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tahanson43206

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Registered: 2018-04-27

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SPHEREx near-Infrared probe to launch on SpaceX

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasa-picks-e … 00107.html

The mission, called SPHEREx, will cost NASA about $98.8 million.

SPHEREx is a space telescope that NASA said would survey the sky in near-infrared light, which the human eye can't see. The data that it collects would help astronomers understand the evolution of the universe and the creation of galaxies, it said.

The mission was due to launch in June 2024, and would blast off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex-4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, NASA said.

The mission would search for water and organic molecules in areas where stars are formed from gas and dust, and find out if new planets are forming around stars, NASA said.

Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in 2019 the mission would "deliver an unprecedented galactic map containing 'fingerprints' from the first moments in the universe's history."

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SpaceNut

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From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 28,825

Re: SPHEREx near-Infrared probe to launch on SpaceX

Here is another article SpaceX secures contract to launch NASA's SPHEREx astrophysics mission

The 329-lb. (178 kilograms) craft will hitch a ride to space aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, set to launch as early as June 2024, from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
SPHEREx is a space observatory and the latest medium-class craft under NASA's Explorers program of astrophysics missions. NASA's other medium-class craft within this set of missions includes the planet-hunting craft TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and ICON (The Ionospheric Connection Explorer), which studies Earth's ionosphere — the region in our planet's atmosphere where Earth weather meets space weather.

The probe is set to spend two years scanning the skies in near-infrared light, completing a full survey every six months. "It will deliver an unprecedented galactic map containing 'fingerprints' from the first moments in the universe's history. And we'll have new clues to one of the greatest mysteries in science: What made the universe expand so quickly less than a nanosecond after the big bang?"

This mission will cost NASA about $98.8 million, including this launch service with SpaceX, in addition to other "mission-related costs," according to NASA JPL. The mission is funded by the Astrophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, which is located at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C.