Selected mission architectures for the terrestrial planet finder (TPF): Large, medium, and small

Four teams incorporating scientists and engineers from more than 50 universities and 20 engineering firms have assessed techniques for detecting and characterizing terrestrial planets orbiting nearby stars. The primary conclusion from the effort, of the past two years is that with suitable technology investment starting now, a mission to detect terrestrial planets around 150 nearby stars could be launched within a decade. Missions of smaller scale could carry out more modest programs capable of detecting and characterizing gas giant planets around tens of stars and of detecting terrestrial planets around the nearest stars.