Exploration of Jupiter its first Large mission, replacing its contribution to EJSM, the "Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter" (JGO). The partnership for the Europa Jupiter System Mission has since ended, but NASA will continue to contribute the European mission with hardware and an instrument. The "Europa Clipper" is a mission proposed to NASA to focus on studying Jupiter's moon Europa. In March 2013, funds were authorized for "pre-formulation and/or formulation activities for a mission that meets the science goals outlined for the Jupiter Europa mission in the most recent planetary decadal survey". The proposed mission would be set to launch in the early 2020s and
Mars flattened by lava flows contrast with the southern highlands, pitted and cratered by ancient impacts. Research in 2008 has presented evidence regarding a theory proposed in 1980 postulating that, four billion years ago, the northern hemisphere of Mars was struck by an object one-tenth to two-thirds the size of Earth's Moon. If validated, this would make the northern hemisphere of Mars the site of an impact crater in size, or roughly the area of Europe, Asia, and Australia combined, surpassing the South Pole–Aitken basin as the largest impact crater in the Solar System. Mars is scarred by a number of