Editorial to the Topical Collection: In Situ Exploration of the Ice Giants: Science and Technology
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Editorial to the Topical Collection: In Situ Exploration of the Ice Giants: Science and Technology O.J. Mousis1 · D.H. Atkinson2
Accepted: 13 November 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
The ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune are the outermost giant planets of our solar system, and represent a largely unexplored class of planetary objects, filling the gap in size between the larger gas giants and the smaller terrestrial worlds. The apparent size of these two planets in the sky is roughly a factor of 10 smaller than Jupiter and Saturn, making their physical properties much more difficult to characterize from Earth. The great distances to Uranus and Neptune have made exploration challenging, being limited to flybys by the Voyager 2 mission in 1986 and 1989, respectively. Therefore, much of our knowledge of atmospheric processes on these distant worlds arises from remote sensing from Earth-based observatories and space telescopes. Such remote observations cannot provide the “groundtruth” of direct, unambiguous measurements of the atmospheric composition, processes including thermal structure, cloud properties, and dynamics. Because of the physical limitations of remote observations, the deficiency of close-up measurements, and the complete lack of in situ science, the physical and atmospheric properties of Uranus and Neptune are poorly constrained and their roles in the formation, evolution, and current architecture of the solar system are not well understood. In situ exploration of Uranus and/or Neptune fits perfectly within the ambitious scope of the ESA Voyage 2050 Programme. A Saturn entry probe proposal has already been submitted to the ESA M4 and M5 calls in 2015 and 2016, respectively, and a Saturn probe mission proposal was submitted in response to the NASA New Frontiers-4 call in 2016. Experience from these proposals shows that the development of entry probes matches well the cost envelope allocated to ESA M-class missions provided that the carrier/relay spacecraft is provided by another space agency with costs commensurate with ESA L-class and NASA In Situ Exploration of the Ice Giants: Science and Technology Edited by Olivier J. Mousis and David H. Atkinson
B O.J. Mousis
[email protected]
1
Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CNES, LAM, Marseille, France
2
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA
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O.J. Mousis, D.H. Atkinson
New Frontiers programs. An ideal combination would be a partnership between ESA and NASA in which ESA provides an entry probe as an important element of a more encompassing NASA New Frontiers or Flagship mission to one of the ice giants. A joint NASA-ESA Ice Giant Study Science Definition Team (SDT) was formed in 2016-2017 to investigate the best mission scenarios dedicated to the exploration of the ice giants. The conclusions of the study outline the high priority of an ice giant mission comprising both an orbiter and atmospheric probe. The mission architectures assessed by the 2017 NASA SDT showed tha
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