NASA, ESA Explore Joint Outer Planet Mission

摘要

Scientific and technical teams from NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are fleshing out ideas for the next mission to fly to an outer planet - either to Jupiter or Saturn. A decision on which of those two exploration targets will be the destination for the space agency's next multibillion-dollar flagship mission is expected by year's end. "We have the outer planet flagship mission in the [NASA] budget... I do believe it will happen," said Fran Bagenal, a professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "I couldn't have said that four years ago ... now I have great confidence that this will happen."