- Cosmic Vision
-
The Cosmic Vision is the paraphrasing name given to the roadmap for scientific space based missions of the European Space Agency (ESA) in the time frame between 2015 and 2025.
The initial call of ideas and concepts was launched in 2004 with a subsequent workshop held in Paris to define more fully the themes of the Vision under the broader headings of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Solar System Exploration and Fundamental Physics.
By early 2006 the formulation for a 10-year plan based around 4 key questions emerged:
- What are the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life?
- How does the Solar System work?
- What are the fundamental physical laws of the Universe?
- How did the Universe originate and what is it made of?
In March 2007 a call for mission ideas was formally released, which yielded in 19 astrophysics, 12 fundamental physics and 19 solar system mission proposals.
Contents
Medium-size missions (M)
M-class projects will usually be relatively stand-alone ESA projects. The two first M-class missions, M1 and M2, have been selected:[1]
- M1, Solar Orbiter, an adopted mission for close-up observations of the sun; launch planned in 2017.
- M2, Euclid, a selected mission to study dark energy and dark matter; launch planned in 2019.
The third M-class mission, M3, is planned for launch in 2022. ESA released a call for missions proposals for M3 in July 2010.[2] On February, 25, 2011, ESA announced[3] the selection of four missions to undergo an initial assessment phase. In addition, Plato, which was in competition for M1/M2, is allowed to compete for M3. The five M3 candidate missions are:
- EChO (Exoplanet Characterisation Observatory), a proposed mission to study exoplanet atmospheres
- LOFT (Large Observatory For X-ray Timing), a proposed mission to study neutron stars and black holes by detecting their very rapid X-ray variability
- MarcoPolo-R, a proposed mission to return a sample from a Near Earth asteroid
- Plato, a proposed mission to search for new exoplanets and measure stellar oscillations
- STE-QUEST (Space-Time Explorer and Quantum Equivalence Principle Space Test), a proposed mission devoted to precise measurements of general relativity effects.
Large missions (L)
L-class projects will often be carried out in collaboration with other partners and should have an ESA cost not exceeding 900 million euros. The first large mission, L1, is planned for launch in 2020. There are currently three candidates for L1:
- Europa Jupiter System Mission/Laplace, a proposed mission to study the Jovian system (with NASA)
- LISA, a proposed gravitational wave observatory (with NASA)
- IXO, previously XEUS, the proposed International X-ray Observatory (with NASA and JAXA)
The process for selection of one of the candidates for implementation as L1 started in October 2010.[4]
In April 2011 it became clear that budget pressures in the US meant that the expected NASA collaboration would not be practical; so the down-selection was delayed and the missions re-scoped on the assumption of ESA lead and some limited international participation [5]
References
- ^ [1]
- ^ Call for a Medium-size mission opportunity for a launch in 2022 ESA D/SRE/DTS/FF/ve/26771 (2010-07-29)
- ^ Four candidates selected for the next medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision (2011-02-25)
- ^ ESA Timeline for selection of L-class missions
- ^ "New approach for L-class mission candidates". http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=48661.
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