Why Did NASA Create the New Frontiers Program?

The National Research Council is part of the National Academies, which
also include the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of
Engineering and Institute of Medicine. They are private, nonprofit
institutions that provide science, technology and health policy advice
under a congressional charter. The Research Council was organized by the
National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to connect the broad community of
science and technology with the Academy\'s purposes of further knowledge
and advising the federal government. It serves the government, the
public and the scientific and engineering communities.

The Space Studies Board (SSB) of the National Research Council provides
an independent, authoritative forum for information and advice on all
aspects of space science and applications. The Board conducts advisory
studies and program assessments, facilitates international research
coordination, and promotes communications on space science and science
policy between the research community, the federal government, and the
interested public.

In 2001, NASA asked the SSB to examine the current state of solar system
exploration and determine priorities for continued exploration over the
2003-2013 period. A broad group of scientists and the interested public
participated in the study, also called the Decadal Survey. It is based
on five broad surveys that provided the status and scientific
accomplishments of, and recommendations for, solar system exploration
for the next decade.

The following is a summary of the findings of the SSB, published in July
2002, titled **New Frontiers in the Solar System: An Integrated
Exploration Strategy.** It was from this study that the New Frontiers
Program was initiated.

**Background**

Solar system exploration (SSE) is the grand human adventure that
attempts to discover the nature and origins of the system of planets in
which we live and to find out if life exists beyond Earth. The goals of
SSE include:

1.  • Determine how life developed in the solar system

    • Understand the main characteristics of the planets

    • Learn how the nine planets formed

    • Discover what potential hazards to Earth exist from the near space
    environment

    • Discover how the laws of nature have led to the complexity of the
    solar system

Exploration of the solar system allows us to address fundamental
questions: Are we alone? Where did we come from? What is our destiny? It
should also create knowledge that will improve our life on earth.

**SSE Strategy**

The SSE Survey identified four crosscutting themes and 12 key scientific
questions to guide solar system exploration in the 2003-2013 period.

The first billion years of solar system history

1\. What processes marked the initial stages of planet and satellite
formation?

2\. How long did it take Jupiter to form and how did the formation of
the gas and ice giants differ?

3\. What was the rate of decrease of impacts by comets, asteroids, and
other objects and how did it affect the emergence of life?

Volatiles and organics: the stuff of life

1\. What is the history of volatile material, especially water, in our
solar system?

2\. What is the nature and history of organic material in our solar
system?

3\. What planetary processes affect the evolution of volatile on
planets?

The origin and evolution of habitable worlds

1\. Where are zones in our solar system where like can exist and what
are the processes for producing and sustaining habitable planets?

2\. Does (or did) life exist beyond the Earth?

3\. Why did Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars diverge so much in their
evolution?

4\. What hazards do solar system objects present to Earth?

How planets work

1\. How do the processes that shape planets today operate and interact?

2\. What does our solar system tell us about other solar systems?

These questions can be addressed by a series of space flights and
supporting activities on Earth. Finite resources, however, dictate
setting priorities for these missions. In addition, a mix of mission
size is important. Discovery-class missions (less than \$325 million)
can address some of the questions while others will require larger, more
costly missions. The implementation of the **New Frontiers** line of
missions (\$325-\$650 million) proposed in the FY2003 NASA budget
request is particularly important to meet the SSE strategy. Finally,
large or flagship missions (greater than \$650 million) should be
developed at a rate of about one per decade. Planning for these missions
should involve a cross-section of the research community as is
traditional.

**Flight Mission Priorities**

The SSE Survey identified the most relevant planetary missions to
address the 12 questions, and assigned a priority to them (see table)
within the three size classes.

  --------------- -------------------------------------------------------
  SOLAR SYSTEM    
  FLIGHT MISSIONS 
  (non-Mars)      

  Rank            Mission Concept Name
  --------------- -------------------------------------------------------

  ------------ -----------------------------------------------------------------
  Small Class  
  (\<\$325     
  Million)     

  1            Cassini Extended Mission

  Medium Class 
  (\$325-650   
  Million)     

  1            Kuiper Belt/Pluto

  2            South Pole Aitkin Basin Sample Return

  3            Jupiter Polar Orbiter with Probes

  4            Venus in-situ Explorer

  5            Comet Surface Sample Return

  Large Class  
  (\>\$650     
  Million)     

  1            Europa Geophysical Explorer
  ------------ -----------------------------------------------------------------

The Kuiper/Pluto mission would be the first spacecraft to explore the
outermost region of the solar system and can make unique measurements of
Pluto's atmosphere if the mission is initiated soon.

**NASA and Congress Respond**

With the SSB study completed in July 2002, NASA introduced the New
Frontiers Program as a class of medium-sized solar system exploration
missions. The first mission selected would reflect the highest priority
of the nation's top planetary scientists, the New Horizons mission to
Pluto.

(In June 2001, NASA had chosen two Pluto mission proposals to receive
funding for detailed mission feasibility studies. Upon completion of the
three month studies, NASA awarded funding for a preliminary design study
to the New Horizons mission that November. The NASA official said they
believed it represented the best science at Pluto and the Kuiper Belt as
well as the best plan to bring the spacecraft to the launch pad on time
and within budget.)

In October 2002, the House and Senate appropriations committees approved
an increase in the NASA budget for FY2003 to enable the Pluto-Kuiper
Belt mission to proceed. Four months later, on Feb. 20, 2003, the
president signed the bill securing \$110 million in NASA\'s 2003 budget
for the New Horizons project. Preliminary design work on the mission had
been ongoing since January 2002. With the budget now assured, NASA gave
the Pluto mission the go-ahead to start full development in April 2003.

**New Horizons** is a scientific investigation to obtain the first close
look at Pluto-Charon and answer basic questions about the surface
properties, geology, interior makeup and atmospheres on these bodies,
the last in our solar system to be visited by a spacecraft. The mission
will also visit one or more objects in the Kuiper Belt region beyond
Neptune. New Horizons is scheduled to launch in January 2006 and reach
Pluto in July 2015.

The second New Frontiers mission was selected in June 2005. **Juno**
will conduct an in-depth study of Jupiter, another high priority of the
decadal survey. The mission proposes to place a spacecraft in a polar
orbit around the giant planet to investigate the existence of an
ice-rock core; determine the amount of global water and ammonia present
in the atmosphere; study convection and deep wind profiles in the
atmosphere; investigate the origin of the jovian magnetic field; and
explore the polar magnetosphere. It would launch in June 2010.

(Copies of the complete report **New Frontiers in the Solar System: An
Integrated Exploration Strategy**, can be obtained from the Space
Studies Board, The National Academies, 500 Fifth St., NW, Washington,
DC, 20001, 202-334-3477. Or it can be accessed online at
<http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10432.html>.)