PLANETARY EXPLORATION NEWSLETTER - SPECIAL EDITION
Volume 5, Number 25 (May 30, 2011)

PEN Website: http://planetarynews.org
Editor: Mark V. Sykes
Co-Editors: Susan Benecchi, Melissa Lane
Email: pen_editor at psi.edu

o---------------------------SPECIAL EDITION---------------------------o

1. Update from the Planetary Science Division - James Green, Director
2. Editor Note: OSIRIS-REx Selected for New Frontiers 3

o---------------------------------------------------------------------o


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UPDATE FROM THE PLANETARY SCIENCE DIVISION (PSD) 
- JAMES GREEN, DIRECTOR
 
This is a quick update to let everyone know what has been happening 
within the PSD. PSD personnel have worked tirelessly getting to the 
point where we could announce the selections for New Frontiers-3 and 
Discovery-12 missions both of which were done in the month of May. 
Juno and GRAIL have arrived safely at KSC and Mars Science Lab will be 
shipped, on schedule, in June. Every sign indicates that we are on 
schedule for these upcoming launches. In the meantime, we are getting 
ready for Dawn to "slip" into orbit around Vesta in July. How cool is 
that!
 
As you know NASA received a passed budget on April 14th. However, after
passage we first received only a 30-day allotment. Funds for all of 
FY11 arrived late in the second week of May. Starting on Monday May 
23rd access to these new funds for our Program Officers who run the 
ROSES programs began. Even by the end of the week on May 27th, some of 
the Program Officers did not have access to all their funds. Jon Rall 
and all the R&A Program Officers are working as fast as they can to 
complete the panel reviews, evaluations, selections and awards. This 
includes going back to many of those that received 'selectable' 
letters this year for funding. If a PSD Program Officer requests 
information from you please respond quickly. The Program Officers are 
under very tight time constraints this summer to get their funding 
allocations spent before the fiscal year comes to an end on September 
30th. 

A big thank you to all the PSD staff from me. I need to let the 
science community know how much these people at Headquarters are really 
making a difference. We are on track for a historic year so lets 
continue to keep our eye on the ball and have successful launches. 


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EDITOR NOTE: NASA SELECTS OSIRIS-REX FOR NEW FRONTIERS 3

NASA has selected OSIRIS-REx, an approximately $800 million sample 
return mission to a primitive near-Earth asteroid, to be the third New 
Frontiers mission. The OSIRIS-REx team is led by Dr. Michael Drake, 
Director of the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. 
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. will manage the 
mission for NASA. The spacecraft will be built by Lockheed Martin. The 
target is 1999 RQ36, a primitive body measuring 575 meters in diameter. 
OSIRIS-REx stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource 
Identification, Security - Regolith Explorer. It is scheduled to be 
launched in 2016. It will spend a year investigating the object before 
acquiring samples, which will be returned to Earth in 2023. The goal is 
to return to Earth pristine carbonaceous samples with known geologic 
context, possibly including organic molecules that provide clues to the 
origin of life on Earth. 1999 RQ36 also has a one-in-1,800 chance of 
impacting the Earth in the year 2182, so OSIRIS-REx will provide 
fundamental information about the physical properties of the object 
that could inform future mitigation efforts.

For more information, go to:

http://www.arizona.edu/features/osiris-rex-wins-uas-largest-grant-ever

Congratulations Mike Drake and the OSIRIS-REx team!


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