New Frontiers program

For other uses, see New Frontier (disambiguation).

Header of the New Frontiers program website as of January 2016^[1]

The New Frontiers program is a series of space exploration missions being conducted by NASA with the purpose of furthering the understanding of the Solar System.^[2] The program selects medium-class missions which can provide high science returns.

NASA is encouraging both domestic and international scientists to submit mission proposals for the program.^[3] New Frontiers was built on the innovative approach used by the Discovery and Explorer Programs of principal investigator-led missions. It is designed for medium-class missions that cannot be accomplished within the cost and time constraints of Discovery, but are not as large as Large Strategic Science Missions (Flagship missions).

There are currently three New Frontiers missions in progress and one in development. New Horizons, which was launched in 2006 and reached Pluto in 2015, Juno, which was launched in 2011 and entered Jupiter orbit in 2016, and OSIRIS-REx, launched in September 2016 towards asteroid Bennu for detailed studies from 2018 to 2021 and a sample return to Earth in 2023.

On June 27, 2019, Dragonfly was selected to become the fourth mission in the New Frontiers program.^[4][5]

History

Juno views Earth in October 2013 during the spacecraft's flyby en route to Jupiter.

The New Frontiers program was developed and advocated by NASA and granted by Congress in CY 2002 and 2003. This effort was led by two long-time NASA executives at headquarters at that time: Edward Weiler, Associate Administrator of Science, and Colleen Hartman, Solar System Exploration Division Director. The mission to Pluto had already been selected before this program was successfully endorsed and funded, so the mission to Pluto, called New Horizons, was "grandfathered" into the New Frontiers program.^[6]

The 2003 Planetary Science Decadal Survey from the National Academy of Sciences identified destinations that then served as the source of the first competition for the New Frontiers program. The NASA program name is based on President John F. Kennedy's "New Frontier" political agenda speech in 1960, in which he constantly used the words "New Frontier" to describe a variety of social issues and noted how pioneer exploration did not end with the American West as once thought.^[7] As President, Kennedy would also invest heavily in funding for NASA.^[7]

Examples of proposed mission concepts include three broad groups based on Planetary Science Decadal Survey goals.^[8]

• From New Frontiers in the Solar System: An Integrated Exploration Strategy
  • Kuiper Belt Pluto Explorer (realized in New Horizons)
  • Jupiter Polar Orbiter with Probes (led to Juno)
  • Venus In Situ Explorer
  • Lunar South Pole-Aitken Basin Sample Return Mission
  • Comet Surface Sample Return Mission: Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return (CAESAR) (see also the similar OSIRIS-REx, which targeted a near-Earth object, not a comet.)
• From Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013–2022
  • Io Volcano Observer
  • Lunar Geophysical Network
  • Saturn Atmospheric Entry Probe
  • Trojan Tour and Rendezvous
• From Origins, Worlds, and Life: A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023–2032
  • Centaur Orbiter and Lander
  • Ceres Sample Return
  • Enceladus Multiple Flyby
  • Titan Orbiter

Missions in progress

Mission timelines

• v
• t
• e

New Horizons (New Frontiers 1)

Pluto viewed by the spacecraft New Horizons on July 14, 2015

Pluto's moon Charon on July 14, 2015, imaged by "New Horizons"

Main article: New Horizons

New Horizons, a mission to Pluto, was launched on January 19, 2006. After a Jupiter gravity assist in February 2007 the spacecraft continued towards Pluto. The primary mission flyby occurred on July 14, 2015, and the spacecraft was then targeted toward one Kuiper Belt object called 486958 Arrokoth for a January 1, 2019 flyby.^[9][10] Another mission that was considered with this mission was New Horizons 2.^[11]

Juno (New Frontiers 2)

Artists's concept of Juno at Jupiter

Main article: Juno (spacecraft)

Juno is a Jupiter exploration mission which launched on August 5, 2011, and arrived in July 2016. It is the first solar-powered spacecraft to explore an outer planet. The craft was placed into a polar orbit in order to study the planet's magnetic field and internal structure. NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter provided extensive knowledge about its upper atmosphere, however, further study of Jupiter is crucial not only to the understanding of its origin and nature of the Solar System, but also of giant extrasolar planets in general. The Juno spacecraft investigation is intended to address the following objectives for Jupiter:

• Understand Jupiter's gross dynamical and structural properties through determination of the mass and size of Jupiter's core, its gravitational and magnetic fields, and internal convection;
• Measure the Jovian atmospheric composition, particularly the condensable-gas abundances (H₂O, NH₃, CH₄ and H₂S), the Jovian atmospheric temperature profile, wind velocity profile, and cloud opacity to greater depths than achieved by the Galileo entry probe with a goal of 100 bar at multiple latitudes; and
• Investigate and characterize the three-dimensional structure of Jupiter's polar magnetosphere.

