The Principal Investigator was Mark Swain of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

[5] FINESSE would have consisted of a space observatory tasked to study exoplanet atmospheres by spectroscopically surveying over 500 planets outside the Solar System with the goal of gaining understanding of the processes responsible for their composition, and how the Solar System fits into the larger family of planets.

An exoplanet atmosphere survey mission, ARIEL is similar to FINESSE both in spacecraft capability and scientific objectives.

[6] In March 2018, ARIEL was selected by ESA for the fourth Cosmic Vision Medium class mission (M4).

FINESSE would have measured the atmospheric light spectra of exoplanets transiting or eclipsing their parent star.