NASA Selects Explorer Investigations for Formulation

April 05, 2013

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


RELEASE: 13-088

NASA SELECTS EXPLORER INVESTIGATIONS FOR FORMULATION



WASHINGTON -- NASA's Astrophysics Explorer Program has selected two
missions for launch in 2017: a planet-hunting satellite and an
International Space Station instrument to observe X-rays from stars.



The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Neutron Star
Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) were among four concept studies
submitted in September 2012. NASA determined these two offer the best
scientific value and most feasible development plans.

TESS will use an array of telescopes to perform an all-sky survey to
discover transiting exoplanets ranging from Earth-sized to gas
giants, in orbit around the nearest and brightest stars in the sky.
Its goal is to identify terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of
nearby stars. Its principal investigator is George Ricker of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

NICER will be mounted on the space station and measure the variability
of cosmic X-ray sources, a process called X-ray timing, to explore
the exotic states of matter within neutron stars and reveal their
interior and surface compositions. The principal investigator is
Keith Gendreau of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Md.

"The Explorer Program has a long and stellar history of deploying
truly innovative missions to study some of the most exciting
questions in space science," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate
administrator for science in Washington. "With these missions we will
learn about the most extreme states of matter by studying neutron
stars and we will identify many nearby star systems with rocky
planets in the habitable zone for further study by telescopes such as
the James Webb Space Telescope."

NASA's Explorer program is the agency's oldest continuous program and
is designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space using
principal investigator-led space science investigations relevant to
the Science Mission Directorate's astrophysics and heliophysics
programs. Satellite mission costs are capped at $200 million and
space station mission costs are capped at $55 million.

The program has launched more than 90 missions. It began in 1958 with
the Explorer 1, which discovered the Earth's radiation belts. Another
Explorer mission, the Cosmic Background Explorer, led to a Nobel
prize. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the program for the
agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about the Explorer program, visit:

http://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov

For information about NASA, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov


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