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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