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'first steps are not for cheap, think about it...
did China build a great Wall in a day ?' ( Y L R newmars forum member )
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Not cut down but Delayed indefinitely - the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF)
Article on the web
NASA Postpones Or Kills Several Major Projects
Most salient among the robotic mission cuts is the Europa exploration program that had been given the highest priority solar system science objective after Mars by the National Academy of Sciences and NASA advisory committees. And even planetary exploration's job-one that has seen the Martian landscape increasingly covered with rover tracks was also not immune: NASA's Red Planet research budget has been cut by $243.3 million to $700.2 million. This includes the cancellation or indefinite postponement of projects such as the Mars Sample Return Mission and the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter.
http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=p … &tb=1&pb=1
Not only did planetary geology pay, but so did astronomy: Also delayed indefinitely was the Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) slated to detect and study Earth-like planets
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/NASA_ … jects.html
Responding to the announced indefinite postponement of TPF, the Planetary Society released a statement Monday saying the agency's budget "seriously damages the hugely productive and successful robotic exploration of our solar system and beyond." In addition, the statement said, NASA's budget "slashes funding for the fundamental space science that makes such missions possible and turns raw data into discoveries."
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Huge Find
Earth like Planet Found
http://www.nbc10.com/technology/13023236/detail.html
discuss here
New Planet Could Harbor Water and Life
Online
I think there is much hope for TPF, because people understand how foolish it would be to see this mission cancelled
TPF has also been mentioned in the news
http://www.american.com/archive/2007/ap … could-mean
As more exoplanets are discovered, the impetus builds for missions on the planning board for NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). NASA’s Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) mission and ESA’s Darwin mission would launch telescopic instruments which would include a spectrometer, allowing us to image and obtain the chemical composition of atmospheres of Earth-like planets. Are we indeed a “rare Earth”? In the coming decades, we should prepare to find out.
http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/200 … lesco.html
The discovery of possibly habitable planet Gliese 581C last week by European astronomers (working from a telescope in Chile) caused a stir in the stargazing world. Some people are already wondering how they can get there. But let's not get ahead of ourselves: Nobody has actually seen the planet that's been calculated to be orbiting Gliese 581, a dim red star that's part of the Libra constellation. We just know its size (five times larger than earth), and its possible temperature range (0 to 40° Celsius).Times like these call for special space-based telescopes called Terrestrial Planet Finders (TPFs), which are made to detect Earth-like aspects of planets in other solar systems. Wired has posted a gallery of renderings of NASA's proposed TPF and the European Space Agency's proposed Darwin mission, which would serve a similar purpose. Both projects have run into "political, technical and financial difficulties," according to The New York Times. Perhaps the Gliese 581C discovery will inspire the people in charge to solve them.
'first steps are not for cheap, think about it...
did China build a great Wall in a day ?' ( Y L R newmars forum member )
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