The Centaurus payload included imagers and spectrometers to study the surfaces, comae, and any potential rings and shepherd moons around these objects.

[1] Use of solar panels would have eliminated the need for radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) or other nuclear sources.

Centaurus is a joint proposal of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboartory (APL) and NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center are also involved.

[1] The principal investigator (PI) of the Centaurus mission is Alan Stern of SwRI in Boulder, Colorado.