Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the - Solar System ...

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Balance Among Mission Cost Classes Small Missions Prioritized Medium- and Large-Class Flight Missions: 2013-2022 Launch Vehicle Costs The Need for Plutonium-238 Opportunities for Intraagency, Interagency, and International Collaboration Notes and References 10 PLANETARY SCIENCE RESEARCH AND INFRASTRUCTURE 10-1 Supporting Research and Related Activities at NASA NASA Instrumentation and Infrastructure Supporting Research and Related Activities at NSF NSF Instrumentation and Infrastructure Notes and References 11 THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT IN 11-1 PLANETARY EXPLORATION Technology: Portal into the Solar System Technology Needs Recommended Technology Investments 12 A LOOK TO THE FUTURE 12-1 Preparing for the Next Planetary Decadal Survey Note and Reference APPENDIXES A Letter of Request and Statement of Task B Planetary Community White Papers C Cost and Technical Evaluation of Priority Missions D Other Missions Considered E Decadal Planning Wedge for NASA Planetary Science F Glossary, Abbreviations, and Acronyms G Mission and Technology Study Reports 1 1 NASA initiated mission studies and technology studies in support of this decadal survey. These reports are available at http://sites.nationalacademies.org/SSB/SSB_059331 and will be supplied (unedited) on a CD, and not in printed form, in the final published report. PREPUBLICATION COPY—SUBJECT TO FURTHER EDITORIAL CORRECTION xiv
Executive Summary In recent years, planetary science has seen a tremendous growth in new knowledge. Deposits of water ice exist at the Moon’s poles. Discoveries on the surface of Mars point to an early warm wet climate, and perhaps conditions under which life could have emerged. Liquid methane rain falls on Saturn’s moon Titan, creating rivers, lakes, and geologic landscapes with uncanny resemblances to Earth’s. Comets impact Jupiter, producing Earth-sized scars in the planet’s atmosphere. Saturn’s poles exhibit bizarre geometric cloud patterns and changes; its rings show processes that may help us understand the nature of planetary accretion. Venus may be volcanically active. Jupiter’s icy moons harbor oceans below their ice shells: conceivably Europa’s ocean could support life. Saturn’s tiny moon Enceladus has enough geothermal energy to drive plumes of ice and vapor from its south pole. Dust from comets shows the nature of the primitive materials from which the planets and life arose. And hundreds of new planets discovered around nearby stars have begun to reveal how our solar system fits into a vast collection of others. This report was requested by NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to review the status of planetary science in the United States and to develop a comprehensive strategy that will continue these advances in the coming decade. Drawing on extensive interactions with the broad planetary science community, the report presents a decadal program of science and exploration with the potential to yield revolutionary new discoveries. The program will achieve long-standing scientific goals with a suite of new missions across the solar system. It will provide fundamental new scientific knowledge, engage a broad segment of the planetary science community, and have wide appeal for the general public whose support enables the program. A major accomplishment of the committee’s recommended program will be taking the first critical steps toward returning carefully selected samples from the surface of Mars. Mars is unique among the planets in having experienced processes comparable to those on Earth during its formation and evolution. Crucially, the martian surface preserves a record of earliest solar system history, on a planet with conditions that may have been similar to those on Earth when life emerged. It is now possible to select a site on Mars from which to collect samples that will address the question of whether the planet was ever an abode of life. The rocks from Mars that we have on Earth in the form of meteorites cannot provide an answer to this question. They are igneous rocks, whereas recent spacecraft observations have shown the occurrence on Mars of chemical sedimentary rocks of aqueous origin, and rocks that have been aqueously altered. It is these materials, none of which are found in meteorites, that provide the opportunity to study aqueous environments, potential prebiotic chemistry, and perhaps, the remains of early martian life. If NASA’s planetary budget is augmented, then the program will also carry out the first in-depth exploration of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa. This moon, with its probable vast subsurface ocean sandwiched between a potentially active silicate interior and a highly dynamic surface ice shell, offers one of the most promising extraterrestrial habitable environments in our solar system and a plausible model for habitable environments outside it. The Jupiter system in which Europa resides hosts an astonishing diversity of phenomena, illuminating fundamental planetary processes. While Voyager and Galileo taught us much about Europa and the Jupiter system, the relatively primitive instrumentation of those missions, and the low data volumes returned, left many questions unanswered. Major discoveries surely remain to be made. The first step in understanding the potential of the outer solar system as an abode for life is a Europa PREPUBLICATION COPY—SUBJECT TO FURTHER EDITORIAL CORRECTION ES-1
