What credit can you get?
        The Extra Credit Assignment will Replace Either your 2 lowest homework scores or your
lowest Quiz. You must specify which of these you want when submitting it.

What is the catch?
        This project is intended for people who have had a bad couple of weeks (or missed some) on
homeworks or just plain blew a quiz.  It's not intended for those who are looking to move up 1/2 grade on a quiz, or who are already getting an A.   To that end, you should understand that the 'catch' is that whatever grade you get on this project will replace your lowest quiz or 2 homeworks, even if you do worse on the project! This policy exists to ensure that those who do the project really need the extra credit.  (By the way, it will be hard to do worse if you put any work into this.  The purpose here is to limit submissions to those that are serious efforts.)

      If you are doing consistent work in this class, you will not benefit too much from this project.
It can only affect, at most, 10% of your grade (the weight of one quiz).  If you aren't sure if you need to do it, then you probably are better off spending your time working on the remaining homeworks, quiz and final (they count for a lot more and will require less effort).

Enough Disclaimers Already!  What's the Project?
        In keeping with the theme of this course, your project will be to explore some object in the solar system.  Specifically, you must do the following things.

• Pick an object in the solar system that you would like to study.
• Discuss some of the previous missions have been used to study this object (if there haven't been any-or any recently- then disscuss why that's so.).
• Identify the unanswered questions that you think need to be addressed.
• Describe the kind of mission you think you would suggest  for NASA to try.  Should it be a flyby mission? A lander?  Do you need to orbit?  Could it be a one time probe like the ones on Galileo and Cassini? Keep in mind that orbiting costs more than a flyby, and that a lander costs more than an orbiter.
• Identify the kind of instruments you would put on your mission.  (a camera, a seismograph, atmospheric composition detector, wind measurements).  You don't have to say how these instruments measure what they do (i.e. don't describe how an atmospheric composition detector works-just assume it does). Everything you add to a spacecraft increases cost, so add a sentence or two about why you think each addition will increase your chances of achieving your goal. (Most NASA missions these days have only a few instruments with very focused goals- it's the 'Better, Faster, Cheaper' way!)

                The culmination of this is a paper of 4 (or less) pages addressing your conclusions.  The
format of the paper must be single spaced, 12 pt. font, with 1 inch margins on all sides.

Where do I start?

                First you should decide on a problem.  You might want to look ahead at some of the
topics we have been covering since the mid term. Check on the web for information about that object.  A good site might be Bill Arnett's 'The Nine Planets' (www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/), they actually go into the subject of unanswered questions. You should also look to NASA's missions page at www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oss/missions/index.htm. This will give you a sense of what has been tried and what you can expect to get for a reasonable cost.

                Finally, you may want to look through the notes and books for ideas.  They all discuss
the outstanding issues.  And, as always feel free to use office hours and to contact me directly.

DUE 5/12/00

Ok then.... Go to it!