NASA's Next Mission Will Be a New Mars Lander, Comet Hopper or Lunar Sailboat

Friday, May 6, 2011 - 14:30 in Astronomy & Space

It's decision time If you could pick just one, would you A) send a new lander to Mars, B) send a robotic visitor to a comet, or C) send a ship to float in the hydrocarbon oceans of Titan? NASA will pick one winner from these three projects, the space agency announced this week. The project will be capped at $425 million, not including the price of launch. Related ArticlesJudging By Its Funny Orbit, The Moon Titan May Have a Massive OceanDo Seasonal Changes in Mars's Atmosphere Have a Biological Cause?Deep Impact Probe Snaps Close-Up Images of Comet Hartley 2TagsScience, Rebecca Boyle, comets, experiments, landers, Mars, mars landers, nasa, solar system, space exploration, titanFirst on the table is the Mars Geophysical Monitoring Station, or GEMS, which will study the planet's interior structure. It would carry three primary instruments, which would measure the planet's wobble, marsquakes and geothermal heat flow. NASA says the mission...

Read the whole article on PopSci

More from PopSci

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net