Northrop wins JIMO study contract
Posted: Tue, Sep 21, 2004, 8:58 PM ET (0058 GMT) NASA announced Monday that it has awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to begin design work for a nuclear-powered mission to Jupiter. The four-year, $400-million contract covers work to design the Prometheus Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO). The contract covers some hardware development and other activities for the non-nuclear portion of the spacecraft, as well as integration of nuclear power systems and scientific instruments. The spacecraft will use a nuclear reactor and nuclear electric propulsion to travel to Jupiter and study three of its moons Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa in considerable detail. The mission is one of the cornerstones of Project Prometheus, a NASA initiative started last year to develop nuclear power systems and applications. Prometheus JIMO itself is scheduled to launch no sooner than 2012 with a mission cost of at least $2 billion.
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