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The Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) was conceived at a meeting on
June 19, 1983 at the University of Maryland. The meeting was hosted by
George Gloecker and Glen Mason. The participants were
Drs. L. F. Burlaga, S. M. Krimigis, R. A. Mewaldt, and
E. C. Stone. This meeting had been preceded by preliminary
documentation from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory (APL) and the University of Maryland under the proposal
name of Cosmic Composition Explorer. An unsolicited proposal was put
together and forwarded to the NASA Explorer Program Office later that
year, but was not acted upon.
The proposal was resurrected at the instigation of Dr. Vernon Jones
and officially resubmitted to NASA in 1986 as part of the Explorer
Concept Study Program. In 1988, the ACE mission was selected for a
one-year "Phase A" (concept) Study. This study was a collaborative
effort between spacecraft design and science teams.
The ACE Mission officially began on 22 April 1991 when the contract
between NASA/GSFC and the California Institute of Technology was
signed. APL, designer and builder of the ACE spacecraft, was involved
in planning for Phase B (definition). The early ACE Spacecraft effort
(April to July 1991) was primarily for ACE mission support, spacecraft
system specification and ACE instrument support and interface
definition. Phase B of the ACE mission officially began in August
1992.
Website: "http://sd-www.jhuapl.edu/ACE/"
[Summary provided by John Hopkins University.]
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