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Dolores Beasley Headquarters, Washington January 26, 2005 (Phone: 202/358-1753) RELEASE: 05-XX NASA SELECTS NEXT SMALL EXPLORER MISSION A satellite that will make the first map of the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space has been selected to be the next mission in NASA’s Small Explorer program of rapid, small, and focused science exploration missions. The mission, to be launched in 2008, is the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX). This mission will detect for the first time the edge of the Solar System. As the solar wind from the Sun flows out beyond Pluto, it collides with the material between the stars, forming a shock front. IBEX contains two neutral atom imagers that are designed to detect particles from the termination shock at the boundary between the Solar System and interstellar space. IBEX will also study galactic cosmic rays, energetic particles from beyond the Solar System that pose a health and safety hazard for humans exploring beyond Earth orbit. IBEX will make these observations from a highly elliptical orbit that takes it beyond the interference of the Earth’s magnetosphere. Dr. David McComas of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, will lead IBEX at a total cost to NASA of $134 million. "Explorer missions continue to efficiently address NASA’s objectives with small space missions because of the competitive character of the Explorer Program. Dr. McComas and his co-investigators submitted a compelling proposal with sufficient details to convince o ther independent scientists, engineers, technologists, cost analysts, and program managers that this is an exciting and breakthrough experiment for NASA to sponsor.” said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, Deputy Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters. "The mission we’ve selected will continue the NASA Explorer Program’s successful record of the scientific exploration of space during the past four decades." NASA has decided to continue studying another proposed mission, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), the first telescope capable of detecting the black holes in the local Universe with 1 ,000 times more sensitivity than previous missions sensitive to energetic X-rays. A decision on proceeding to flight development with NuSTAR will be made by early 2006. Dr. Fiona Harrison of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., is the Principal Investigator for NuSTAR. The Explorer Program is designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space for physics and astronomy missions with small to mid-sized spacecraft. NASA has successfully launched six Small Explorer (SMEX) missions since 1992, including the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) launched in February 2002, and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer launched in April 2003. The next SMEX mission, the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission scheduled to launch in September 2006, will study the Earth’s highest clouds for clues to climate change. The selected proposals were among 29 SMEX and eight mission-of-opportunity proposals originally submitted to NASA in May 2003 in response to an Explorer Program Announcement of Opportunity issued in February 2003. NASA selected six proposals in November 2003 for detailed feasibility studies. Funded by NASA at up to $450,000 each, these studies focused on cost, management, and technical plans, including small business involvement and educational outreach. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., manages the Explorer Program for the Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Information and artist's concepts of these missions are available at: IBEX: http://www.ibex.swri.edu/ NuSTAR: http://www.xraysmex.org/ Information in NASA’s Explorer Program may be found at: http://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov/ |