Visions into Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022 A Midterm Review (2018) / Chapter Skim
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1 Background on the Decadal Survey and Midterm Assessment
1 Background on the Decadal Survey and Midterm Assessment
Pages 11-23
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From page 11... ...
-supported infrastructure; • A discussion of strategic technology development needs and opportunities; • A prioritized list of major flight investigations in the New Frontiers and larger classes recommended for initiation over the decade 2013-2022; • Recommendations for supporting research required to maximize the science return from the flight investigations; and • A discussion of the opportunities for conducting science investigations involving humans in situ and the value of human-tended investigations relative to those performed solely robotically. The decadal survey process relied heavily on five supporting panels that were specific to particular kinds of bodies (inner planets, Mars, giant planets, satellites, and primitive bodies, respectively)
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From page 12... ...
opportunity, adding • Io Observer and • Lunar Geophysical Network. An "Ocean Worlds Program" was not addressed by the decadal survey committee, but has subsequently garnered interest within the scientific community due to discovery of candidate Europa plumes, hydrothermal activity on Enceladus, a Titan subsurface ocean, and related discoveries.2 NASA added -- without a formal Academies endorsement -- two Ocean Worlds concepts (Titan, Enceladus)
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From page 13... ...
, but here too, the choice was contingent on the development of a mission design that was much reduced in cost from the original concept, which the CATE estimated at $4.7 billion. This has now become the Europa Clipper, which achieves many but not all of the science goals identified for the Jupiter Europa Orbiter.
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From page 14... ...
14 VISIONS INTO VOYAGES FOR PLANETARY SCIENCE IN THE DECADE 2013-2022 FIGURE 1.2 New Horizons being placed into its launch shroud. The spacecraft flew past Pluto in summer 2015, returning data that revealed Pluto to be a complex world in the far reaches of our solar system.
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From page 15... ...
In addition to making new scientific discoveries, Juno has demonstrated the use of solar power at Jupiter distances from the Sun. SOURCE: NASA, "Packing Juno's Power," PIA14172, https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov; courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/KSC.
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The decadal survey committee addressed the potential scientific significance of a "far term" Europa lander mission as part of the search for life, stating that "a key future investigation of the possibility of life on the outer planet satellites is to analyze organics from the interior of Europa. Such analysis requires either a lander in the far term or the discovery of active Enceladus-style venting, which would allow analysis from orbit with a mission started in the next decade." A Europa lander was not in the prioritized list of missions in the Vision and Voyages recommendations for this decade, and no mission concept for a lander was evaluated or subjected to the CATE process like the other large strategic (flagship)
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SOURCE: NASA JPL, "JPL Tech Works Mars 2020 Descent Stage," PIA22342, courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech. FIGURE 1.7 Self-image taken by the Curiosity rover during a global dust storm on Mars in June 2018.
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From page 18... ...
programs are heavily oversubscribed and recommended that NASA • Increase the R&A budget for planetary science by 5 percent above the total finally approved FY 2011 expenditures in the first year of the coming decade, and • Increase the budget by 1.5 percent above the inflation level for each successive year of the decade. NSF-Funded Research and Infrastructure The survey recognized that the ground-based observational facilities supported wholly or in part by NSF are essential to planetary astronomical observations, both in support of active space missions and in studies independent of (or as follow-up to)
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From page 19... ...
The survey expressed concern that human spaceflight programs can impact space science programs and endorsed previous recommendations for budgetary firewalls. (See Figure 1.10.)
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Recommended Program Descope Options The decadal survey fully recognized the possibility that both NASA budgets and development challenges could impact execution of its recommended program. To help address this possibility, the survey provided the following decision rules to be used for planetary science program descopes: • Increased funding for planetary exploration could make even more missions possible.
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Describe the most significant scientific discoveries, technical advances, and relevant programmatic changes in planetary sciences over the years since the publication of the planetary decadal survey (Vision and Voyages)
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• Chapter 3 responds to task 2 -- the assessment of how well the current NASA planetary science program (with the exception of the Mars Exploration Program, which is found in Chapter 4) meets the intent of the recommendations provided in the Vision and Voyages report.
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From page 23... ...
Spacecraft such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Odyssey, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter are in their extended mission phases and continue making important scientific discoveries. NASA has also contributed instruments and provided other support to foreign partner missions, such as the European Space Agency's highly successful Rosetta mission, which carried two U.S.
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