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The European Space Agency has selected its first L-class mission, the JUICE mission to Jupiter and its Galilean moons.
Here's a quote from the article (from my boss):
It's scheduled to launch in 2022. Fingers crossed that I will be working on it then, too!
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science)
Here's a quote from the article (from my boss):
"People probably don't realise that habitable zones don't necessarily need to be close to a star - in our case, close to the Sun," explained Prof. Michele Dougherty, a Juice science team member from Imperial College London, UK.
"There are four conditions required for life to form. You need water; you need an energy source - so the ice can become liquid; you need the right chemistry - nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen; and the fourth thing you need is stability - a length of time that allows life to form.
"The great thing about the icy moons in the Jupiter system is that we think those four conditions might exist there; and Juice will tell us if that is the case," she told BBC News.
It's scheduled to launch in 2022. Fingers crossed that I will be working on it then, too!
(x-posted to
science)
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I was sorta hoping for the x-ray astronomy one, since that's more up my alley, but truthfully, I'll be retired by the time it could fly, so it's officially Not My Problem. Still, it's sad to see the field go into deep freeze for a generation.
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The x-ray astronomy one might get a look in for the 2028 launch of the second L-class mission. If it does, its commissioning phase would be quite short so it could start returning data pretty quickly.
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Outer planetary observational science: Not a game for the impatient.