Do we want to know more about Europa's mysterious sea or Titan's evolution? Can we sacrifice knowledge about asteroids whizzing by Earth in order to study dark matter?
These are the trade-offs now facing the European Space Agency (ESA), whose advisory committee has narrowed down a set of topics that will dominate its off-planet activities for the next decade.
Ranging from Jupiter moon probes to dark energy observatories, nine proposed projects outline an ambitious set of goals to be pursued in conjunction with colleagues around the world, money and politics permitting. However, only two will make the final cut, to be selected by 2011, and launched in 2017 and 2018. From the announcement:
Today's short list has been narrowed down from a list of 50 proposals, and includes:
-Laplace: A launch of three orbital platforms, in conjunction with NASA, that would study Jupiter's Europa moon with an eye towards possible habitability, as well answer other questions about the relationship of the giant planet to its moons.
-Tandem: An orbiter and several land probes aimed at Saturn's
Titan and Enceladus, building on data gained from Cassini's recent visits, and studying the origins, interiors, and astrobiological potential of the two moons. This too would be be a joint project with
NASA if selected.
-Cross-scale: A 12-spacecraft project launched into near-Earth space, making simultaneous measurements of plasma (electrically charged gas particles surrounding the planet), studying shocks, turbulence, and energy propagation. This would be a joint project with the Japanese
Space and Exploration Agency (JAXA)
-Marco Polo: A mission that would land on a near-Earth asteroid, and bring back a sample, with the aim of studying the origin and evolution of these bodies, and of Earth itself. Also a JAXA joint project.
-Dune and SPACE: Two separate observatory proposals for studying dark matter and dark energy.
-Plato: A joint ground- and space-based mission that would focus on finding and studying the characteristics of planets orbiting distant stars, more efficiently and with more detail than is possible today.
-Spicia: A next-generation space-based infrared telescope, used to answer questions about planetary formation and the universe's origin. Another JAXA cooperation.
-XEUS, or X-ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy: An X-ray telescope that could study the growth of massive black holes, the evolution of galaxies, and other big questions about the universe's origin and evolution.
Cosmic Vision 2015-2025: and the candidate missions are... [ESA press release]
(Image: The entire sky in infrared light, as observed by Japan's AKARI. Credit: JAXA)
