Cancelled: Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter

The Hubble Space Telescope and a mission to explore Jupiter's moons look to be the biggest casualties in Nasa's 2026 budget plans outlined on Monday.

The multi-billion dollar Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (Jimo) mission was to have been launched in about 2016 as a demonstration for the Project Prometheus nuclear power and propulsion initiative.

Jimo is part of the ambitious Prometheus propulsion technologies programme. It would have gone into orbit around the giant planet and its moons, possibly putting landers on their surfaces in much the same way as Cassini has done with Huygens on Titan.

Nasa officials now say Jimo is too ambitious an undertaking for an initial demonstration project, and a search for an alternative mission is underway.

+ Read Article (BBC)

Northrop Tapped to Design Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter with JPL

Northrop Grumman beat out Boeing and Lockheed Martin to win a $400 million contract to help NASA design the proposed multibillion dollar Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) mission.

Under the contract, which runs through 2009, Northrop Grumman will work with a government team led by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to complete preliminary design of what would be NASA's first nuclear electric propulsion spacecraft.

+ Read Article (Space.com)

New Boeing Website for Project Prometheus

Tagline: "Great Civilizations Do Great Things"

+ Access Website

NASA Signs Space Nuclear Power Agreement With Department Of Energy

"NASA and the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration - Naval Reactors (NR) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that will lead to the development, design, delivery, and operational support of civilian space nuclear reactors within NASA's Project Prometheus."

+ Read Press Release (NASA)

NASA's new space 'hot rod'

"To send astronauts back to the moon, NASA is planning to begin by making maximum use of existing U.S. and foreign rockets as launching systems. Vehicles under consideration may use updated propulsion systems that could blast a flotilla of spacecraft from the Earth to the vicinity of the moon."

+ Read Article (SpaceDaily)

NASA spells out Jupiter mission details

"NASA has issued mission design requirements to three U.S. industry teams for a proposed mission to Jupiter and its three icy moons.

The requirements are also the first product formulated by NASA's new Office of Exploration Systems in Washington, the agency said Thursday."

+ Read Article (UPI)

NASA Releases Mission Requirements for Proposed Jupiter Mission

"NASA has issued its mission design requirements to three industry teams for a proposed mission to Jupiter and its three icy moons. The requirements are also the first product formulated by NASA's new Office of Exploration Systems in Washington."

+ Read News Release (NASA/JPL)

Code T: goals, decisions and technology

"NASA’s new Office of Exploration Systems, known in the jargon as Code T, has already given rise to a number of wisecracks about the agency’s new space race. Which will come first, astronauts beyond low Earth orbit or the end of the alphabet? In any case, the idea behind Code T seems logical enough if one accepts the premise that human and robotic exploration must be complementary."

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Navy May Help NASA Build Nuclear Reactor for Jupiter Mission

Another excellent investigative article from Space.com, discussing NASA's partnership with the U.S. Navy, who has decades of nuclear expertise on active vessels.

Also this tidbit: "NASA and the scientific community are considering adding a Europa lander to JIMO. The high-tech lander could make on-the-spot surface observations at the Jovian satellite. Europa is thought to harbor an ocean under its icy crust."

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NASA’s Nuclear Focus Aimed At 2010 Mars Lander

Great article from Space.com which summarizes NASA's plans to use the 2010 Mars Science Laboratory as a nuclear testbed, as well as other details on Boeing & Lockheed's current activities in this space.

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Reactor research to power journey to Jupiter's moons

This article from SpaceDaily and press release from Los Alamos National Laboratory describes the technical details of the reactor being considered for the first unmanned mission under Project Prometheus, the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO).

"Los Alamos and NASA-Marshall researchers, working with colleagues from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, have built successively more powerful nuclear electric propulsion reactor components, including a 30-kilowatt reactor core, one-third of a 100-kilowatt system (core plus heat exchanger) and a single module suitable for a 500-kilowatt reactor core. Extensive non-nuclear testing of these and other components continues."

+ Los Alamos Hopes To Lead New Era Of Nuclear Space Tranportion With Jovian Mission (SpaceDaily)
+ Reactor research to power journey to Jupiter's moons (Press Release)

NASA's Project Prometheus Gets New Agenda, Changes

This article from Space.com analyzes the restructuring of Project Prometheus, now part of the new Exploration Systems enterprise at NASA, while the science objectives of the first unmanned mission (Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter or JIMO) will remain in the Space Science enterprise.

"The move is more than just a change of location for the program. It also marks a change in the way that NASA has historically gone about developing spacecraft and other major systems. Now, instead of one organization setting the science requirements and developing the spacecraft -- a process that usually entails a spirited tug of war between what scientists want to do and what engineers think can be done -- the two pieces will be split between two organizations."

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