NASA wants TOMS in orbit so badly that it may fly the satellite either as a
Small Explorer or in another series of satellites called Earth Probes.
As the authors note, "even though long in the tooth and obsolete by modern standards," these
small explorers continue to generate scientific discoveries after thirty-five years.
One of the most significant trends affecting the North Sea in the last decade has been the rise of the
small explorers as the multinationals have moved on to easier, bigger finds round the world.
Kurdistan, which achieved a form of self-government after the first gulf war, began issuing oil licenses shortly after Saddam Hussein was toppled, initially attracting investments from only
small explorers.
IBEX is the next in NASA's series of low-cost, rapidly developed
Small Explorers spacecraft.
Don't miss the main building's centerpiece exhibit, an imaginative two-story climbing structure simulating the sea, where
small explorers climb their way up carpeted "waves" to reach the surface.
Enform operates as a non-profit organization that is owned, directed and partially funded by six upstream petroleum industry trade associations--the Canadian Association of Geophysical Contractors (CAGC), Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC), Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), Canadian Energy Pipeline Association (CEPA), Petroleum Services Association of Canada (PSAC), and
Small Explorers and Producers Association of Canada (SEPAC).
But even NASA's smallest missions, called
Small Explorers, cost about $30 million each, with another $10 million to $15 million slated for launch costs.
Finally, there are the
small explorers, smaller independent companies like Furie Operating Alaska, formerly known as Escopeta Oil, which is now drilling in Cook Inlet with a jack-up rig; Buccaneer Energy, which will soon be drilling in the Inlet with a second jack-up rig, but which has meanwhile found new gas on the Kenai Peninsula and is now producing with one well.
IBEX, which is the latest in NASA's series of low-cost, rapidly developed
Small Explorers spacecraft, is the first mission designed to image the interaction at the edge of the solar system.
Only one
Small Explorers (missions costing less than $120 million) program was selected this year instead of two.