Proposed Missions

SIM: The Space Interferometry Mission/PlanetQuest (SIM/PQ) will be the first spacecraft whose primary mission is to perform precision astrometry by long-baseline interferometry. Above the distortion of Earth's atmosphere, SIM will enable astronomers to measure the positions and motions of stars with microarcsecond precision for the first time -- enabling the detection of the reflex motion (or "wobble") of stars induced by orbiting planets a few times the mass of Earth. SIM/PQ will conduct a detailed survey for planetary companions to stars in the solar neighborhood, and will give us a more complete picture of the architecture of planetary systems around a representative sample of different stellar types. SIM/PQ will further use astrometry to determine the distances and motions of stars throughout the Milky Way hundreds of times more accurately than any previous program.

TPF: Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF) is a suite of two complementary observatories that will study all aspects of planets outside our solar system: from their formation and development in disks of dust and gas around newly forming stars to the presence and features of those planets orbiting the nearest stars; from the numbers at various sizes and places to their suitability as an abode for life. By combining the high sensitivity of space telescopes with revolutionary imaging technologies, the TPF observatories will measure the size, temperature, and placement of planets as small as the Earth in the habitable zones of distant solar systems. In addition, TPF's spectroscopy will allow atmospheric chemists and biologists to use the relative amounts of gases like carbon dioxide, water vapor, ozone and methane to find whether a planet someday could or even now does support life.

LSST: The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is a proposed ground-based 8.4-meter, 10 square-degree-field telescope that will provide digital imaging of faint astronomical objects across the entire sky, night after night. In a relentless campaign of 15 second exposures, LSST will cover the available sky every three nights, opening a movie-like window on objects that change or move on rapid timescales: exploding supernovae, potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids, and distant Kuiper Belt Objects. The superb images from the LSST will also be used to trace billions of remote galaxies and measure the distortions in their shapes produced by lumps of Dark Matter, providing multiple tests of the mysterious Dark Energy.

Operational Missions

Missions in Development

Past Missions