NASA's Small Explorer program

Abstract

NASA's Small Explorer program, or 'SMEX', was designed to support disciplines heretofore accommodated within NASA's astrophysics/space physics/upper-atmosphere science Explorer program. Under the aegis of SMEX, a principal investigator proposes an entire mission and its experiments; emphasis is placed on the passing of spacecraft-design experience to a new generation of scientists and engineers. The first SMEX mission selected for implementation is the Solar Anomalous and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer, which is scheduled for launch on June, 1992.