OSIRIS-REx (New Frontiers 3)

Mission logo

Main article: OSIRIS-REx

OSIRIS-REx stands for "Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer", and was launched on 8 September 2016.^[12] This mission plan was to orbit an asteroid, at the time named 1999 RQ₃₆ (now 101955 Bennu), by 2020. After extensive measurements, the spacecraft collected a sample from the asteroid's surface for return to Earth in 2023. The mission, minus the cost of the launch vehicle ($183.5 million), is expected to cost approximately $800 million.^[13][14] The returned sample will help scientists answer long-held questions about the formation of the Solar System and the origin of complex organic molecules necessary for the origin of life.^[15][16]

Asteroid Bennu is a potential future Earth impactor and is listed on the Sentry Risk Table with the third highest rating on the Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale (circa 2015).^[17] In the late 2100s there is a cumulative chance of about 0.07% it could strike Earth, therefore there is a need to measure the composition and Yarkovsky effect of the asteroid.^[18]

Planned missions

Dragonfly (New Frontiers 4)

Artists concept of Dragonfly on Titan

Dragonfly Mission Insignia

Main article: Dragonfly (Titan space probe)

Dragonfly will send a mobile robotic rotorcraft to Saturn's biggest moon Titan^[19] and will make use of Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (MMRTG) for power to navigate through the atmosphere of Titan.^[3][20][21] The development cost cap is approximately $1 billion.^[22] As of June 2024, Dragonfly is scheduled for launch in July 2028.^[23]

The competition for the fourth mission began in January 2017. Per recommendation by the Decadal Survey, NASA's announcement of opportunity was limited to six mission themes:^[22]

1. Comet Surface Sample Return – a comet nucleus lander and sample return mission
2. Lunar South Pole Sample Return – a mission to land at the Moon's South Pole–Aitken basin and return samples to Earth
3. Ocean Worlds (Titan and/or Enceladus)
4. Saturn Probe – an atmospheric probe
5. Trojan Tour and Rendezvous – a mission to fly by two or more Trojan asteroids
6. Venus Lander

NASA received and reviewed 12 proposals:^[22][24]

Comet Surface Sample Return

• Comet Nucleus Dust and Organics Return (CONDOR), to retrieve a sample from 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.^[24][25]
• Comet Rendezvous, Sample Acquisition, Investigation, and Return (CORSAIR) would sample comet 88P/Howell.^[24][26]
• Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return (CAESAR) to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko^[27]

Lunar South Pole Sample Return

• MoonRise, a sample return mission to explore the lunar South Pole–Aitken basin^[24]

Ocean Worlds

• Oceanus, an orbiter to investigate Titan's potential habitability.^[28]
• Dragonfly, a rotorcraft that would fly over the landscape and oceans of Titan to study prebiotic chemistry.^[19][29]
• Enceladus Life Finder (ELF), an astrobiology orbiter to Enceladus.^[30][31][32]
• Enceladus Life Signatures and Habitability (ELSAH)^[24][33]

Saturn Probe

• Saturn PRobe Interior and aTmosphere Explorer (SPRITE), an atmospheric probe to investigate Saturn's atmosphere and composition.^[34]

Trojan Tour and Rendezvous

• None^{[note 1]}

Venus Lander

• Venus In Situ Atmospheric and Geochemical Explorer (VISAGE), a Venus atmospheric probe and lander.^[35]
• Venus In situ Composition Investigations (VICI), a lander.^[24][36]
• Venus Origins Explorer (VOX), a Venus orbiter.^[37]

Out of 12 initial proposals, NASA selected two for additional concept studies on 20 December 2017, including Dragonfly.^[38]

The two finalists, CAESAR and Dragonfly, each received $4 million funding through the end of 2018 to further develop and mature their concepts.^[39] On June 27, 2019, NASA announced the selection of Dragonfly as the New Frontiers 4 mission for a launch in 2026,^[40] later delayed to July 2028.^[23]

New Frontiers 5

The Decadal Survey recommends that two New Frontiers missions be selected per decade. The 2018 Midterm Review of the 2013–2022 Decadal Survey found that NASA was falling behind on this cadence, and recommended the release of the New Frontiers 5 Announcement of Opportunity no later than December 2021.^[41] Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, responded positively to the Midterm Review's recommendation, stating that NASA was "committed to conducting two New Frontiers competitions per decade" and planned to release the Announcement of Opportunity in 2021 or 2022,^[42] though the Midterm Review estimated a release date as late as 2023.^[41]

