Sending a probe to Uranus labeled as top priority by space science community

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The space science community thinks the time is right to study Uranus in depth. A new report compiled by planetary scientists from across the United States says that sending an interplanetary probe to study the ice giant planet should be the top priority for planetary exploration over the next decade.

Scientists want NASA to create the UOP. A probe that would plunge into the planet's atmosphere would be part of the mission concept. Engineers should be able to start on the mission as soon as next year.

The most intricate details about this world could be provided by the UOP mission. NASA's Voyager 2 mission flew by the planet in 1986 and came within 50,700 miles of its cloud tops. New moons and rings were discovered on the planet, thanks to the work of Voyager 2. During its exploration of the outer Solar System, the second edition of Voyager 2 kept going, eventually heading off into space.

A probe could provide a lot of additional knowledge. They were able to tell us what Uranus is made of. Scientists believe that the planet consists of rock, ices, and hydrogen and helium, but that hasn't been proven. We don't really know that.

Ice giants like Neptune and Uranus seem to dominate the Universe when scientists look at planets outside our Solar System. They are the only main planets in our Solar System that we have never been to.

The Uranus mission is at the top of a long wishlist detailed today in what is known as the Planetary Science Decadal Survey. The document is written every 10 years by groups of planetary scientists detailing the space missions they would most like to see happen a decade into the future. The Decadal Survey is not done often because of the lengthy amount of time it takes to plan and build a flagship interplanetary spacecraft.

Because it takes so long to pull off a space mission, scientists have to be strategic about their asks, ranking the missions they want to happen in order of highest to lowest priority. In the last Decadal Survey, the Uranus mission was listed as the third highest priority behind a Mars rover and a Jupiter moon study.

The priorities have resulted in missions. NASA's Perseverance rover is on the Red Planet and continues to drill up samples of Martian soil. NASA's mission to Jupiter's moon, known as the Europa Clipper, is designed to periodically zoom by the moon to see if it has atmosphere or water that might erupt from its surface. The arrival of the Europa Clipper will take place in 2030.

Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

The lower priority missions from a decade ago have moved to the top since those programs have been funded and planned. The second highest priority is a mission to Enceladus, which is thought to have a liquid water ocean underneath its crust. The Decadal calls for the creation of an Enceladus Orbilander that would be both an lander and an orbiter. It is thought that the moon's surface could erupt from the outlying Enceladus, so the first thing the spaceship would do is insert itself into a circle around it. Eventually, it would look for a place to land on Enceladus, where it would stay for two years. Its main goal is to find signs of life.

The Enceladus mission is going to take a while. The mission should begin in fiscal year 2029 with an arrival at Enceladus in the mid-40s. If the budget is full for the Enceladus mission at NASA, it will likely cost billions of dollars. The authors of the Decadal made a second set of recommendations in case the money doesn't come through, and they suggested that the Uranus mission could start development in 2028. The Enceladus mission wouldn't start until the 2030s at the earliest.

The Decadal authors have included a list of recommendations for space missions already taking place that they want to see continue. NASA should continue to work on bringing back samples from Mars. The Perseverance rover was the first step in a long-term plan to dig up samples and then transport them to Earth, where they can be studied in a lab. The next part of NASA's plan is to create a suite of vehicles that would land on Mars, collect samples, and then travel back to Earth. The process is going to be very complex and the Decadal knows that budget can be a concern. The report recommends finishing the sample return as quickly as possible, but cautions against letting the budget balloon affect all of the other planetary missions.

There are many smaller planetary missions that would not cost as much as the flagship missions. There would be probes to the moon, a new Venus mission, another mission to fly by Enceladus, and more. The Decadal wants to create another mission called the Mars Life Explorer to look for signs of life on the Red Planet while assessing the world's habitability. The authors want NASA to continue the search for hazardous asteroids that could pose a threat to Earth by completing a planned spacecraft called the NEO Surveyor, which is scheduled to launch in 2026.

It is an extremely detailed report with over 800 pages. While the focus of the Decadal may be on studying the worlds and rocks in our Solar System, the authors want to emphasize that we also need to protect and support the people working on these missions. In order to create a more diverse community of scientists and engineers working on these programs, the report recommends engaging students from underrepresented communities to pursue planetary science. The authors recommend that NASA's planetary science division work to eliminate bias and create codes of conduct surrounding its missions and conferences.

While scientific understanding is the primary motivation for what our community does, we must also work to address issues concerning our community.