DPS Mailing #02-20: Planetary Decadal Survey

Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 09:07:32 -0400 (EDT)

Subject: DPS Mailing #02-20: Planetary Decadal Survey

Greetings DPS colleagues –
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       |1) PLANETARY DECADAL SURVEY RELEASED                     |

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PLANETARY DECADAL SURVEY RELEASED
The National Research Council has just released the Solar System

Exploration Decadal Survey “New Frontiers in the Solar System: An

Integrated Exploration Strategy”.  The Survey reviews the current

state of planetary science and exploration, and makes recommendations

for investments in ground-based and space flight research for the next

decade, 2003-2013. This is the first such NRC report for Solar System

science and exploration after four decades of such reports for

Astronomy and Astrophysics. The DPS was actively involved in the

Survey, providing ad-hoc reports written by its members as input to

the NRC Survey Panels. Everyone in the planetary science community has

had the means and opportunity to provide their ideas in the process.  
The principal purpose of the Survey is to provide a set of priorities

for planetary missions and ground-based research for the next decade.

There is a wealth of excellent ideas for science to address and

missions to explore but a limited budget with which to execute them.

The Solar System Exploration Decadal Survey process just concluded is

the means to provide a science community driven consensus on which of

these ideas and missions have the highest priority for the next decade.

The power of decadal surveys, as demonstrated by forty years of Astronomy

and Astrophysics Decadal Surveys, is that the Administration and Congress

regard them as blueprints for the future and as having the imprimatur

of the entire science community. To be as effective as the A&A Surveys,

this Solar System Exploration Survey must have the full support of the

planetary science community. The DPS Committee urges this support.  
The key overall recommendations for non-Mars planetary missions are 
1) maintenance of the Discovery program of low-cost (total mission cost

less than $325M) missions at a flight rate of one every 18 months, 
2) start of a New Frontiers line of medium-cost (less than $650M)

competitively procured missions to be implemented as in the Discovery

program, but selected from a prioritized list provided by the Survey,

with a flight rate of about one every 3 years, and 
3) one large-cost mission (greater than $650M) per decade.  
The recommended large-cost mission is the Europa Geophysical Explorer,

a version of the JPL Europa Orbiter concept.  The recommended

medium-cost New Frontiers missions are in priority order 1) KBO/Pluto

Explorer, 2) Lunar South Polar Aitken Basin Sample Return, 3) Jupiter

Polar Orbiter with Probes, 4) Venus In-Situ Explorer, and 5) Comet

Surface Sample Return.  The prioritized list of New Frontiers missions

includes more than three missions to provide flexibility for

technology and budgetary developments over the next ten years. In

addition to the Discovery program of low-cost missions, the Survey

recommends extension of the Cassini mission beyond its prime mission

termination in 2007. 
The Survey contains a separate set of prioritized recommendations for

the Mars Exploration Program.  After the launch of the Mars

Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2005, there are two recommendations for the

low-cost category of missions 1) a Mars Scout program of competitively

procured missions implemented in the same manner as Discovery, with a

flight rate of one Scout launch at every other Mars opportunity (one

every 52 months) beginning in 2007, and 2) a Mars upper atmosphere

orbiter. In the medium class category, the recommendations are for a

Mars Smart Lander launch in 2009 and a Mars Long-lived Lander Network

that could be implemented by international cooperation. The Survey

recommends that these missions be implemented in a manner to build

towards a Mars Sample Return mission early in the next decade. The

Lunar South Polar Aitken Basin Sample Return mission should also be

implemented in a manner to provide appropriate technological

development for a Mars Sample Return. 
There are also recommendations on fundamental research and analysis

including a gradual increase in grant programs, recommendations on

mission data analysis, the Deep Space Network, and technology

development with an endorsement of the nuclear power and propulsion

technologies initiative, and recommendations on ground-based support

programs including a recommendation to share development and operations

of a Large Synoptic Survey Telescope with the NSF. Implementation of

the recommendations in this Survey would provide for a broad, integrated

program of scientific exploration throughout the Solar System and enable

new scientific discoveries addressing some of the most compelling

scientific questions in planetary science. Each of us needs to advocate

its recommendations to our Representatives in the U.S. Congress and to

the public who ultimately pay the bill. That is the challenge to every

DPS member. The rewards will be enormous.  
The full report may be accessed at http://www.nationalacademies.org/ssb/
It is also posted at the community decadal website:

http://www.aas.org/dps/decadal/
On behalf of the DPS Committee,
Wesley T. Huntress, Jr.

DPS Chair

huntress@gl.ciw.edu
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                               Melissa McGrath, DPS Secretary-Treasurer

                                      submissions to: mcgrath@stsci.edu