Whipple_(spacecraft)
Whipple (spacecraft)
Observatory for Oort Cloud objects
Whipple was a proposed space observatory in the NASA Discovery Program.[1] The observatory would try to search for objects in the Kuiper belt and the theorized Oort cloud by conducting blind occultation observations.[2] Although the Oort cloud was hypothesized in the 1950s, it has not yet been directly observed.[2] The mission would attempt to detect Oort cloud objects by scanning for brief moments where the objects would block the light of background stars.[2]
In 2011, three finalists were selected for the 2016 Discovery Program, and Whipple was not among them, but it was awarded funding to continue its technological development efforts.[3]