The Decadal Survey recommended the Io Observer and Lunar Geophysical Network proposals for New Frontiers 5, in addition to the previous recommendations.^[43]

NASA released the draft of the Announcement of Opportunity New Frontiers 5 on January 10, 2023.^[44] On August 24, 2023, NASA announced that due to budgetary constraints enacted through the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, the official release of the Announcement of Opportunity for New Frontiers 5 would be delayed to no earlier than 2026.^[45]

See also

• Cosmic Vision, ESA program that has several mission classes

Notes

1. The Lucy spacecraft will perform a similar mission. It was selected as part of the Discovery Program in January 2017, shortly before the New Frontiers 4 call for proposals.

References

1. "New Frontiers Program Official Website (June 2016)". National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). January 15, 2016. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
2. Harbaugh, Jennifer (June 18, 2019). "New Frontiers Program". NASA. Retrieved August 31, 2020.
3. Foust, Jeff (January 8, 2016). "NASA Expands Frontiers of Next New Frontiers Competition". Space News. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
4. Bridenstine, Jim (June 27, 2019). "New Science Mission to Explore Our Solar System". Twitter. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
5. Brown, David W. (June 27, 2019). "NASA Announces New Dragonfly Drone Mission to Explore Titan – The quadcopter was selected to study the moon of Saturn after a "Shark Tank"-like competition that lasted two and a half years". The New York Times. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
6. Foust, Jeff (July 7, 2003). "Space science gets big at NASA". The Space Review. Retrieved December 5, 2022.
7. Swanson, Glen E. (October 29, 2020). "The New Frontier: Religion in America's National Space Rhetoric of the Cold War Era". Religions. 11 (11): 592. doi:10.3390/rel11110592.
8. nasa nf Archived August 19, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
9. "In Depth | New Horizons". solarsystem.nasa.gov. NASA. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
10. Redd, Nola (January 1, 2020). "One Year Ago, NASA's New Horizons Made the Most Distant Flyby in Space History". Space.com. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
11. "NEW HORIZONS 2 New Horizons: A Journey to New Frontiers" (PDF). Lunar and Planetary Institute. Universities Space Research Association. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
12. NASA. "NASA to Launch New Science Mission to Asteroid in 2016". Retrieved May 25, 2011.
13. "NASA Aims to Grab Asteroid Dust in 2020". Science Magazine. May 26, 2011. Archived from the original on May 29, 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2011.
14. Buck, Joshua; Diller, George (August 5, 2013). "NASA Selects Launch Services Contract for OSIRIS-REx Mission". NASA. Retrieved September 8, 2013. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
15. "OSIRIS-REx ACRONYM". Asteroid Mission. Arizona Board of Regents. Retrieved April 12, 2021.
16. "In Depth | OSIRIS-REx". NASA. Retrieved April 12, 2021.
17. "Sentry Risk Table". NASA/JPL Near-Earth Object Program Office. July 21, 2015. Archived from the original on July 21, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
18. Milani, Andrea; Chesley, Steven R.; Sansaturio, Maria Eugenia; Bernardi, Fabrizio; et al. (2009). "Long term impact risk for (101955) 1999 RQ₃₆". Icarus. 203 (2): 460–471. arXiv:0901.3631. Bibcode:2009Icar..203..460M. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.05.029. S2CID 54594575.
19. "Dragonfly: Titan Rotorcraft Lander". The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. 2017. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
20. Clark, Stephen (September 7, 2016). "NASA official says new mission selections on track despite InSight woes". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved September 8, 2016.
21. New Frontiers fourth announcement of opportunity. NASA, January 6, 2016.
22. Keeter, Bill (May 5, 2017). "NASA Receives Proposals for Future Solar System Mission". NASA News. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
23. Foust, Jeff (November 28, 2023). "NASA postpones Dragonfly review, launch date". SpaceNews.com. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
