NASA to Announce New Discovery Mission Selection Today

NASA will announce today which of three candidates it has selected as the next in the mid-sized Discovery series of planetary exploration missions.

The three contenders are:

• Titan Mare Explorer (TIME), a mission to land on and study a methane ocean on Saturn's moon, Titan;
• Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight -- previously called Geophysical Monitoring Station or GEMS), a mission to land on Mars to study the planet's interior structure and composition; and
• Comet Hopper, to study the evolution of comets by landing on a comet multiple times and observing its changes as it interacts with the sun.

NASA Associate Administrator for Science John Grunsfeld, and NASA Planetary Science Division Director Jim Green will make the announcement at 5:00 pm ET.   It will be carried live on NASA's NewsAudio website.