ESA to start mini space mission series (BBC)
By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News
The European Space Agency is starting what it expects to become a regular series of small science missions.
The first winning "S-Class" idea will receive 50 million euros (£42m) and will be readied for launch in 2017.
It is a departure for the organisation that is used to spending hundreds of millions of euros on flagship planetary probes and space telescopes.
Esa hopes particularly to encourage young scientists and research teams from smaller member states.
"We see a dearth of people being trained in space science in satellites, and this can pick those people up and help bring them on so that by the time they get to work on some of our big missions they already have experience," said Prof Mark McCaughrean, head of Esa's Research and Scientific Support Department.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17335339