Page 1 and 2: PREPUBLICATION COPY Subject to Furt
Page 3 and 4: The National Academy of Sciences is
Page 5 and 6: COMMITTEE ON THE PLANETARY SCIENCE
Page 7 and 8: STAFF DAVID H. SMITH, Senior Progra
Page 9 and 10: Preface Strategic planning activiti
Page 11 and 12: statement of task’s call for “i
Page 13: Understand the Processes That Contr
Page 17 and 18: however, that the Discovery program
Page 19 and 20: • Jupiter Europa Orbiter (descope
Page 21 and 22: TABLE ES.2 Medium Class Missions—
Page 23 and 24: Summary This report was requested b
Page 25 and 26: • Recent volcanic activity on Ven
Page 27 and 28: Mission Study Process and Technical
Page 29 and 30: Near the end of the past decade, NA
Page 31 and 32: • Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cach
Page 33 and 34: development, and descoped or cancel
Page 35 and 36: Plausible circumstances could impro
Page 37 and 38: Data Distribution and Archiving Dat
Page 39 and 40: Sample curation facilities are crit
Page 41 and 42: consider making equivalent systems
Page 43 and 44: committee concluded that for the mo
Page 45 and 46: alanced ground-based solar astronom
Page 47 and 48: 1 Introduction to Planetary Science
Page 49 and 50: THE 2002 SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION D
Page 51 and 52: Medium The first decadal survey ide
Page 53 and 54: FIGURE 1.6 Victoria crater as image
Page 55 and 56: FIGURE 1.8 The mirror for the Large
Page 57 and 58: FIGURE 1.10 From a comet, to the de
Page 59 and 60: • The committee’s programmatic
Page 61 and 62: • Opportunities for joint venture
Page 63 and 64: FIGURE 1.14 Schematic showing the f
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2 National and International Progra
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FIGURE 2.3 Sand dunes on Mars photo
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NASA’s Earth Science Division Pla
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More recently, among the goals of t
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FIGURE 2.6 A natural bridge on the
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investigations should still be deve
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FIGURE 2.10 The surface of Titan as
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3 Shared objectives that incorporat
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3 Priority Questions in Planetary S
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• How have the myriad chemical an
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How Did the Giant Planets and Their
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heavy bombardment? Clues to address
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Did Mars or Venus Host Ancient Aque
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We lack critical geophysical data a
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detected in time. The report conclu
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How Have the Myriad of Chemical and
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13. P.R. Estrada, I. Mosqueira, J.J
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51. M.J. Mumma, G.L. Villanueva, R.
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4 The Primitive Bodies: Building Bl
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FIGURE 4.1 Asteroids and comet nucl
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• How do the compositions of pres
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Future Directions for Investigation
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Astrobiology is the study of the or
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Important Questions Some important
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observations of the outer parts of
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Sample Curation and Laboratory Faci
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In the previous decadal survey, CCS
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asteroid (either ice-rock or metal-
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hazard. Asteroid 433 Eros, one of t
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BOX 4.1 The Discovery Program, Vita
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ody exploration can be achieved by
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34. H.H. Hsieh and D. Jewitt. 2006.
