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Small BodiesStories, updates, insights, and original analysis from The Planetary Society.
NASA announces five Discovery proposals selected for further study
NASA announced the first-round selections for its next Discovery mission today. A total of five planetary mission concepts -- three targeted at asteroids, two at Venus -- will move to the next stage of the competition.
Proposals to Explore the Solar System’s Smallest Worlds
Van Kane rounds up some of the latest NASA Discovery mission proposals aiming to explore our solar system's smallest bodies.
Discovery Lives
Last month teams of scientists from around the United States submitted proposals for the thirteenth mission in NASA’s Discovery program. Jason Callahan discusses this latest round of proposals.
Selecting the Next Creative Idea for Exploring the Solar System
With the release of the official Announcement of Opportunity (AO) early in November, NASA has officially begun the competition to select its next low cost ($450M) Discovery program planetary mission. Because planetary scientists are free to propose missions to any destination in the solar system other than the sun and Earth, these competitions bring out the creativity in the planetary science program.
Mission to a Metallic World: A Discovery Proposal to Fly to the Asteroid Psyche
Imagine flying deep within the asteroid belt to study the most unreachable location in the solar system: the deep core of a terrestrial world.