Discovery at Fifteen: Highlights from the Operations of NASA’s Remarkable Program of Low-Cost Solar System Exploration
- Paper number
IAC-08.B4.3.12
- Author
Mr. Gregg Vane, United States
- Year
2008
- Abstract
Some fifteen years ago NASA initiated a new program dedicated to the exploration of the solar system using low-cost planetary probes. The goal was to complement the program of so-called Flagship missions, flown once or so per decade with rich payloads of scientific instruments to the hard-to-reach destinations in the solar system. Specifically, the missions of the Discovery Program were meant to address focused, high-priority, science with a launch rate of several per decade. To date, NASA has selected ten Discovery missions and launched nine of them, the tenth having just been selected. In this talk we will review the major findings of the missions completed to date and preview those yet to come for the missions in route to their destinations or still under development for launch.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)