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FIGURE 5.1 Mercury, Venus, and the
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Constrain the Bulk Composition of t
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from Venus Express and Galileo may
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• Understand the composition and
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• Is there evidence of environmen
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Important Questions Some important
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timescales, including the possible
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that may have fostered life, there
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• Venus In Situ Explorer • Sout
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FIGURE 5.3 Venus’s climate is con
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Important scientific objectives tha
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BOX 5.1 Planetary Roadmaps Roadmaps
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4. D.J. Lawrence, W.C. Feldman, J.O
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6 Mars: Evolution of an Earth-like
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BOX 6.1 Mars Science Laboratory Sch
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live there now?”—both key compo
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characteristics (water, gradients i
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availability, physicochemical facto
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UNDERSTAND THE PROCESSES AND HISTOR
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FIGURE 6.4 Examples of recent clima
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particularly the polar-layered depo
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FIGURE 6.6 Geologic time sequence o
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planets and for understanding subse
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experiments, compounded by the unce
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Curation Martian samples require sc
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particle sizes, wavelength ranges,
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environmental conditions including
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Mars Polar Climate Mission As a fol
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R.E. Arvidson, C.C. Allen, D.J. Des
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27. J. Grotzinger, J.F. Bell III, W
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B.M. Jakosky and R.J. Phillips. 200
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72. White papers received by decada
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(MRR-SAG). Posted by the Mars Explo
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the solar system formed. Understand
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FIGURE 7.2 Left: This Hubble image
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temperatures, helium is enhanced in
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FIGURE 7.4 The intrinsic specific l
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Investigate the Chemistry of Giant
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Jupiters seen around other stars in
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• What causes the enormous differ
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FIGURE 7.5 Top: This composite comp
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EXPLORING THE GIANT PLANET’S ROLE
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destroy areas of land equivalent to
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• Assess tidal evolution within g
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• What processes drive the visibl
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esolution visible and near-infrared
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INTERCONNECTIONS Links to Other Par
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SUPPORTING RESEARCH AND RELATED ACT
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FIGURE 7.10 Our atmosphere blocks l
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Cassini Solstice Mission ADVANCING
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8. Determine the composition, struc
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Summary To achieve the primary goal
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Outer Solar System; William B. McKi
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TABLE 8.1 Characteristics of the La
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organisms live there now?” Titan
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• Why are Titan and Callisto appa
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Callisto but unlike Ganymede. This
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valuable window into solar system h
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FIGURE 8.6 Multiple jets, dominated
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FIGURE 8.8 Schematic of the complex
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orbits of Io and Europa), and poten
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Cassini has revealed that most of t
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satellite interiors should include
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hardened technology for Io and Gany
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FIGURE 8.11 After a comprehensive t
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FIGURE 8.12 Galileo color image of
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Titan Saturn System Mission Many Ti
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1. What is the nature of Enceladus
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the majority of the Jupiter Europa
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7. O. Mousis, J.I. Lunine, M. Pasek
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45. K.K. Khurana, M.G. Kivelson, K.
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9 Recommended Flight Investigations
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All of the recommendations below ar
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As discussed in more detail below,
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• Ensure that there are adequate
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TABLE 9.2 Discovery Program Mission
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overarching questions in Chapter 3.
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These five were selected from the s
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The Mars community, in their inputs
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should immediately undertake an eff
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(a) (b) FIGURE 9.1 Notional funding
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As noted, the recommended and cost-
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described above are the existing De
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The projected need decreased from 2
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partnership with the Department of
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10 Planetary Science Research and I
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Through the direct involvement of s
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Theoretical development and numeric
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Defining the Need Jon Miller, in hi
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efforts, can help assure compatibil
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history. And telescopic observation
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Hubble Space Telescope Hubble obser
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Although Ka-band downlink has a cle
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and Planetary Institute. Currently,
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the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), and
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up observations. Likewise, monitori
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11 The Role of Technology Developme
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particular technology item. In gene
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The Requirement for Power Of all th
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proposals and populated by technolo
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TABLE 11.1 Summary of Types of Miss
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Solar System Access and Other Core
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influence on the planetary science
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A Letter of Request and Statement o
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latter topics are treated in the NR
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main findings and recommendations s
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TABLE B.1 Institutional Distributio
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M. Gudipati, Laboratory Studies for
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Scott A. Sandford, The Comet Coma R
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C Cost and Technical Evaluation of
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were all full mission studies selec
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Schedule To aid in the assessment o
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FIGURE C.3 Complexity Based Risk As
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Lunar Lander Network⎯Four Landers
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Caching Mars Rover Mars Astrobiolog
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Mars Sample Return Lander and Mars
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Flagship‐class Europa Orbiter SOU
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Saturn Atmospheric Entry Probe SOUR
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Enceladus Orbiter Spacecraft SOURCE
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Uranus Orbiter with Entry Probe SOU
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SUMMARY Linked technical, cost, and
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Overview The purpose of this rapid
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Conclusions Based on analyses of th
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Technology development was found to
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• Characterize the local meteorol
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• Characterize Ganymede’s uniqu
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landing in the small southern lakes
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atmospheric probe and another a sep
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FIGURE E.1 Projected budget for the
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Biosphere: The life zone of Earth o
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EPOXI: The name of the extended mis
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Late heavy bombardment: A postulate
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Nili Fossae region: A fracture in t
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Protoplanet: A planet in the proces
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Stardust: A spacecraft launched in
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G Mission and Technology Study Repo
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