The Outer Planets Assessment Plan

[yurkin]

Outer Planets Assessment Group <br />June 9-10, 2005 Boulder, Colorado<br /><br /><font color="yellow">OPAG strongly endorses NASA’s new plans for a flagship mission to Europa that will launch in the 2014 timeframe.</font><br /><br />The more I hear about the Europa Orbiter the more I like it. Callisto and Ganymede are cool but everyone knows that Europa is the moon to go to. With that in mind a single flagship mission there makes more sense then a battlestar class mission to all three. The Europa Orbiter is going to be a billion dollar plus mission that will spend two years in Jupiter’s orbit before orbital insertion with Europa. Now if only ESA builds us a lander.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">Given that radioisotope power systems (RPS) expand the opportunities for outer solar system exploration, OPAG recommends NASA explore ways to include the use of such power systems in the Discovery program.</font><br /><br />If RTGs could be made cheaply enough to work on a Discovery Mission budget it would open up the whole outer solar system to those missions.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">MSL, with all of its instruments selected, is on track for a 2009 launch. There are a lot of rumors flying regarding a slip of MSL out to 2011. To repeat, MSL IS on track for 2009 and I consider this a FIXED milestone. That is, I will expend the necessary resources to keep it there.</font><br /><br />Well that settles it. 2009 it is.<br />