NASA Selects Inexpensive Space Project Candidates

coondoggie brings us a Networkworld report detailing NASA's selection of six mission proposals for further study by the Small Explorer (SMEX) Program. The goal of the program is to develop cheap, tightly focused science missions (PDF). Among the selected proposals are a satellite telescope bank for use in detecting exoplanets, and a solar coronograph which will study solar wind and coronal ejections. Networkworld provided links with more detailed information on most of the projects.

Comments

Guarunteed Pick

[milsoRgen]

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS): TESS will use a bank of six telescopes to observe the brightest 2.5 million stars and discover more than 1,000 Earth-to-Jupiter-sized planets around them. That will certainly be approved, the press releases alone will pay for itself.

Re:Guarunteed Pick

[RobBebop]

1,000 is an impressive sounding number, but it is also realistic. HST has been working for many years and to my knowledge was only able to determine the locations of planets that were larger than Jupiter. Meanwhile, discoveries of "Earth-sized" planets remain rare despite the technology that has been developed within the decade. I believe if you search the Slashdot archives you'll find a sparse group of articles linking to a couple recent discoveries of planets that are smaller than Jupiter. These few discoveries pale in comparison to the opportunity to fund a project that promises to increase the rate at which they discover planets by approximately an order of magnitude.