Cosmic Vision

Cosmic Vision is the third campaign of space science and space exploration missions in the Science Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA). Formulated in 2005 as Cosmic Vision: Space Science for Europe 2015–2025, the campaign succeeded the Horizon 2000 Plus campaign and envisioned a number of missions in the fields of astronomy and solar system exploration beyond 2015. Ten missions across four funding categories are planned to be launched under Cosmic Vision, with the first being CHEOPS in October 2019. The first non-American outer Solar System mission, JUICE, the first deep space mission with an opportunistic target, Comet Interceptor, and one of the first gravitational-wave space observatories, LISA, are planned for launch as part of the Cosmic Vision campaign.

History

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.[1]

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.[2]

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.[3] Approximately 70 letters of Intent were received.[4] In October 2012 the first S-class mission was selected.[5] The current list of S-class missions include the following:

  • S1, CHEOPS, to measure known exoplanets' size by photometry; launched on 18 December 2019.[6]
  • 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,[7] its launch is planned for 2023.[8]

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:[9]

  • M1, Solar Orbiter, a heliophysics mission to make close-up observations of the Sun; launched on 10 February 2020.[10]
  • M2, Euclid, a visible to near-infrared space telescope to study dark energy and dark matter; launch planned for June 2022.[11]
  • M3, PLATO, a mission to search for exoplanets and measure stellar oscillations. Selected on 19 February 2014, its launch is planned for 2026.[12] Other competing concepts that were studied included EChO, LOFT, MarcoPolo-R, STE-QUEST,[13] and Caroline.[14]
  • 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.[15] The mission was selected by ESA on 20 March 2018 as fourth medium-class science mission, to be launched in mid-2028.[16][17] 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.[15][18][19] 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;[15] 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.[15]
  • 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) is a far-infrared observatory; THESEUS (Transient High-Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor) is a space telescope to detect distant gamma-ray bursts; and EnVision, a Venus orbiter for radar mapping.[20] The final selection is planned for 2021.

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.[21]

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.[22]
  • L2, ATHENA (Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics), an X-ray observatory with a launch planned for 2031.[23][24]
  • 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.[25] Its launch is planned for 2034.[12]

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-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.[26]

In 2019, the first F-class mission has been selected:

  • F1, Comet Interceptor, a mission to study a long-period comet or an interstellar object (which will be determined after the launch), launching as a secondary payload together with M4, ARIEL in 2028.

Missions of opportunity

Occasionally ESA makes contributions to space missions led by another space agency. These missions include:[27]

  • Hinode – X-ray space telescope leading by JAXA, launched in 2006;
  • IRIS – solar space spectrograph leading by NASA, launched in 2013;
  • Microscope – microsatellite for studying free fall leading by CNES, active in 2016–2018;
  • PROBA-3 – space technology testing spacecraft, to be launched in 2022;
  • XRISM – X-ray space telescope leading by JAXA, to be launched in 2022;
  • ExoMars - a series of Mars probes in collaboration with Roscosmos, an orbiter operational since 2017, a rover to be launched in 2022;
  • Einstein Probe – a space mission dedicated to time-domain high-energy astrophysics leading by CAS, to be launched in 2022;
  • MMX – a sample-return Mars' moons probe leading by JAXA, to be launched in 2024.

A contribution to SPICA (Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics), a Japanese JAXA mission was evaluated as such a mission of opportunity within the Cosmic Vision. It is no longer considered within that framework,[28] but is one of the mission proposals being considered for M5.

See also
  • List of projects of the European Space Agency
  • New Frontiers program (NASA mission class)
  • Discovery program (NASA mission class)

References
  1. "ESA's 'Cosmic Vision'". ESA. 19 February 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  2. "Esa to start mini space mission series". BBC. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  3. "Call for a small mission opportunity in ESA's science programme for a launch in 2017". ESA. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  4. "S-class mission letters of intent". ESA. 16 April 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  5. "CHEOPS Mission Status & Summary". July 2018. Archived from the original on 22 September 2015. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  6. "Flight VS23: Soyuz lifts off from the Spaceport in French Guiana". Arianespace. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  7. "ESA and Chinese Academy of Sciences to study SMILE as joint mission". ESA. 4 June 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  8. "SMILE: Summary". UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  9. "Dark and bright: ESA chooses next two science missions". ESA. 4 October 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  10. "Solar Orbiter: Summary". ESA. 20 September 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  11. "Key milestone for Euclid mission, now ready for final assembly". ESA. 18 December 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  12. "Gravitational wave mission selected, planet-hunting mission moves forward". ESA. 20 June 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2017.
  13. "ESA selects planet-hunting PLATO mission". ESA. 19 February 2014. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  14. 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.
  15. "Three candidates for ESA's next medium-class science mission". ESA. 4 June 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
  16. "ESA's next science mission to focus on nature of exoplanets". esa.int. 20 March 2018.
  17. "COSMIC VISION M4 CANDIDATE MISSIONS: PRESENTATION EVENT". ESA. 5 May 2017. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  18. "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.
  19. "Europe drops asteroid sample-return idea". BBC. 18 March 2015. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  20. "ESA selects three new mission concepts for study". Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  21. "New approach for L-class mission candidates". ESA. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
  22. "JUICE is Europe's next large science mission". ESA. 2 May 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  23. "ESA Science & Technology: Athena to study the hot and energetic Universe". ESA. 27 June 2014. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
  24. "ATHENA: Mission Summary". ESA. 4 October 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
  25. 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.
  26. Hasinger, Günther (23 May 2018). "The ESA Science Programme - ESSC Plenary Meeting" (PDF). ESA. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  27. "Policy for Missions of Opportunity in the ESA Science Directorate". ESA. 1 September 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  28. "SPICA - A space infrared telescope for cosmology and astrophysics". ESA. 19 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2014.
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