Missions for NASA's New Frontiers program are selected from a pre-approved list of candidate missions. (You can see the list of candidate targets in the poll to the right of this column.) I am slowly working my way through the list of candidate missions with just three more to go (including the one described below).
A mission to return samples from the moon has been on the New Frontiers candidate list since the beginning of the program and was re-affirmed as a candidate last year. This mission would return samples that can shed light on the early formation of the moon and solar system. The target for the sample return is the 2500 km-wide South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin, which is believed to be the oldest and deepest of the moon's basins. Unlike giant impact basins on the near side of the moon, the SPA basin never filled with lavas (which created the maria that are the darker areas on the moon's face). Data from the Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions suggested that the basin's surface could include material from the lunar lower crust and upper mantle. Returning samples from the basin would allow scientists to test their theories about how giant impacts influenced the development of planetary crusts and mantles.
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(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nXjRuITJ9m8/SbiYrIfoe0I/AAAAAAAAAMk/ezQmlY2OaP8/s1600-h/ScreenHunter_02+Mar.+11+22.02.jpg)
http://futureplanets.blogspot.com/2009/03/south-pole-aitken-lunar-sample-new.html
PeweHo... :wink:
Что решено и кем?