Onwards to Uranus and Neptune! Options

[Decepticon]

I didn't know it until yesterday, but the ESA medium class mission proposal included a Neptune and Kuiper Belt flyby and General Relativity mission.
see this prez http://moriond.in2p3.fr/J11/transparents/christophe.ppt

I would of loved a Neptune and Eris flyby. Wishful thinking .

[infocat13]

Since no one has mentioned this yet, I guess I will. The NRC Planetary Decadal Survey for 2013-2022 mentions a Uranus Orbiter and Probe. A link to the report is available through Emily's Blog.

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002945/


More info including Steve Squyres' Presentation, slides and a copy of the original mission concept study are available at the PDS site.

http://sites.nationalacademies.org/SSB/Cur...ects/ssb_052412



Keep in mind that this is a report from National Academy of Science, not NASA. And that NASA's budget is highly volatile.

Its interesting to note that the decadal survey now states that duo to the budget, the Jupiter mission is now to expensive and if the Exomars can not be descoped then Uranus and a mix of discovery missions becomes the default plan.

[machi]

Document about Uranus Pathfinder: Link

This mission wasn't selected, but still it's interesting pdf.

[Paolo]

Document about Uranus Pathfinder

thanks for sharing. I guess it is the paper on UPF due for publication on Experimental Astronomy. A paper on the Neptune OSS mission has also been submitted

[stevesliva]

Interesting mention that the Decadal Survey recommended a Uranus mission:
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs...-dark-spot.html

... not that Decadal Survey, but the Solar Physics decadal survey. However it's not exactly binding and would mostly fund a magnetometer. But cool, nonetheless.

[Paolo]

just out on the arXiv: The D/H ratio in the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune from Herschel PACS observations
I am posting it here because the determination of the D/H ratio was one of the objectives of the decadal survey Uranus mission