NASA will be announcing a new solar system mission in a love teleconference this Wed., 12/20/17 at 2 p.m. EST.
Here are the missions in the running:
- Comet Surface Sample Return
- Lunar South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return
- Ocean Worlds (Titan and/or Enceladus)
- Saturn Probe
- Trojan Tour and Rendezvous
- Venus In Situ Explorer
OH MAN HOW I WOULD 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 a Lunar South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return Mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My $$ is on "Ocean Worlds (Titan and/or Enceladus)" selection. I say that because we just finished 10+ years at Saturn, have had several missions active, with more to come in the asteroid belt, Venus is Venus (not a top planetary priority as there have been previous missions to Venus) and there have been recent comet missions.
NASA is excited about Enceladus due to its subsurface liquid ocean so that is why I think it is the front runner.
The Lunar mission would be very exciting as we would be returning to the SURFACE of the Moon - no one has done that recently except the Chinese - and we would lear a lot about an area of the Moon that we have only explored by lunar orbiting missions.
I'll be tuning in to see who gets selected.
Sky Guy in VA
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