Origins, Worlds, and Life: Planetary Science and Astrobiology in the Next Decade (2023)

Chapter: New Frontiers

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Page 43 Cite

Suggested Citation:"New Frontiers." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Origins, Worlds, and Life: Planetary Science and Astrobiology in the Next Decade. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27209.

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New Frontiers

NASA’s New Frontiers is semi-strategic in that missions are competitively selected from a list of key science themes recommended in the most recent decadal survey. Once a science theme has been addressed, it is removed from the list and, if necessary, a new theme is added. The current survey agreed with this approach and recommended eight mission themes for New Frontiers 6 (Figures 38–45) and an additional one (Triton Ocean World Surveyor; Figure 46) to be added to the list for New Frontiers 7. The decadal survey committee made no new recommendations for New Frontiers 5 because it can take many years to put a proposal together and the competition for New Frontiers 5 was effectively already under way when their report was released in 2022. Unfortunately, NASA announced in August 2023 that the formal start of the New Frontiers 5 selection competition was postponed for budgetary reasons until 2026 at the earliest. Only time will tell whether NASA will be able to select one, two, or three New Frontiers missions this decade.

FIGURE 38 Centaur Orbiter and Lander will map the surface of a Centaur and then land to study the surface ices (H₂O, CO₂, CO, and NH₃) and organic material directly. A comprehensive study of the properties of these small, primordial ice-rich bodies will provide insights into the nature of volatile materials present when the solar system formed.

FIGURE 39 Ceres Sample Return focuses on a candidate ocean world that is the second most water-rich body in the inner solar system after Earth. Following study from orbit (top), the spacecraft would land (bottom) adjacent to one of the young briny salt deposits spotted by the Dawn mission, collect samples from the deposit, and return them to Earth. If maintained frozen, the sample would allow investigations of the origin and evolution of Ceres’s organic matter, the chemistry and sources of its brines, and conditions when it formed.

Page 44 Cite

Suggested Citation:"New Frontiers." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Origins, Worlds, and Life: Planetary Science and Astrobiology in the Next Decade. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27209.

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FIGURE 40 Comet Surface Sample Return seeks to understand a variety of issues related to the very early solar system, including what materials existed and how they were mixed in the protosolar nebula, how comets formed, and the role they played in the delivery of water and organic molecules to Earth and the inner solar system. Having mapped the nucleus of a Jupiter-family comet, the spacecraft will land, collect a sample of surface materials, and return a still-frozen sample to Earth for laboratory analysis.

FIGURE 41 Enceladus Multiple Flyby will characterize Enceladus’s habitability and look for evidence of life via multiple flybys and in situ analysis of plume material jetting from this moon’s south pole. Simple organic molecules were detected in Enceladus’s plumes by the Cassini spacecraft. However, its flyby velocities were high, leading to fragmentation of large molecules, and resulting ambiguity as to the parent organic compounds present.

FIGURE 42 Lunar Geophysical Network will study the Moon via a global, long-lived network of four identical landers. Seismic, heat flow, laser ranging, electromagnetic sounding, and other measurements will probe current lunar activity, determine the Moon’s bulk composition, elucidate the dynamical processes active during the early history of terrestrial planets, and place limits on competing ideas concerning the collision history of the Earth–Moon system.

FIGURE 43 Venus In Situ Explorer will investigate those processes that cannot be addressed from orbit or by an atmospheric probe. Such processes include the large-scale structure and variability of Venus’s atmosphere, interactions between the planet’s surface and its atmosphere, and the physical and chemical properties of the surface and interior.

FIGURE 44 Titan Orbiter is designed to provide global context for prior measurements by Cassini and the Huygens lander and will complement the local measurements to be made by Dragonfly. It will do this by, for example, determining Titan’s internal structure and the depth and thickness of its surface ice shell and subsurface ocean; mapping the moon’s geology and landscape-shaping processes; studying the global hydrocarbon cycle; and quantifying the evolution of Titan’s atmosphere and climate.

Page 45 Cite

Suggested Citation:"New Frontiers." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Origins, Worlds, and Life: Planetary Science and Astrobiology in the Next Decade. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27209.

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FIGURE 45 Saturn Probe will advance understanding of the initial conditions in the protosolar nebula by measuring the elemental and isotopic composition of the planet’s atmosphere. Such measurements will also help to resolve current uncertainties about how Saturn formed, over how long, and if its distance from the Sun has changed over time. Additionally, measurements of the vertical temperature, compositional, and wind profiles will give insights into what governs the diversity of climates, circulation, and meteorology of the giant planets.

FIGURE 46 Triton Ocean World Surveyor will enter orbits about Neptune and perform comprehensive geophysical, geological, and compositional measurements during multiple flybys of its largest satellite, Triton, a candidate ocean world with a geologically young surface and active geysers. Triton also has a hazy atmosphere like Pluto’s and a uniquely strong ionosphere. Its retrograde orbit and the lack of a regular satellite system about Neptune suggests that Triton likely originated in the Kuiper belt and was captured by Neptune early in the history of the solar system.

Page 43 Cite

Suggested Citation:"New Frontiers." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Origins, Worlds, and Life: Planetary Science and Astrobiology in the Next Decade. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27209.

×

Page 44 Cite

Suggested Citation:"New Frontiers." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Origins, Worlds, and Life: Planetary Science and Astrobiology in the Next Decade. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27209.

×

Page 45 Cite

Suggested Citation:"New Frontiers." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Origins, Worlds, and Life: Planetary Science and Astrobiology in the Next Decade. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27209.

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The next decade of planetary science and astrobiology holds tremendous promise. This booklet highlights key science questions, identifies priority missions, and presents a research strategy that includes both planetary defense and human exploration.

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