A New Frontiers Class Mission for the Uranian System that Focuses on Moon, Magnetosphere, and Ring Science

Leonard, Erin; Elder, C. M.; Nordheim, Tom; Cartwright, Richard; Patthoff, D. A.; Beddingfield, C. B.; Tiscareno, Matthew S.; Strange, Nathan; Balint, Tibor S.

doi:10.3847/25c2cfeb.eb4dc2b2

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 26 publications

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“…New measurements made by modern instruments onboard an orbiting spacecraft are critical to investigate the surfaces and interiors of the classical moons and determine whether they are ocean worlds with present day subsurface liquid H 2 O layers. As described by multiple recent studies (e.g., Fletcher et al 2020;Cohen et al 2020;Leonard et al 2021), a mission to Uranus would allow us to study interactions between Uranus' magnetosphere and its rings and moons, improve our understanding of how geologic processes operate in cold and distant ice giant systems, and enable a more complete investigation of organics in the outer Solar System. An orbiter would provide us with an unparalleled opportunity to study the origin and evolution of Uranus' ring-moon system.…”

Section: Introduction and Rationale For A Spacecraft Mission To Uranusmentioning

confidence: 99%

The science case for spacecraft exploration of the Uranian satellites: Candidate ocean worlds in an ice giant system

Cartwright¹,

Beddingfield²,

Nordheim³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The 27 satellites of Uranus are enigmatic, with dark surfaces coated by material that could be rich in organics. Voyager 2 imaged the southern hemispheres of Uranus' five largest 'classical' moons Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon, as well as the largest ring moon Puck, but their northern hemispheres were largely unobservable at the time of the flyby and were not imaged. Additionally, no spatially resolved datasets exist for the other 21 known moons, and their surface properties are essentially unknown. Because Voyager 2 was not equipped with a near-infrared mapping spectrometer, our knowledge of the Uranian moons' surface compositions, and the processes that modify them, is limited to disk-integrated datasets collected by ground-and space-based telescopes. Nevertheless,

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Section: Introduction and Rationale For A Spacecraft Mission To Uranusmentioning

confidence: 99%

The science case for spacecraft exploration of the Uranian satellites: Candidate ocean worlds in an ice giant system

Cartwright¹,

Beddingfield²,

Nordheim³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Assessment of the feasibility of space-based stellar occultation observations of Uranus and Neptune

Saunders

Person

Withers

et al. 2022

Planetary and Space Science

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A New Frontiers Class Mission for the Uranian System that Focuses on Moon, Magnetosphere, and Ring Science

Cited by 2 publications

References 26 publications

The science case for spacecraft exploration of the Uranian satellites: Candidate ocean worlds in an ice giant system

The science case for spacecraft exploration of the Uranian satellites: Candidate ocean worlds in an ice giant system

Assessment of the feasibility of space-based stellar occultation observations of Uranus and Neptune

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