Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter Victim of Budget Cut |
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Written by spacetravel.org
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Monday, 23 May 2005 23:04 |
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The Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) has been axed in the Bush administrations latest budget request. JIMO, a 20-metric-ton spacecraft which was supposed to launch in 2015 and orbit Ganymede, Callisto and Europa in turn, had a projected cost of over $10 billion. JIMO was announced in 2003 as a replacement for a $1 billion Europa orbiter that had been abandoned a few months earlier. Many scientists at that time believed that JIMO was unrealistic and would eventually be cancelled.
The cancellation of JIMO delays the search for a possible ocean beneath the surface of Europa.
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