Discovery Program

The Discovery Program is a robotic space exploration program led by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), founded in 1990 to create a cost-effective way of exploring the Solar System, alongside another project, the New Frontiers Program, NASA has discovered many new things about the Solar System never known before.

### Past Missions

#### NEAR Shoemaker (1996)

A mission launched on February 17, 1996, to study multiple asteroids, and then eventually orbited, and landed on the asteroid "433 Eros", it became the first time that a spacecraft orbited and landed on an asteroid, a good start to this program.

#### Mars Pathfinder (1996)

The second mission of this program, launched on December 4, 1996, became the first time that a wheeled vehicle landed on the surface of another planet, after the spacecraft entered orbit around Mars, another spacecraft was detached and landed on the surface of Mars, deploying a small rover afterwards, this rover would operate for about 3 months.

#### Lunar Prospecter (1998)

Lunar is the third mission of the program, launched on January 7, 1998, the goal was to orbit the Moon and collect extensive information, this went on for one and a half years, until the spacecraft intentionally impacted the Moon, ending the mission.

#### Stardust (1999)

The fourth mission of the program, Stardust was launched on February 7, 1999, to collect samples of the comet "81P/Wild" and then flew by an asteroid and 2 more comets throughout the 2000s, then afterwards, it burned the rest of its fuel in 2011, ending the mission.

#### Genesis (2001)

Launched on August 8, 2001, the mission for Genisis was to collect solar wind from the Sun to observe from Earth and planned to return these samples to Earth in 2004, however, the parachute failed to deploy on the return capsule and the spacecraft crashed into the Earth.

#### CONTOUR (2002)

Launched on July 3, 2002, the goal for CONTOUR was to study at least 2 comets in our solar system, sadly however, during a burn to get it out of Earth orbit, the spacecraft disintegrated, and the mission could never be conducted, this became the only mission in the program to completely fail.

#### MESSENGER (2004)

Launched on August 3, 2004, MESSENGER would become the first spacecraft to enter orbit around Mercury, before then, multiple flybys were conducted of Earth, Venus and Mercury before entering orbit around Mercury in 2011, beginning a four-year science mission around Mercury, until running out of propellant and crashing into the surface of Mercury in 2015.

#### Deep Impact (2005)

Launched on January 12, 2005, Deep Impact would flyby, then send another payload to impact the comet "Tempel 1", before flying by a few more asteroids and eventually losing connection in 2013.

#### Dawn (2007)

Launched on September 27, 2007, Dawn's goal was to conduct extensive studies of the asteroid Ceres and Vesta, being able to orbit both asteroids, it became the first spacecraft to orbit 2 extraterrestrial bodies, due to its hyper-efficient ion engine thrusters, after extensive studies, the mission completed in 2018, and Dawn is currently still orbiting Ceres to this day.

#### Kepler (2009)

Launched on March 7, 2009, Kepler was a space observatory telescope made to discover and observe exoplanets in search for life, having operated for 9 years, it had discovered over 2,000 planets and 3,600 unconfirmed planet candidates, Kepler retired in 2018 after running out of fuel.

#### GRAIL (2011)

Launched on September 10, 2011, GRAIL was a mission that launched two small probes, Ebb and Flow, into orbit around the Moon to observe the gravitational field of the Moon, the two orbited the Moon for 11 months before both impacting the Lunar surface.

#### InSight (2018)

Launch on May 5, 2018, InSight is a probe that landed on Mars and studied the interior and composition of Mars, InSight operated for up to 4 years before its solar panels became completely covered in dust and it lost power, ending the mission.

#### Lucy (2021)

Launched on October 16, 2021, Lucy was a probe made to study multiple Jupiter Trojan asteroids, it had reached 5 out of its 8 planned destinations before losing connection, a few years later, it came back that it was likely a sudden burst of radiation from Jupiter that caused the probe to die.

#### Psyche (2023)

Launched on October 13, 2023, Psyche's goal was to orbit around an asteroid called "16 Psyche", and study the asteroid, which is believed to be a fragment of a protoplanet iron core, it entered orbit around Psyche on April 2, 2029, and studied the asteroid for 45 months, before intentionally impacting the asteroid in January 2033, ending the mission.

#### DAVINCI (2029)

Launched on June 15, 2029, DAVINCI would orbit around Venus and eventually enter its atmosphere to study the planet's chemical composition, the spacecraft reached Venus on April 3, 2031, and the atmospheric probe was detached 2 days later, finally landing on Venus and losing power, the orbiter lasted for 3 more months before impacting its atmosphere in July 2031, ending the mission.

### Current Missions

#### VERITAS (2031)

Launched on October 27, 2031, VERITAS is an orbiter that maps Venus' surface in high resolution, as of December 2033, VERITAS is still active and orbiting Venus, mapping its surface, however the mission is believed to end next year (2034).

### Future Missions

#### Phobos Explorer (2035)

Phobos Explorer is a mission planned to orbit around and eventually, land on Mars' moon, Phobos, Phobos Explorer will map out the surface of Phobos and well as study it's surface composition to discover it's origin, Phobos Explorer is planned to launch in September 2035, aboard Falcon Ultra-2.

#### Venus Pathfinder (2039)

Venus Pathfinder is a planned future mission to study the surface composition of Venus and collect pictures, audio and even video of its surface, it will have 2 spacecraft, an orbiter, and a rover, this will be the first time a rover lands on a planet other than Mars.