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Banner for the Cosmic Vision programme

Cosmic Vision (also known as Cosmic Vision 2015–2025) is a European Space Agency (ESA) long-term space science missions programme spanning between years 2015 and 2025, a successor to the Horizon 2000 long-term scientific programme.[1]

History

Horizon 2000

Horizon 2000 was the first campaign of the Science Programme, drafted by the European Space Agency in 1984, which focused on funding and developing new science missions, and also maintaining contemporary ones.[2] The program, while providing funding for already-launched missions and those in late development such as the International Ultraviolet Explorer, Hipparcos and Ulysses, supported a series of brand new missions, divided into large-budget ventures known as "cornerstone" missions, and medium-sized missions known colloquially as "blue missions".[2] The plan originally called for three cornerstone missions throughout the lifespan of the programme, however, the Solar-Terrestrial Science Programme, which consisted the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and Cluster missions, were adopted into the Horizon 2000 plan, becoming the first of four cornerstone missions.[3] XMM-Newton was selected as the second cornerstone mission of the programme, while Rosetta and FIRST were selected in November 1993 as the third and fourth cornerstone missions,[4] with the latter mission eventually being rechristened the Herschel Space Observatory.

Part of the Horizon 2000 programme was also a class of medium-sized missions known as "blue missions" – their name deriving from the colour of the box that represents them in the original Horizon 2000 proposal diagram from 1984.[5] The Huygens lander, a component of the Cassini–Huygens mission, became the first designated medium-sized mission of the Horizon 2000 programme, after its selection in November 1988.[5] INTEGRAL was chosen as the succeeding medium-sized mission in June 1993,[6] followed three years later by the selection of COBRAS/SAMBA, later rechristened Planck, as the third medium-sized mission in July 1996.[7][8] As of December 2016, four Horizon 2000 missions, including three cornerstone and one medium-sized mission, remain operational.

Horizon 2000 Plus

Horizon 2000 Plus was an extension of Horizon 2000 prepared in the mid-1990s. This included two further cornerstone missions, the star-mapping GAIA launched in 2013, and the BepiColombo mission to Mercury launched in 2018; and also a technology demonstrator LISA Pathfinder launched in 2015, to test technologies for the future LISA.

All of the Horizon 2000 and Plus missions were successful, except for the first Cluster which was destroyed in 1996 when its launch rocket exploded. A replacement, Cluster 2, was built and launched successfully in 2000.

Cosmic Vision

The initial call of ideas and concepts was launched in 2004 with a subsequent workshop held in Paris to define more fully the themes of the Vision under the broader headings of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Solar System Exploration and Fundamental Physics.

By early 2006 the formulation for a 10-year plan based around 4 key questions emerged:

In March 2007 a call for mission ideas was formally released, which yielded in 19 astrophysics, 12 fundamental physics and 19 Solar System mission proposals.

In March 2012 ESA announced it had begun working on a series of small class (S-class) science missions. The first winning S-class concept is set to receive 50 million euros (£42m) and will be readied for launch in 2017.[9][needs update]

Voyage 2050

The next campaign of the ESA Science Programme is Voyage 2050, which will cover space science missions operating from 2035 to 2050. Planning began with the appointment of a Senior Committee in December 2018 and a call for white papers in March 2019.[10]

Three Large class and six to seven Medium class missions are currently anticipated in this plan, as well as smaller missions and missions of opportunity. It will be the responsibility of the Senior Committee and assisting topical teams to evaluate white papers and publish a final report detailing the Voyage 2050 plan by the end of 2020.[11]

Missions

Small class

Small class missions (S-class) are intended to have a cost to ESA not exceeding 50 million euros. A first call for mission proposals was issued in March 2012.[12] Approximately 70 letters of Intent were received.[13] In October 2012 the first S-class mission was selected.[14] The current list of S-class missions include the following:

  • S1, CHEOPS, a mission to search for exoplanets by photometry; launch planned for October to November 2019.[15]
  • S2, SMILE, a joint mission between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to study the interaction between Earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind. Selected in June 2015 from thirteen competing proposals,[16] its launch is planned for 2023.[17]

Medium class

Medium class (M-class) projects are relatively stand-alone projects and have a price cap of approximately 500 million euros. The first two M-class missions, M1 and M2, were selected in October 2011:[18]

