 NASA's Discovery class is noted for performing technologically advanced missions on a budget. And the 13th mission in this highly successful program is going to be decided very, very soon. And this is your space pod for October 26, 2016. Started in 1992 as a part of that faster, better, cheaper mantra that NASA applied to its era of exploration at that time, the Discovery program has yielded us scientific data about our solar system and advances in spacecraft technology that none of us could have even predicted. Missions in NASA's Discovery program include Mars Pathfinder, Stardust, Messenger, Dawn, and the Kepler Space Telescope. For the 13th mission of NASA's Discovery program, 27 teams submitted mission proposals, ranging from the exploration of Io's volcanoes, hunting for life in the plumes of Enceladus, and studying the moons of Mars. In September 2015, five of these proposals were chosen for concept development. That means that they were given $3 million and about a year to further develop their missions for competition. So let's take a look at those five missions. Da Vinci, proposed by NASA Goddard to be manufactured by Lockheed Martin. Da Vinci is a classic NASA acronym, standing for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble Gases, Chemistry, and Imaging. What a mouthful! Da Vinci would send a parachuting probe into the atmosphere of Venus, and during the hour-long descent it would study the composition, which may help scientists determine whether volcanoes on Venus are currently active. Very Toss, proposed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to be manufactured by Lockheed Martin. Standing for the Venus Emissivity Radioscience in SAR Topography and Spectroscopy Mission, it would use synthetic aperture radar to improve the surface radar observations of NASA's Magellan spacecraft by an order of magnitude, along with producing the first maps from orbit of potential surface deformation, basically geology in action, and composition of Venus' surface. Cyc, proposed by Arizona State University to be manufactured by Space Systems Laurel. A very weird asteroid nearly 240 kilometers wide orbits between Mars and Jupiter. Known as Cyc, we have discovered that it is composed entirely of iron and nickel, leading some scientists to think it may be the leftovers of a planet's core. The Cyc spacecraft will orbit and study the asteroid, a metallic world unlike anything we've ever explored before. Lucy, proposed by the Southwest Research Institute to be manufactured by Lockheed Martin. Not much is publicly known about Lucy outside of its primary mission to visit asteroids in the gravitational balance of Jupiter and the Sun, known as Trojan asteroids. Lucy's proposed targets include four of these rare and unvisited asteroids, including one that is a binary system of two bodies orbiting each other. Neocam, proposed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to be manufactured by Ball Aerospace. A rather self-explanatory mission name, Neocam would be placed to the point where the Earth and Sun's gravity balance, allowing it to sit and stare at the sky for potentially near-Earth object hazardous asteroids. Using an infrared system, Neocam expects to find potentially hundreds of thousands of undiscovered hazardous objects of all sizes. All of these missions have been cost capped at $450 million, and this excludes the price of a launch vehicle, although NASA is actually giving some incentives to potentially increase the budget. NASA would give an additional $30 million to use an optical laser communications system, an additional $10 million to demonstrate a 3D woven heat shield, and an additional $5 million to fly a deep space atomic clock. A xenon-ion engine and radioisotope heater unit will also be available for use. NASA's Planetary Sciences Division has hinted that they may actually be choosing two missions to fund during this competition. That would be a win-win for a scientist, and they're expected to make their selection in December. Thanks for watching This Space Pod, I'm Jared Head. Let me know in the comments below that if you were an administrator at NASA having to make the decision, which of these two missions would you choose? And of course, you can also let us know through social media, on our Twitter, our Facebook, and our subreddit at slash r slash t m r o. And a big, big thank you to all of our Space Pod Patreon patrons. Without you folks, we would be unable to do these Space Pods. We can't thank you enough for helping us spread the knowledge of space, spaceflight, and the amazingness of the universe all throughout it. So until the next Space Pod, keep exploring!