NASA Selects Small Explorer Investigations for Concept Studies

May 29, 2008

J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-5241
j.d.harrington@xxxxxxxx

CONTRACT RELEASE: C08-029

NASA SELECTS SMALL EXPLORER INVESTIGATIONS FOR CONCEPT STUDIES

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected six candidate mission proposals for
further evaluation as part of the agency's Small Explorer (SMEX)
Program. The proposals will study the far reaches of the universe,
including the Earth's thermosphere and ionosphere, the sun, black
holes, the first stars, and Earthlike planets around nearby stars.

Following detailed mission concept studies, NASA intends to select
two
of the mission proposals in the spring of 2009 for full development
as SMEX missions. The first mission could launch by 2012. Both will
launch by 2015. Mission costs will be capped at $105 million each,
excluding the launch vehicle.

"We received many excellent proposals," said Charles Gay, deputy
associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, "The
six we selected for further study offer outstanding science in a
small satellite mission."

The selected proposals were judged to have the best science value
among 32 compliant SMEX proposals submitted to NASA in January 2008.
Each will receive $750,000 to conduct a six-month implementation
feasibility study.

The selected proposals are:

-- Coronal Physics Explorer (CPEX), Principal Investigator Dennis G.
Socker, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington - CPEX will use a solar
coronograph to study the processes responsible for accelerating the
solar wind and generating the coronal mass ejections that can impact
the Earth.

-- Gravity and Extreme Magnetism SMEX (GEMS), Principal Investigator
Jean H. Swank, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. -
GEMS will use an X-ray telescope to track the flow of highly
magnetized matter into supermassive black holes.

-- Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), Principal
Investigator Alan M. Title, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Palo
Alto, Calif. - IRIS will use a solar telescope and spectrograph to
reveal the dynamics of the solar chromosphere and transition region.

-- Joint Astrophysics Nascent Universe Satellite (JANUS), Principal
Investigator Peter W.A. Roming, Pennsylvania State University,
University Park - JANUS will use a gamma-ray burst monitor to point
its infrared telescope at the most distant galaxies to measure the
star-formation history of the universe.

-- Neutral Ion Coupling Explorer (NICE), Principal Investigator
Stephen B. Mende, University of California, Berkeley - NICE will use
a suite of remote sensing and in situ instruments to discover how
winds and the composition of the upper atmosphere drive the
electrical fields and chemical reactions that control the Earth's
ionosphere.

-- Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), Principal
Investigator George R. Ricker, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge - TESS will use a bank of six telescopes to observe the
brightest 2.5 million stars and discover more than 1,000
Earth-to-Jupiter-sized planets around them.

NASA also received 17 Mission of Opportunity proposals for
consideration and will schedule an evaluation board at a later date.

The proposals are vying to be the 12th and 13th Small Explorer
missions selected for full development. The Explorer program is
designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space for
heliophysics and astrophysics missions with small to mid-sized
spacecraft. The program is managed by Goddard Space Flight Center for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

For more information about the Explorer Program on the Internet,
visit:

http://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov

For information about NASA and space science on the Internet, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov


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