Future Planetary Exploration Options

[vjkane]

I've started a new blog on this topic at http://futureplanets.blogspot.com/

This blog supplements UMSF by allowing on topic discussions that include politics and other topics not appropriate here.

The first entry is up with some additional news on the MSL funding and schedule problems.

[climber]

Interesting infografic: http://i.imgur.com/lYdRVRi.png

[JRehling]

I was just going to comment on the potential revolution(s) introduced by the EELT and other large telescopes (2 others somewhat smaller in development; one of those in limbo) that will come online in the next 5-10 years.

EELT is supposed to provide a resolution of up to 0.001 arc seconds, which would mean, roughly speaking, that Kuiper Belt objects could be imaged with about the same resolution that HST imaged Ceres and Vesta, including ~100 pixel views of Pluto.

This would also allow the separation of exoplanets from their host star for systems over 50 light years away, although the practical possibilities for observations will depend upon techniques for canceling out the star's glare.

When 2 or 3 telescopes with comparable power are available, it should be a significant boost for astronomy, accomplishing some things that might be done with spacecraft now and some things that can't be done at all now. JWST will already be online and filling other niches.

[JRehling]

Maybe I'm the only one who's antsy, but the news last year stated explicitly that the next one or two Discovery mission finalists would be selected "by September 2016," which is now in the past. At the very least, the announcement is late, and presumably, the decision hasn't quite finalized yet, either.

I suppose that's all there is to say about it… a deadline was slipped without any public notice of why, what it might mean, or when the actual announcement will be. Maybe it's just an organization being late… Maybe the lack of an update says something about the program direction as a whole?