NASA has selected two science proposals to be developed into full missions as part of the agency's Small Explorer, or SMEX, Program. The selections will implement projects that will study our sun and some of the most exotic objects in the universe, such as neutron stars and black holes. Both missions will launch by 2015; the first could launch by the end of 2012. Mission costs will be capped at $105 million each, excluding the launch vehicle.
Montana State University scientists are involved in a new space mission to figure out how energy is transferred through the sun's atmosphere. As a partner on the IRIS team headed by Lockheed Martin, MSU will receive about $3 million to design an optical system for a telescope that could be launched on a NASA rocket in 2012, said solar physicist Charles Kankelborg. If Lockheed Martin agrees, MSU could receive another $2 million for an associated project involving MSU students.