NASA Eyes Close-Up Mission to Uranus, Neptune

[Judi Lynn]

By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor | June 22, 2017 02:00pm ET


- click for image -

https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA2Ny8xNTEvb3JpZ2luYWwvdXJhbnVzX2FuZF9uZXB0dW5lLmpwZw==

Voyager 2's views of Uranus and Neptune as the probe flew past in the 1980s. New NASA missions could further explore the gas worlds.
Credit: Left: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Right: NASA


New NASA mission ideas would study the gassy environments of Uranus and Neptune, two planets on the edge of the solar system that spacecraft have visited only once.

The agency has several potential mission concepts on the table, including flybys, orbiters and even a spacecraft to dive into Uranus' atmosphere, agency officials said in a statement.

NASA released a study of potential future missions in support of the forthcoming Planetary Science Decadal Survey, a publication of the National Research Council that is used to help determine what missions NASA should pursue. The next survey covers science priorities from 2022 and 2032. [Auroras on Uranus Dazzle in New Hubble Telescope Views]

"This [NASA] study argues the importance of exploring at least one of these planets and its entire environment, which includes surprisingly dynamic icy moons, rings and bizarre magnetic fields," Mark Hofstadter, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in the statement. Hofstadter was one of the two co-chairs of the science team that produced the report.

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