6 papers
Titan: Earth-like on the Outside, Ocean World on the Inside
Shannon M. MacKenzie, Samuel P. D. Birch, Sarah Horst +30
Thanks to the Cassini-Huygens mission, Titan, the pale orange dot of Pioneer and Voyager encounters has been revealed to be a dynamic, hydrologically-shaped, organic-rich ocean wor…
The science enabled by a dedicated solar system space telescope
Cindy L. Young, Michael H. Wong, Kunio M. Sayanagi +35
The National Academy Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (CAPS) made a recommendation to study a large/medium-class dedicated space telescope for planetary science, goi…
Architectures and Technologies for a Space Telescope for Solar System Science
Kunio M. Sayanagi, Cindy L. Young, Lynn Bowman +37
We advocate for a mission concept study for a space telescope dedicated to solar system science in Earth orbit. Such a study was recommended by the Committee on Astrobiology and Pl…
The Science Case for a Titan Flagship-class Orbiter with Probes
Conor A. Nixon, James Abshire, Andrew Ashton +36
We outline a flagship-class mission concept focused on studying Titan as a global system, with particular emphasis on the polar regions. Investigating Titan from the unique standpo…
The global distribution of active Ionian Volcanoes and implications for tidal heating models
Julie A. Rathbun, Rosaly M. C. Lopes, John R. Spencer
Tidal heating is the major source of heat in the outer Solar System. Because of its strong tidal interaction with Jupiter and the other Galilean Satellites, Io is incredibly volcan…
Pluto Follow On Missions: Background, Rationale, and New Mission Recommendations
Stuart J. Robbins, S. Alan Stern, Richard Binzel +5
The first exploration of Pluto was motivated by (i) the many intriguing aspects of this body, its atmosphere, and its giant impact binary-planet formation; as well as (ii) the scie…