NASA is about to announce the finalists of its next $1 billion space mission

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An artist's depiction of the solar system.

• NASA's New Frontiers program is a competition for scientists to get their space mission funded.
• The winner, to be selected in 2019, will get funding and a rocket launch that are valued at a combined $1 billion.
• On Wednesday, the space agency is revealing its top finalists.
• The teams competing for the mission could look for signs of alien life at Enceladus, probe Venus, or chase asteroids.

On Wednesday, NASA will unveil a handful of finalists competing for a billion-dollar space mission to explore the solar system.

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Twelve teams of scientists submitted proposals to the contest, which is called New Frontiers-4 (since it's the fourth such competition held by NASA). A few of those 12 teams - perhaps just one, two, or three - will each receive $4 million next year to further develop and engineer their spacecraft concept.

The hope: Convince NASA by December 2018 that they're worth $850 million and a free rocket ride into the solar system, at a combined value of about $1 billion.

Previous missions selected by New Frontiers include New Horizons, a nuclear-powered probe that flew by Pluto in 2015 and is now going deeper into the Kuiper Belt; OSIRIS-REx, a robot that's flying out to meet asteroid Bennu and bring a sample of it back to Earth; and the Juno mission, which is looping around Jupiter, recording unprecedented data and breathtaking images of the planet.

The current list of 12 teams hasn't been publicized by NASA, but the groups are allowed to speak up on their own. The missions that are publicly known span a few categories for which the space agency requested missions. They include:

Lunar missions

• MoonRise

Venus missions

• Venus In Situ Atmospheric and Geochemical Explorer (Visage)
• Venus In Situ Composition Investigations (Vici)
• Venus Origins Explorer (Vox)

Saturn missions

• Enceladus Life Finder (Elf)
• Saturn Probe Interior and Atmosphere Explorer (Sprite)
• Enceladus Life Signatures and Habitability (Elsah)
• Oceanus
• Dragonfly

Comet missions

• Comet Rendezvous, Sample Acquisition, Investigation, and Return (Corsair)
• Comet Nucleus Dust and Organics Return (Condor)
• An unnamed comet sample-return mission

NASA's New Frontiers announcement at 2 p.m. ET, and we're dialing in to ask questions about the finalists. Check back for an update shortly after that.