Cosmic Vision 2015-2025: ready to launch (Forwarded)

ESA News
http://www.esa.int

26 February 2007

Cosmic Vision 2015-2025: ready to launch

Within a few weeks, ESA will invite the scientific community to propose the
first missions for Cosmic Vision 2015-2025. The first medium-class mission
should be launched in the 2016-2017 timeframe at the latest. The first large
mission is targeted to launch in autumn 2018.

The European desire to perform space science is stronger than ever. The
recent consultative exercise led by the Agency's Space Science Advisory
Committee showed this clearly.

The call to the community for science themes led to a rich diversity of
destinations being presented: from the icy moons of the outer solar system
to the traditional planets, the asteroids and comets, and of course the
Solar System's fiery heart, the Sun. Similarly, there is no end of exciting
ways to view the more distant Universe. Searching for Earth-like worlds,
charting the formation of stars and peering into the hearts of violent
galaxies, are all at the top of the astronomical agenda.

There is so much good science that can be done. "The hardest thing in the
world is going to be choosing between the various missions," says Professor
David Southwood, ESA's Director of Science.

To remain successful, ESA must work within a tight budget. That is a
challenge because scientific missions by their very nature always try to do
things that have never been done before.

Recently, a better understanding of the technical challenges faced by two
missions has tested ESA Science. Both Solar Orbiter and the Laser
Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) are proving more demanding than even
their original assessments suggested. So the prospective cost of the
missions has risen.

Cancelling a mission would be a drastic solution but would hardly advance
science. Thankfully, there is another way. "By shuffling the missions and
looking for partnerships, we have a route to performing everything we have
committed to," says Southwood. The shuffle will give the project teams more
opportunities to make these missions successful.

For Solar Orbiter, there is a natural fit with NASA's Solar Sentinels
programme. By joining forces, the projects can become a strong co-ordinated
mission in the tradition of previous collaborations such as Ulysses and
SOHO. Negotiations with NASA are going well. Solar Orbiter will be
cost-capped at 300M [USD 397.4 million] and is scheduled for launch in
mid-2015.

For LISA, the extra time needed for technical development and implementation
of the present pre-cursor Pathfinder mission means that it must move from
Cosmic Vision 2005-2015 and become a contender for the first large mission
in Cosmic Vision 2015-2025. At the same time, the move could open up more
money for the project.

These steps come at an unprecedented time of success for ESA Science. More
missions are flying than ever befo Mars Express, Venus Express, CoRoT,
Cassini, HST, SOHO, Cluster, Double Star, Ulysses, XMM-Newton, Integral,
Rosetta, Hinode, Akari. More are on the way: Herschel and Planck will launch
in July 2008, followed by LISA Pathfinder, Gaia and JWST.

Keeping all these operational is expensive and cannot be sustained in the
long run. "We have to face financial reality and come down smoothly from
this peak of activity," says Southwood, "To do otherwise would not only mean
delaying the start of Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 but also lead to a crunch
because we are not building spacecraft fast enough to replace them." As
operations scale down naturally, they will save 60M [USD 79.5 million]. To
further keep the programme on schedule, there will be internal savings of
20M [USD 26.5 million] within the Science Directorate, although these will
not come from the science projects themselves.

"In the last ten years, we have developed faster and better ways of doing
things. By using all that we have learned, we will be able to face financial
reality and perform the world-leading science ESA is known for," says
Southwood.

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