Future Missions

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

Launch: no earlier than Dec. 7
This space-based telescope will scan the entire sky in infrared light, revealing cool stars, planetary construction zones and the brightest galaxies in the universe.

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Space Technology 8

Launch: 2009
As a mission of NASA's New Millennium Program, Space Technology 8 will space validate four new subsystem-level technologies. Each of these technologies was selected for its promise in advancing NASA's most important future science missions.

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› New Millennium Program

Space Technology 7

Launch: 2009-2010
JPL manages a technology to fly on the European Lisa Pathfinder mission.

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› New Millennium Program

Launch: TBD
This mission is an orbiting interferometer, which will link multiple telescopes to function in unison as a much larger "virtual telescope." The main goal is to detect planets of varying sizes -- from huge planets the size of Jupiter down to planets a few times as massive as Earth.

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Soil Moisture Active Passive

Launch: 2010-2013
Soil Moisture Active Passive mission will use a combined radiometer and high-resolution radar to measure surface soil moisture and freeze-thaw state, providing new opportunities for scientific advances and societal benefits.

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Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array

Launch: 2011
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, is a pathfinder mission that will study the sky through high energy X-rays.

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Mid Infrared instrument on James Webb Space Telescope

Launch: 2013
JPL is managing the development of the Mid Infrared Instrument, one of the three focal plane istruments on the James Webb Space Telescope, a large, infrared-optimized space telescope.

› Overview
› Instrument home page
› James Webb Space Telescope site

Mars Science Laboratory

Launch: 2011
NASA proposes to develop and to launch a roving long-range, long-duration science laboratory that will be a major leap in surface measurements and pave the way for a future sample return mission.

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First Light: To be determined
Two 8-meter (26-foot) telescopes on Mount Graham, Arizona will be connected. The ground-based telescope system will identify faint dust clouds around other stars that might hinder planet-finding missions. The mission is managed by the University of Arizona, Tucson in conjunction with multipe international partners.

› Overview
› Planetquest mission description

Launch: August 2011
This mission will conduct an in-depth study of the giant gas planet Jupiter.

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› Related news release

Launch: 2011
The Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, mission will fly twin spacecraft in tandem orbits around the moon for three months to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail.
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› Mission site

Aquarius

Launch: 2010
This mission will provide the first-ever global maps of salt concentrations in the ocean surface needed to understand heat transport and storage in the ocean.

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