Where Next Will NASA Boldly Go? 30/01/2021 An image of Jupiter’s swirling south polar region captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, December 2017. Image: NASA. In February, NASA will land a nuclear-powered car on Mars. In 2022, the agency will be well into the construction of a Jupiter orbiter the length of a basketball court. Both missions—called “flagships” because of their multibillion-dollar budgets and what NASA describes as “civilisation-scale science” for their potential impact—are part of the agency’s search for life elsewhere in the solar system. But neither mission is likely to find life on its own, unless an animal scurries up to Perseverance rover’s camera or a geyser on Jupiter’s ocean moon blasts a fish into space right in front of Europa Clipper spacecraft.