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NASA Announces PRIMA Space Telescope Project

4:07 PM ETConfirmed

Science Desk

In Short: NASA announced Wednesday it will move forward with the Probe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA), a new space telescope that will explore the origins of planets and galaxies.

PRIMA, led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will be the first of NASA’s Probe Explorers, a new line of observatories designed to conduct major science at a lower cost.

The mission will use far-infrared sensitivity to investigate the origins of planets and their atmospheres, the coevolution of galaxies and black holes, and changes in the properties of dust and metals over cosmic time.

NASA’s decision to proceed with PRIMA comes after the agency disqualified a competing mission, the X-ray observatory AXIS, due to schedule and budget constraints.

The PRIMA mission will be developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in collaboration with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Marshall Space Flight Center, as well as space agencies from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.

NASA officials said PRIMA will move into Phase B development, allowing for further design and technical reviews.

NASA’s Associate Administrator for Science Mission Directorate, Nicky Fox, stated, “The PRIMA mission is humanity’s next window into the deep Universe.”

Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division, added, “A single mission alone can’t probe all the Universe’s mysteries. But by extending the survey capabilities of our fleet into far-infrared wavelengths with PRIMA, we’re enabling an incredibly comprehensive look at the cosmos.”

What this adds

Background

What's confirmed

• “The PRIMA mission is humanity’s next window into the deep Universe,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, in a statement.

What's still developing

• The first in a new class of space telescopes is on track to reach the launch pad in the early 2030s, NASA announced this week.
• The agency’s space telescopes typically fall into lower-cost “Explorer-class” missions, with cost caps in the range of a few hundred million dollars, or flagship observatories like the recently launched Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which came with a price tag of some $4.3 billion.
• But it wasn’t clear until recently whether NASA’s science budget, which is under pressure from the Trump administration, would be sufficient to actually start developing one.
• PRIMA will be led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which has also found itself in an institutional crisis, with few missions in development and a series of layoffs.
• With the Probe Explorers, NASA officials seek to find a better balance between the smaller Explorer missions and multibillion-dollar flagships.
• NASA has studied potential Probe Explorer mission concepts for several years after an independent panel of scientists recommended the new mission category.
• The scientist leading the AXIS concept study blamed disruptions and mismanagement at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the NASA location charged with leading the AXIS mission if it moved forward into development.
• The California Institute of Technology’s (Caltech) Infrared Processing & Analysis Center (IPAC) is designated as the mission science center “where raw data from the telescope is received, processed, and archived for use by astronomers seeking to answer some of the universe’s deepest mysteries,” according to Caltech.
• “PRIMA represents a giant leap for far-infrared astronomy,” said Caltech President Ray Jayawardhana.
• NASA officials cleared Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft for flight Thursday after a “thorough and comprehensive” review of the crew capsule’s readiness, setting the stage for final pre-launch preparations at Cape Canaveral ahead of liftoff Dec. 20 on an unpiloted demonstration mission to the International Space Station.
• If approved, PRIMA will move forward into Phase C with a max project cost of $1.2 billion, not including launch and other costs.
• PRIMA also ushers in a new class of missions within NASA’s Explorers Program: Probe Explorers.

Sources

• Ars Technicalink
• Spaceflight Nowlink
• Space.comlink
• Sciencedailylink
• Universe Todaylink
• Thedebrieflink
• Science Newslink
• Scitechdailylink
• Scientific Americanlink
• Ipmnewsroomlink
• NASAlink
• Spaceflightnowlink
• The Guardianlink
• WarpBeat — background on Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's Mission Extended to 22 Years link
• Space News Today — video link