We then look at the principal challenges in implementation. We address here the major scientific goals that a potential mission to Io can resolve. In addition, its interactions with Jupiter may provide a model for processes occurring in exoplanet systems. Europa and Ganymede) are of great significance. Furthermore, while Io itself is totally devoid of water and is one of the most inhospitable places in our Solar System (from thermal, chemical, and radiation perspectives), its influence on objects that may have harboured life (i.e. Subsequent investigations, using data from the Voyager, Galileo, New Horizons, and Juno missions as well as ground-based and Earth-orbiting observations, have shown that Io and its interactions with the other Galilean satellites and Jupiter’s magnetosphere, are not merely remarkable but the processes acting in this complex system pose an intellectual challenge. The prediction and identification of volcanic activity from the innermost Galilean satellite, Io, was one of the defining moments of the Voyager exploration of the outer Solar System. In this document we wish to emphasize that there is one object in our Solar System that would produce enormous excitement for both the magnetospheric and the planetary physics communities and continue the inter-disciplinary approach. Furthermore, these objects play to the strengths of the European community because of the community’s efforts in combining magnetospheric physics (based around missions such as Cluster) with planetary physics (based around missions such as Mars Express) in “joint” missions such as Rosetta and BepiColombo. Other missions related to solar-terrestrial physics will also be competitive for the open slots.Īlthough life detection and potentially habitable objects in our Solar System and other solar systems will remain focal points for ground-based observatories and space-borne observatories and missions throughout the next 30 years, there are still objects with definitively no potential for habitability in our Solar System that can reveal much about physical processes that have influenced the evolution of many Solar System bodies. Several mission concepts are regularly discussed as possible future missions including an Ice Giant orbiter, sample return missions to cometary nuclei, the Moon or Mars, a Mars polar rover or orbiter, a Venus atmospheric probe, contributions to NASA missions to Titan and Enceladus, and asteroid/main-belt comet landers. ![]() Based on the last 10 years, ESA’s science directorate can expect to launch 4–5 missions to Solar System targets within the 2033–2050 timeframe (not including Mission of Opportunity contributions to missions of other agencies and other directorates such as the Human and Robotic Exploration (HRE) directorate).
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