Terrestrial Planet Finder

In May 2002, NASA chose two TPF mission architecture concepts for further study and technology development.

Each would use a different means to achieve the same goal—to block the light from a parent star in order to see its much smaller, dimmer planets.

The technological challenge of imaging planets near their much brighter star has been likened to finding a firefly near the beam of a distant searchlight.

Additional goals of the mission would include the characterization of the surfaces and atmospheres of newfound planets, and looking for the chemical signatures of life.

[4] In June 2006, a House of Representatives subcommittee voted to provide funding for the TPF along with the long-sought mission to Europa, a moon of Jupiter that might harbor extraterrestrial life.