No love for Venus as NASA doubles down on asteroids

摘要

Most scientists expected a split decision. The latest round of NASA's Discovery program of low-cost planetary science missions included five finalists: two missions to Venus and three studying asteroids. With NASA officials suggesting they planned to select two missions, it seemed likely they would pick one Venus and one asteroid mission. Instead, NASA doubled up on asteroids. The agency announced Jan. 4 that it selected the Lucy and Psyche missions for launch in 2021 and 2023, respectively. Each mission has a cost cap of $450 million, excluding launch, although NASA did not disclose the estimated costs of the individual missions.