Pioneers Program

Short description: NASA spaceflight program

The Pioneers or Astrophysics Pioneers Program is a NASA program started in 2020 intended to use small-size hardware. The missions are expected to include SmallSats, Balloon payloads, and payloads attached to the ISS, with a $20M cost cap.^[1]

Four were the concepts chosen to study in January 2021, which will undergo a review before approval for flight:^[2]

Aspera, a SmallSat to study galaxy evolution
Pandora, a SmallSat to study at least 20 stars and their respective exoplanets in order to determine their atmospherical composition
StarBurst, a SmallSat to detect high-energy gamma rays from the merger of neutron stars
PUEO, a balloon mission intended to be launched from Antarctica in order to detect signals from neutrinos^[3]

References

↑ "Astrophysics Pioneers | Science Mission Directorate". https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/programs/astrophysics-pioneers.
↑ "Potentially mind-blowing secrets of the universe could be exposed with new NASA missions" (in en-US). 2021-01-15. https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/secrets-of-the-universe-new-nasa-missions.
↑ "Antarctic balloon mission chosen for NASA Pioneers program | Penn State University" (in en). https://www.psu.edu/news/academics/story/antarctic-balloon-mission-chosen-nasa-pioneers-program/.

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[1] "Astrophysics Pioneers | Science Mission Directorate". https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/programs/astrophysics-pioneers.

[2] "Potentially mind-blowing secrets of the universe could be exposed with new NASA missions" (in en-US). 2021-01-15. https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/secrets-of-the-universe-new-nasa-missions.

[3] "Antarctic balloon mission chosen for NASA Pioneers program | Penn State University" (in en). https://www.psu.edu/news/academics/story/antarctic-balloon-mission-chosen-nasa-pioneers-program/.