New Frontiers program

Pluto viewed by the New Frontiers mission New Horizons on July 13, 2015

Pluto's moon Charon on July 13, 2015 by that mission

The New Frontiers program is a series of space exploration missions being conducted by NASA with the purpose of researching several of the Solar System bodies, including the dwarf planet Pluto.

NASA is encouraging both domestic and international scientists to submit mission proposals for the project.

New Frontiers was built on the innovative approach used by the Discovery and Explorer Programs of principal investigator-led missions. It is designed for medium-class missions that cannot be accomplished within the cost and time constraints of Discovery, but are not as large as Flagship-class missions. There are currently two New Frontiers missions in progress, New Horizons, which launched on January 19, 2006, and Juno, which launched on August 5, 2011; a third New Frontiers mission, OSIRIS-REx, has been selected for launch in September 2016.

History

Juno views Earth in October 2013 during the spacecraft's flyby en route to Jupiter

The New Frontiers program was developed and advocated by NASA and granted by Congress in CY 2002 and 2003. This effort was led by two long-time NASA executives at Headquarters at that time: Edward Weiler, Associate Administrator of Science and Colleen Hartman, Solar System Exploration Division Director. The mission to Pluto had already been selected before this program was successfully endorsed and funded, so the mission to Pluto, called New Horizons, was "grandfathered" into the New Frontiers program. The 2003 Planetary Science Decadal Survey from the National Academy of Sciences identified destinations that then served as the source of the first competition for the New Frontiers program. The program name was selected by Hartman based on President John F. Kennedy's speech in 1960, in which he said "We stand, today, on the edge of a New Frontier."

Examples of proposed mission concepts include two tranches of several mission concepts based on decadal survey goals.^[1]

• From New Frontiers in the Solar System: An Integrated Exploration Strategy
  • Kuiper Belt Pluto Explorer (realized in New Horizons)
  • Jupiter Polar Orbiter with Probes (led to Juno)
  • Venus In Situ Explorer
  • Lunar South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return Mission
  • Comet Surface Sample Return Mission (see also the similar OSIRIS-REx, which is planned for NEO not a comet and also the ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, which orbits and dropped a lander on a comet in 2014–2015)
• From Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013–2022
  • Io Observer
  • Lunar Geophysical Network
  • Saturn Probe
  • Trojan Tour and Rendezvous

New Horizons accomplishes goals in connection with two other programs, the Discovery program and the Flagship Program, so it science goals may be achieved in another program.^[2]

Missions in progress

New Horizons (New Frontiers 1)

A view of Charon (left) and Pluto (right) based on images from July 11, 2015 captured by the New Horizons spacecraft and relayed back to Earth.

New Horizons, a mission to Pluto, was launched on January 19, 2006. After a Jupiter gravity assist in February 2007 the craft continued towards Pluto. The primary mission flyby occurred in July 2015 and the spacecraft will be targeted toward one or more additional Kuiper Belt objects between 2015 and 2020. Another mission that was considered with this mission was New Horizons 2

Juno (New Frontiers 2)

Artists's concept of Juno when it arrives at Jupiter

Juno is a Jupiter exploration mission launched on August 5, 2011 and will arrive in July 2016. It is the first solar-powered spacecraft to explore an outer planet. The craft will attain a polar orbit in order to study the planet's magnetic field and internal structure. NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter provided extensive knowledge about its upper atmosphere, however, further study of Jupiter is crucial not only to the understanding of its origin and nature of the Solar System, but also of giant extrasolar planets in general. The Juno spacecraft investigation is intended to address the following objectives for Jupiter:

• Understand Jupiter's gross dynamical and structural properties through determination of the mass and size of Jupiter's core, its gravitational and magnetic fields, and internal convection;
• Measure the Jovian atmospheric composition, particularly the condensable-gas abundances (H₂O, NH₃, CH₄ and H₂S), the Jovian atmospheric temperature profile, wind velocity profile, and cloud opacity to greater depths than achieved by the Galileo entry probe with a goal of 100 bar at multiple latitudes; and
• Investigate and characterize the three-dimensional structure of Jupiter's polar magnetosphere.

OSIRIS-REx (New Frontiers 3)

Mission image

OSIRIS-REx stands for "Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer".^[3] This mission plan is to orbit an asteroid, at the time named 1999 RQ₃₆ (now 101955 Bennu), by 2020. After extensive measurements, the spacecraft will collect a sample from the asteroid's surface for return to Earth in 2023. The mission, excluding the launch vehicle, is expected to cost approximately $800 million. The returned sample will help scientists answer long-held questions about the formation of the Solar System and the origin of complex organic molecules necessary for the origin of life.

Asteroid 101955 is a potential future Earth impactor and is listed on the Sentry Risk Table with the third highest rating on the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale (circa 2015).^[4] In the late 2100s there is a cumulative chance of about 0.07% it could strike Earth, therefore there is a need to measure the composition and Yarkovsky effect of the asteroid.^[5]

Future mission: New Frontiers 4

Competition for the fourth mission will begin in 2017, and NASA will select several proposals for additional concept studies by November 2017.^[6] The fourth mission of the program would launch around 2024.^[6][7] Investigators may propose the use of Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (MMRTG), and the NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) ion propulsion system.^[7] Based on their science value and projected costs, the 2013 Planetary Science Decadal Survey committee identified six desired themes:^[8][9]

1. A comet nucleus lander and sample return mission
2. A mission to land at the Moon's South Pole–Aitken basin and return samples to Earth
3. A mission that would send a probe into Saturn’s atmosphere
4. A spacecraft to explore a class of asteroids known as trojans that are in the same orbit as Jupiter
5. A Venus atmospheric probe and lander
6. Ocean exploration of Titan and Enceladus to assess its habitability and look for life.

References

1. nasa nf
2. nasa nf
3. NASA. "NASA to Launch New Science Mission to Asteroid in 2016". Retrieved 25 May 2011.
4. "Sentry Risk Table". NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office. 21 July 2015. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 2015-07-21.
5. Milani, Andrea; Chesley, Steven R.; Sansaturio, Maria Eugenia; Bernardi, Fabrizio; et al. (2009). "Long term impact risk for (101955) 1999 RQ₃₆". Icarus 203 (2): 460–471. arXiv:0901.3631. Bibcode:2009Icar..203..460M. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.05.029.
6. Foust, Jeff (January 8, 2016). "NASA Expands Frontiers of Next New Frontiers Competition". Space News. Retrieved 2016-01-20.
7. New Frontiers fourth announcement of opportunity. NASA, January 6, 2016.
8. Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013–2022. Washington, DC: National Academies. 2011. pp. ES–1. ISBN 978-0-309-20951-9.
9. New Frontiers Program - Overview. NASA, 2015.

External links

• New Frontiers Program Website