Cosmos

The CAESAR (Comet Astrobiology Exploration SAmple Return) mission will acquire a sample from the nucleus of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, returning it safely to Earth. Comets are made up of materials from ancient stars, interstellar clouds, and the birth of our solar system. The CAESAR sample will reveal how these materials contributed to the early Earth, including the origins of the Earth's oceans, and of life. Credits: NASA Artist concept of Dragonfly mission on Titan surface Dragonfly is a dual-quadcopter lander that would take advantage of the environment on Titan to fly to multiple locations, some hundreds of miles apart, to sample materials and determine surface composition to investigate Titan's organic chemistry and habitability, monitor atmospheric and surface conditions, image landforms to investigate geological processes, and perform seismic studies. Credits: NASA NASA has selected two finalist concepts for a robotic mission planned to launch in the mid-20...

Solar System Mission NASA will announce finalist concepts for a future robotic mission to explore the solar system during a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EST Wednesday, Dec. 20. The mission, targeted to launch in the mid-2020s, would be the fourth in NASA’s New Frontiers portfolio – a series of cost-capped missions led by a principal investigator. Current New Frontiers missions are New Horizons to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, Juno at Jupiter, and the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission, now heading to the asteroid Bennu for arrival in 2018. Participating in the telecon will be: Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington Curt Niebur, New Frontiers program scientist at at NASA Headquarters Principal investigators of the selected missions The mission concepts were chosen from 12 proposals submitted in May to address top so...