posted 04-19-2022 12:11 PM               

The next decade of planetary science and astrobiology holds tremendous promise. New research will expand our understanding of our solar system's origins, how planets form and evolve, under what conditions life can survive, and where to find potentially habitable environments in our solar system and beyond.

"Origins, Worlds, and Life: A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032" highlights key science questions, identifies priority missions, and presents a comprehensive research strategy that includes both planetary defense and human exploration. This report also recommends ways to support the profession as well as the technologies and infrastructure needed to carry out the science.

• NASA should continue the development of the Europa Clipper mission and closely monitor the mission's cost.

• The highest scientific priority of NASA's robotic exploration efforts this decade should be completion of Mars Sample Return as soon as is practicably possible with no increase or decrease in its current scope.

• NASA should develop scientific exploration strategies, as it has for Mars, in areas of broad scientific importance, e.g., Venus and ocean worlds, that have an increasing number of U.S. missions and international collaboration opportunities.

• NASA should maintain the Mars Exploration Program, managed within the PSD, that is focused on the scientific exploration of Mars. The program should develop and execute a comprehensive architecture of missions, partnerships, and technology development to enable continued scientific discovery at Mars.

• Subsequent to the peak-spending phase of Mars Sample Return, the next priority medium-class mission for the Mars Exploration Program should be Mars Life Explorer.

• NASA should continue to support commercial innovation in lunar exploration. Following demonstrated success in reaching the lunar surface, NASA should develop a plan to maximize science return from CLPS by, for example, allowing investigators to propose instrument suites coupled to specific landing sites. NASA should evaluate the future prospects for commercial delivery systems within other mission programs and consider extending approaches and lessons learned from CLPS to other destinations, e.g., Mars and asteroids.

• Endurance-A should be implemented as a strategic medium-class mission as the highest priority of the Lunar Discovery and Exploration Program. Endurance-A would utilize CLPS to deliver the rover to the Moon, a long-range traverse to collect a substantial mass of high-value samples, and astronauts to return them to Earth.

• NASA should fully support the development, timely launch, and subsequent operation of NEO Surveyor to achieve the highest priority planetary defense NEO survey goals.

• In the coming decade, NASA should develop an approach for a rapid-response, flyby characterization of emerging, short-warning-time (<3 years) threats and science opportunities.

• The highest priority new Flagship mission for the decade 2023-2032 is the Uranus Orbiter and Probe mission. The Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP) will deliver an in situ atmospheric probe and conduct a multi-year orbital tour that would transform our knowledge of ice giants in general and the Uranian system in particular.

• The second highest priority new Flagship mission for the decade 2023-2032 is the Enceladus Orbilander. Enceladus is a small, active ice world in which gas and particles from its subsurface ocean are being jetted into space. Conditions at Enceladus thus allow for direct investigation of the habitability of an ocean world and assessment of whether or not it is inhabited. This addresses one of the most fundamental questions in solar system science: is there life beyond Earth and if not, why not?

posted 04-19-2022 05:53 PM            

Indeed, I will be doing quite well just to be drawing breath when the mission is due to be launched, in or about 2031.

posted 04-19-2022 07:15 PM               

The primary and secondary launch opportunities occur in June 2031 and April 2032, and both benefit from a Jupiter gravity assist available at those times to place ~ 5000 kg in orbit at Uranus after a ~ 13-year cruise.

Other launch opportunities from 2032 through 2038 (and beyond) utilize multiple inner solar system gravity assists (including a Venus flyby) to place up to 5900 kg in orbit with an increased, ~ 15-year cruise time.

posted 04-19-2022 08:14 PM               

Consider that Uranus reaches a solstice during 2030, but the planet's axis is tilted 98 degree. Only slight more than just its northern hemisphere will be bathed in sunlight. The southern hemisphere will be in darkness for a few decades.

posted 04-20-2022 09:24 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
The linked report pegs the transit times between 13 and 15 years

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I'm not sure if the improved transit time (from 21 years to 13 years at best) represents a better trajectory or a greater Delta-V capability at journey's end, but the idea of waiting another decade* to reduce your transit time by 8 years brings to mind a science fiction story (by Arthur C. Clarke?) in which the first interstellar crew awakens from cryo-sleep in orbit around their target star, to be greeted by the second interstellar crew which had arrived years earlier, having used faster technology developed long after the departure of the first crew.

The "good news" from my personal perspective is that I'll "only" be 89 when the spacecraft reaches Uranus (if it launches in 2031, which is a best case scenario) but I suppose we just have to think of these great voyages as a multi-generational effort which must continue long after everyone reading this has gone.

However, if I were Elon Musk I might be thinking of doing a New Horizons-style fly-by of Uranus and/or Neptune with a modified Starship on a much shorter time-scale. He may not want to wait until the 2040s either.