24. "Proposed New Frontiers Missions". Future Planetary Exploration. August 4, 2017. Archived from the original on September 20, 2017. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
25. COmet Nucleus Dust and Organics Return (CONDOR): a New Frontiers 4 Mission Proposal. (PDF) M. Choukroun, C. Raymond, M. Wadhwa. EPSC Abstracts. Vol. 11, EPSC2017-413, 2017. European Planetary Science Congress 2017.
26. CORSAIR (COmet Rendezvous, Sample Acquisition, Investigation, and Return): A New Frontiers Mission Concept to Collect Samples from a Comet and Return them to Earth for Study. (PDF) S. A. Sandford, N. L. Chabot, N. Dello Russo, J. C. Leary, E. L. Reynolds, H. A. Weaver, D. H. Wooden. 80th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society 2017.
27. "Home | Comet Astrobiology Exploration SAmple Return". caesar.cornell.edu. Cornell University. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
28. Sotin, C., Hayes, A., Malaska, M., Nimmo, F., Trainer, M. D., Tortora, P.. (2017). "OCEANUS: A New Frontiers orbiter to study Titan's potential habitability." 19th EGU General Assembly, EGU2017, proceedings from the conference held 23–28 April 2017 in Vienna, Austria., p.10958
29. Redd, Nola Taylor (April 25, 2017). "'Dragonfly' Drone Could Explore Saturn Moon Titan". Space. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
30. Cofield, Calla (April 14, 2017). "Enceladus' Subsurface Energy Source: What It Means for Search for Life". Space.com.
31. Chang, Kenneth (September 15, 2017). "Back to Saturn? Five Missions Proposed to Follow Cassini". The New York Times.
32. Inner Workings: Icy ocean worlds offer chances to find life. Adam Mann, PNAS, 2 May 2017, vol. 114 no. 18 4566–4568, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1703361114
33. McIntyre, Ocean (September 17, 2017). "Cassini: The legend and legacy of one of NASA's most prolific missions". Spaceflight Insider. Archived from the original on September 20, 2017. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
34. Saturn PRobe Interior and aTmosphere Explorer (SPRITE). Simon, Amy Banfield, D. Atkinson, D. Atreya, S. Brinckerhoff, W. Colaprete, A. Coustenis, A. Fletcher, L. Guillot, T. Hofstadter, M. June 11, 2016.
35. Venus In Situ Atmospheric and Geochemical Explorer (VISAGE): A Proposed New Frontiers Mission. (PDF) Esposito, L. W. Lunar and Planetary Science XLVIII (2017)
36. VICI: Venus In situ Composition Investigations. (PDF) L. Glaze, J. Garvin, N. Johnson, G. Arney, D. Atkinson, S. Atreya, A. Beck, B. Bezard, J. Blacksberg, B. Campbell, S. Clegg, D. Crisp, D. Dyar, F. Forget, M. Gilmore, D. Grinspoon, Juliane Gross, S. Guzewich, N. Izenberg, J. Johnson, W. Kiefer, D. Lawrence, S. Lebonnois, R. Lorenz, P. Mahaffy, S. Maurice, M. McCanta, A. Parsons, A. Pavlov, S. Sharma, M. Trainer, C. Webster, R. Wiens, K. Zahnle, M. Zolotov. EPSC Abstracts, Vol. 11, EPSC2017-346, 2017. European Planetary Science Congress 2017.
37. Venus Origins Explorer New Frontiers Proposal. Future Planetary Exploration. 1 October 2017.
38. Kane, Van (August 29, 2017). "Selecting the Next New Frontiers Mission". The Planetary Society.
39. Chang, Kenneth (November 20, 2017). "Finalists in NASA's Spacecraft Sweepstakes: A Drone on Titan, and a Comet-Chaser". The New York Times.
40. Stirone, Shannon. "New NASA Mission Will Fly Titan's Frigid Skies to Search for Life's Beginnings". Scientific American. Retrieved June 27, 2019.
41. "Assessment of Current Progress vis-à-vis Vision and Voyages and Guidance for the Rest of the Decade". Visions into Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022: A Midterm Review. Washington, DC: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, The National Academies Press. 2018. pp. 66–68. doi:10.17226/25186. ISBN 978-0-309-47933-2. S2CID 239549664. Retrieved July 1, 2019.
42. Zurbuchen, Thomas H. (April 16, 2019). "NASA Response to Visions Into Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013–2022: A Midterm Review" (PDF). NASA. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 2, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
43. Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022 (PDF). The National Academies Press. 2011. pp. 15–16. ISBN 978-0-309-22464-2.
44. "DRAFT Announcement of Opportunity New Frontiers 5: Comments due March 3 2023". NASA. February 17, 2023. Retrieved February 17, 2023.
45. Foust, Jeff (August 28, 2023). "NASA confirms multi-year delay in next New Frontiers competition". SpaceNews. Retrieved August 31, 2023.

External links

• New Frontiers Program website