NASA announced in early January 2001 the selection of proposals to receive funding under the Agency's Discovery 2000 program. The Far West RTTC was a participant in the development of the Interior Structure and Internal Dynamical Evolution of Jupiter (INSIDE Jupiter) proposal, one of three selected by NASA for further study. INSIDE Jupiter is a project proposed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The Far West RTTC will assist JPL with issues related to technology infusion, technology transfer and technology commercialization as they pertain to the INSIDE Jupiter mission.

INSIDE Jupiter would send an orbiting spacecraft to Jupiter. The mission proposes to learn more about the internal structure of Jupiter by obtaining high-resolution maps of the magnetic and gravity fields. Total proposed mission cost is $296 million.

Discovery supports lower-cost, highly focused rapid development scientific spacecraft missions. Each of the three selected proposals will receive $450,000 to conduct detailed mission concept and feasibility studies focusing on technical and management plans and costs. At the end of the feasibility study period, NASA will select one proposal to fly, with launch set for no later than 2006. Total mission costs under Discovery can not exceed $300 million. Other Discovery proposals selected for further feasibility analysis include NASA Ames Research Center's Kepler, a space telescope that would search for earth-sized planets around stars in the nearer reaches of our galaxy and Dawn, a UCLA-led mission to orbit Vesta and Ceres, two large asteroids. NASA also chose to fund one Mission of Opportunity under Discovery. This project, led by JPL, represents a U.S. contribution of scientific instruments to the French-led NetLander mission to Mars. In 2007, NetLander's orbiter and four landers will create the first science network on Mars to study the planet's internal structure.

NASA has been operating its Discovery program since the mid-1990s. To date NASA has chosen to develop and fly eight Discovery missions. Among these are:

• Stardust, a JPL mission launched in 1999 and on course to rendezvous with comet Wild 2 in 2004 and return samples of dust gathered from the comet's tail
• Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) is the first of the Discovery missions. Launched in 1996 NEAR has been orbiting the asteroid EROS for more than a year and taking photographs and scientific readings from as little as 4 miles above the surface of the asteroid.
• Deep Impact, another JPL mission that will fly to comet P/Tempel 1 and release a probe that will crash into the comet's surface and expose underlying material for analysis. Scheduled for launch in early 2004.
• Mars Pathfinder, the enormously successful and popular mission to the red planet carrying the small Sojourner robot. Sojourner roved about the Martian surface and returned imagery and data on chemical composition of the Martian soil and rocks.