NASA Selects Two Small Explorer Missions

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, July 11, 2002

NASA Selects Two Small Explorer Missions

Spacecraft that will detect hidden matter in the universe and observe the Earth's highest clouds have been chosen as the next two missions in US NASA's Small Explorer (SMEX) program.

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Spacecraft that will detect hidden matter in the universe and observe the Earth's highest clouds have been chosen as the next two missions in US NASA's Small Explorer (SMEX) program.

Edward Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for space science, on Wednesday said that "From the time Explorer 1 was launched more than 40 years ago and discovered the Van Allen radiation belts, Explorer satellites have made impressive discoveries by obtaining significant science at the lowest cost," he noted.

"The two missions we've selected will continue in the Explorer tradition by investigating some of the most fundamental questions raised in space science."

The first mission, to be launched in 2005, is the Explorer for Spectroscopy and Photometry of the Intergalactic Medium's Diffuse Radiation (SPIDR), a mission to map the "cosmic web" of hot gas that spans the universe. Half of the normal matter in the nearby universe is in filaments of hot gas, and SPIDR will observe its emission and distribution for the first time, according to NASA.

The second mission, to be launched in 2006, is the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) Explorer, which will determine the causes of the highest altitude clouds in the Earth's atmosphere. There are indications that the number of clouds in the upper atmosphere (mesosphere) over the Earth's poles has been increasingover the past couple decades, and it is hypothesized that this results from increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases at highaltitude, according to NASA.

The Explorer Program was designed to provide frequent, low-costaccess to space for physics and astronomy missions with small to mid-sized spacecraft. Six SMEX missions had been launched since 1992, and five of them were still operating and returning science data, NASA said.

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