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

To complement existing R&A programs, the committee recognizes a current need for a new focus
on comparative climatology. There is a pressing need for more data and better models of climate
evolution, prompted in part by the recognition of possible anthropogenic effects on Earth’s climate and
the need to understand the robustness of current climate trends, and determination whether apparent
cause-effect relationships are accurate. Climate research cuts across the standard disciplines . Climate
and its change on a single planet cannot be understood without in-depth knowledge of geology,
hydrology, and meteorology. And each terrestrial planet (and satellite) with a “thick” atmosphere
provides a different mix of processes and forcings that can inform and constrain models for the other
planets. NASA’s R&A programs support portions of this research (e.g., Titan hydrology in Outer Planets
Research, Mars meteorology in Mars Fundamental Research), but lacks a program where crossdisciplinary,
multi-planet climate research can be realized and funded.
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
Although the inner solar system is Earth’s immediate neighborhood, the exploration of Mercury,
Venus, and the Moon presents unique challenges that require strategic investments in new technology and
new spacecraft capabilities. While orbital missions to all of these bodies have been conducted or are
underway now, in situ exploration requires that spacecraft can survive harsh chemical and physical
environments. The lack of an atmosphere at Mercury and the Moon, for example, coupled with their
relatively large masses, means that landed missions incur either a substantial propulsion burden for soft
landing or large landing shocks at impact. The development of a robust airless body lander system
incorporating high-impulse chemical propulsion, impact attenuation, and low-mass subsystems will
enable extensive surface exploration in the coming decades.
Venus and Mercury, and to a lesser extent the Moon, also represent extreme thermal
environments that will stress spacecraft capabilities. High-temperature survivability technologies such as
new materials, batteries, electronics, and possibly cooled chambers will enable long-term in situ missions.
The development of robust scientific instruments and sampling systems, including age-dating
systems, spectrometers, seismometers, and sub-surface drilling and related technologies is also critical in
addressing the scientific objectives for the coming decades. New capabilities for in situ age dating are of
particular importance, as they can help to provide constraints on models of surface and interior evolution
of all the terrestrial planets.
ADVANCING STUDIES OF THE INNER PLANETS: 2013-2022
Previously Recommended Missions
A series of NRC reports, culminating in the 2003 planetary science decadal survey 20 affirm that
the exploration of Mercury is central to the scientific understanding of the solar system. The successful
achievement of scientific objectives of the NASA’s MESSENGER and ESA/JAXA’s BepiColombo
missions remain a high priority. Given all the advances that will likely come from MESSENGER and
BepiColombo, as well as ongoing technology and capability enhancement work, the high-priority of
Mercury landed science could be revisited at the earliest opportunity mid to late in this decade.
Previously Recommended New Frontiers Missions
The 2003 planetary decadal survey included recommendations for New Frontiers missions to
Venus and the Moon. 21 They are:
PREPUBLICATION COPY—SUBJECT TO FURTHER EDITORIAL CORRECTION
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