. The first feature encountered by a spacecraft as a result of this interstellar wind/solar wind interaction was be the termination shock where the solar wind slows from supersonic to subsonic speed and large changes in plasma flow direction and magnetic field orientation occur." ... more