  • M1, Solar Orbiter, a heliophysics mission to make close-up observations of the Sun; launch planned for February 2020.[19]
  • M2, Euclid, a visible to near-infrared space telescope to study dark energy and dark matter; launch planned for June 2022.[20]
  • M3, PLATO, a mission to search for exoplanets and measure stellar oscillations. Selected on 19 February 2014, its launch is planned for 2026.[21] Other competing concepts that were studied included EChO, LOFT, MarcoPolo-R, STE-QUEST,[22] and Caroline.[23]
  • M4, ARIEL (Atmospheric Remote-Sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey), a space observatory which will observe transits of nearby exoplanets to determine their chemical composition and physical conditions.[24] The mission was selected by ESA on 20 March 2018 as fourth medium-class science mission, to be launched in mid-2028.[25][26] After a preliminary culling of proposals in March 2015, a short list of three mission proposals selected for further study was announced on 4 June 2015.[27][28][24] The shortlist included the following two proposals: THOR (Turbulence Heating ObserveR) which would address a fundamental problem in space plasma physics concerned with the heating of plasma and the subsequent dissipation of energy;[24] and XIPE (X-ray Imaging Polarimetry Explorer) which would study X-ray emissions from high-energy sources such as supernovas, galaxy jets, black holes and neutron stars, to discover more about the behaviour of matter under extreme conditions.[24]
  • A call for M5 mission proposals was announced in April 2016. In May 2018, a shortlist of three candidate missions was announced for a proposed launch date in 2032: the three are SPICA (SPace Infrared telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics), a far-infrared observatory; THESEUS (Transient High-Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor), a space telescope to detect distant gamma-ray bursts; and EnVision, a Venus orbiter for radar mapping.[29]

Large class

Originally it was intended that Large class (L-class) projects were to be carried out in collaboration with other partners and should have an ESA cost not exceeding 900 million euros. However, in April 2011 it became clear that budget pressures in the US meant that an expected collaboration with NASA on the L1 mission would not be practical; so the down-selection was delayed and the missions re-scoped on the assumption of ESA lead with some limited international participation.[30]

Three L-class missions have been selected:

  • L1, JUICE (Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer), a mission to the Jupiter system (with heritage from Laplace); launch planned for 2022.[31]
  • L2, ATHENA (Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics), an X-ray observatory with a launch planned for 2031.[32][33]
  • L3, LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), a space mission concept designed to detect and accurately measure gravitational waves at lower frequencies than Earth-bound detectors.[34] Its launch is planned for 2034.[21]

Fast class

At the ESA Science Programme Committee (SPC) Workshop on 16 May 2018, the creation of a series of special opportunity Fast class (F-class) missions was proposed. These F-class missions would be jointly launched alongside each M-class mission starting from M4, and would focus on "innovative implementation" in order to broaden the range of scientific topics covered by the mission. The inclusion of F-class missions into the Cosmic Vision program would require a significant increase of the science budget, to be discussed in future meetings.[35]

In June 2019, Comet Interceptor was selected as the first F-class mission. A mission to explore a new long-period comet, Comet Interceptor will be the first spacecraft to launch before a suitable target body has been identified, relying on ground-based observational surveys (such as Pan-STARRS, ATLAS, or the future Large Synoptic Survey Telescope) to find a target for the spacecraft to rendezvous with later in space. As the first F-class mission, Comet Interceptor will launch alongside ARIEL in 2028.[36][37]

Missions of opportunity

Occasionally ESA makes contributions to space missions led by another space agency. Missions of opportunity allow the ESA science community to participate in partner-led missions at relatively low cost. The cost of a mission of opportunity is capped at €50 million.[38]

ESA missions of opportunity include contributions to Hinode, IRIS, MICROSCOPE, PROBA-3, XRISM, ExoMars, Einstein Probe, and MMX.[38]

A contribution to SPICA (Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics), a Japanese JAXA mission, was evaluated as a mission of opportunity within Cosmic Vision. It is no longer considered within that framework,[39] though SPICA is now one of the mission proposals being considered for M5.

