Solar System Exploration Committee

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The Solar System Exploration Committee (SSEC) was an advisory body set up by NASA in 1983. The aim of the committee was to plan space programs well into the year 2000 and beyond.

From the start of the mission of the Mariner probe in 1962 to Voyager 2 in 1977, probes for space exploration were launched regularly. Because this spirit of discovery had faltered at the end of the 1970s, the SSEC was used.

The program emphasized the use of simplified spacecraft, combined with cost savings. At the same time, the scientists hoped for great and dramatic discoveries. The program aimed to define the essential features of viable space programs.

The committee developed the concepts for the Cassini mission (at that time still referred to as the "Saturn Orbiter / Titan Probe" program or SOTP), the Magellan space probe and the Mars Observer .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jet Propulsion Laboratory: 1983 Annual Report. (PDF) 1983, p. 4 , accessed on January 16, 2020 (English).
  2. ^ Peter M. Bell: Beyond the Golden Age. Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union / Volume 64, Issue 21, accessed January 16, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Tilamann Althaus: Cassini-Huygens - The exploration of the solar system . In: Stars and Space . October 1997, p. 838 ( archive.org [PDF]).