Next Up For NASA
At a conference last week, NASA administrator Michael Griffin outlined the space agency's next phase of planetary and lunar science research. Steve Mirsky reports.
SUBSCRIBE TO Science Quickly
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Podcast Transcript: After its ongoing Mars missions, NASA will concentrate less on the red planet and more on the solar system’s other planets and moons, including our own. That’s what NASA administrator Mike Griffin told an audience of researchers last week at the 39th Lunar and Planetary Conference in Texas.
The Mars Science Laboratory lands in 2010. Griffin said that NASA is now planning in earnest for an outer planets flagship mission to Europa, Titan or Ganymede. Europa and Ganymede are moons of Jupiter. Titan is a moon of Saturn.
The reorientation of NASA’s planetary exploration programs is in response to a recent National Research Council report card. The NRC gave NASA an A for its Mars work but only a C for its overall research and analysis program and a dismal D for outer planets efforts.
Griffin also noted that NASA is now planning seven different small and medium class missions to the moon by 2014. And the Messenger spacecraft goes into orbit around Mercury in 2011.
—Steve Mirsky
60-Second Science is a daily podcast. Subscribe to this Podcast: RSS | iTunes
It’s Time to Stand Up for Science
If you enjoyed this article, I’d like to ask for your support. Scientific American has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.
I’ve been a Scientific American subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.
If you subscribe to Scientific American, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.
In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can't-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world's best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.
There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you’ll support us in that mission.
