The Origins Billions Star Survey (OBSS) is a space astrometry mission that was funded by
NASA in 2004 to perform an eight-month concept study. Although the OBSS mission was not
selected for further development beyond the concept study phase, OBSS spawned a
smaller-scale mission, called the Joint Milli-Arcsecond Pathfinder Survey (JMAPS), which
is currently funded for launch in early 2014. JMAPS is a small, space-based, all-sky
visible wavelength astrometric and photometric survey mission for 0th through 14th magnitude
stars. The primary objective of the JMAPS mission is the generation of an astrometric star
catalogue with better than 1 milliarcsecond positional accuracy and photometry to the 1%
accuracy level, or better, at 1st to 12th magnitude.