See also

References

  1. ^ "ESA's 'Cosmic Vision'". ESA. 19 February 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  2. ^ a b Bonnet, R. M. (August 1990). "ESA's 'Horizon 2000' Programme". Esa Special Publication. 310: 167–173. Bibcode:1990ESASP.310..167B.
  3. ^ European Science Foundation; National Research Council (1998). U.S. – European Collaboration in Space Science. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. p. 52. Bibcode:1998usec.book.....N. ISBN 978-0-309-05984-8. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  4. ^ "ESA confirms ROSETTA and FIRST in its long-term science programme". Xmm-Newton Press Release: 43. 8 November 1993. Bibcode:1993xmm..pres...43. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2016.
  5. ^ a b Fletcher, Karen; Bonnet, Roger-Maurice (2004). Titan – from discovery to encounter: Proceedings of the International Conference; 13 – 17 April 2004, ESTEC, Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Vol. 1278. Noordwijk: ESA Publications Division. p. 201. Bibcode:2004ESASP1278..201B. ISBN 978-92-9092-997-0. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  6. ^ "INTEGRAL (INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Lab)". Image Processing Laboratory. University of Valencia. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Van Tran, J. (1998). Fundamental Parameters in Cosmology. Paris: Atlantica Séguier Frontières. p. 255. ISBN 978-2-86332-233-8.
  8. ^ "History of Planck - COBRAS/SAMBA: The Beginning of Planck". ESA Cosmos Portal. European Space Agency. December 2013. Archived from the original on 25 December 2016. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  9. ^ Amos, Jonathan (12 March 2012). "Esa to start mini space mission series". BBC. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  10. ^ "Voyage 2050 – Long-term planning of the ESA Science Programme". ESA. 28 February 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  11. ^ "Call for White Papers for the Voyage 2050 long-term plan in the ESA Science Programme". ESA. 4 March 2019. Archived from the original on 26 June 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ "Call for a small mission opportunity in ESA's science programme for a launch in 2017". ESA. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  13. ^ "S-class mission letters of intent". ESA. 16 April 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  14. ^ "CHEOPS Mission Status & Summary". July 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  15. ^ "Exoplanet mission launch slot announced". ESA. 23 November 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  16. ^ "ESA and Chinese Academy of Sciences to study SMILE as joint mission". ESA. 4 June 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  17. ^ "SMILE: Summary". UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  18. ^ "Dark and bright: ESA chooses next two science missions". ESA. 4 October 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  19. ^ "Solar Orbiter: Summary". ESA. 20 September 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  20. ^ "Key milestone for Euclid mission, now ready for final assembly". ESA. 18 December 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  21. ^ a b "Gravitational wave mission selected, planet-hunting mission moves forward". ESA. 20 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  22. ^ "ESA selects planet-hunting PLATO mission". ESA. 19 February 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  23. ^ The proposed Caroline ESA M3 mission to a Main Belt Comet. Geraint H. Jones, etal. Advances in Space Research. volume 62, issue 8, pp 1921-1946. 15 October 2018.
  24. ^ a b c d "Three candidates for ESA's next medium-class science mission". ESA. 4 June 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
  25. ^ "ESA's next science mission to focus on nature of exoplanets". esa.int. 20 March 2018. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  26. ^ "COSMIC VISION M4 CANDIDATE MISSIONS: PRESENTATION EVENT". ESA. 5 May 2017. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  27. ^ "Call for a Medium-size mission opportunity in ESA's Science Programme for a launch in 2025 (M4)". ESA. 19 August 2014. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  28. ^ "Europe drops asteroid sample-return idea". BBC. 18 March 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  29. ^ "ESA selects three new mission concepts for study". Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  30. ^ "New approach for L-class mission candidates". ESA. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  31. ^ "JUICE is Europe's next large science mission". ESA. 2 May 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  32. ^ "ESA Science & Technology: Athena to study the hot and energetic Universe". ESA. 27 June 2014. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  33. ^ "ATHENA: Mission Summary". ESA. 4 October 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  34. ^ Guido Mueller (22 August 2014). "Prospects for a space-based gravitational-wave observatory". SPIE Newsroom. SPIE. doi:10.1117/2.1201408.005573. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  35. ^ Hasinger, Günther (23 May 2018). "The ESA Science Programme - ESSC Plenary Meeting" (PDF). ESA. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  36. ^ Lakdawalla, Emily (21 June 2019). "ESA to Launch Comet Interceptor Mission in 2028". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  37. ^ "Mission - Comet Interceptor". cometinterceptor.space. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
  38. ^ a b "Policy for Missions of Opportunity in the ESA Science Directorate". ESA. 5 February 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  39. ^ "SPICA - A space infrared telescope for cosmology and astrophysics". ESA. 19 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2014.

External links

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