QUESTION:
What exactly is the Discovery program? Is it perhaps a great amount of
missions directed to various parts of our solar system, to collect
information to guide humanity in future space explorations?

ANSWER from Steve Wall on July 30, 1997:
Discovery represents the implementation of NASA Administrator Daniel
Goldin's vision of "Faster, Better, Cheaper" planetary missions. In the
past, NASA has announced plans to explore a certain planet or region of
space and has solicited independent bids and competitions for spacecraft,
operations, and science investigations. These missions were very large in
scope, carrying many instruments, involving large groups of people, taking
many years to get organized and launched, and often costing billions of
dollars.

The philosophy of Discovery is to solicit proposals for an entire mission,
put together by consortia comprised of industry, small businesses, and
universities. The goal is to launch many, smaller missions that do focused
science with fast turn-around times and which cost less than $183 (FY97$)
million to build. This new way of doing business is an extreme departure
from previous missions and is part of NASA's attempt to streamline and
downsize to meet the constraints of post-Cold War budgets.

You can learn more about Discovery at this address:
http://discovery.larc.nasa.gov/discovery/home.html

Steve Wall