NASA named three projects, one of which could become the basis for interplanetary missions in 2018, according to a press release agency. The final selection of scholars to be done in mid-2011, and before that time, laboratories that submitted projects must conduct their detailed development. For this purpose, NASA allocates each team of researchers at $ 3.3 million, the budget for future mission to meet the $ 650 million

One of the projects, MoonRise, suggests lunar rover landing on the southern pole of our satellite. It is in that region, presumably, are rocks, erupted from the mantle of the Moon. Leading developer of the project, Bradley Jolliff the University of Washington, United States, hoped that the analysis of these species will shed light on the early stages of formation of the Moon and Earth.

Scientists from the University of Arizona, headed by Michael Drake, the authors of the draft Osiris-Rex, offer to land an unmanned vehicle on one of the closest to the Earth asteroids. The mission is expected to answer the question of the origin of organic molecules.

Authors of the project SAGE, developed at the University of Colorado under the leadership of Larry Esposito, went even further: they offer to send staff to Venus and hold a study of soil and atmosphere. Scientists hope to find out why this planet, similar in structure to the earth, yet so different from her.

Recall that NASA is developing a comprehensive space program called «Constellation. Its purpose - providing flights to the ISS (in 2015) and the Moon (2020), and the first manned expedition to Mars (2028-2030). However, the fall of this year, the agency stated that may reduce or curtail the program of manned flight to the moon.