To Jupiter ... and beyond!

By Leonard David

updated 3:17 p.m. ET June 14, 2005

BOULDER, Colo. - In the wake of the success of the Cassini mission to Saturn, there is overwhelming support for dispatching a spacecraft to Jupiter’s moon, Europa — an ice-covered world that may support an ocean, possibly teeming with life. Another high-priority target is Titan, a moon of Saturn.

The ongoing Cassini mission that dropped off Europe’s Huygens lander has shown Titan to be an outlandish mini-world, deserving of further, intensive scrutiny. One "trial balloon" of a concept is to study Titan using a blimp-like vehicle that floats over the moon’s surface.

Leading space scientists gathered here to attend a June 9-10 meeting of NASA’s Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG), planning, prioritizing, and advocating a new exploration agenda for the distant planets.

"We need to understand the giant planets ... to find out how the solar system was made. The number one problem is how habitable planets are made," said Fran Bagenal, chair of the OPAG and a leading space scientist at the University of Colorado here in Boulder.

Bagenal said the exploration of the outer planets can provide knowledge about the stockpile of elements bound up in the giant planets, particularly Jupiter. Studying the processes involved in planetary formation can help discern what conditions played a role in shaping life on Earth and, perhaps, elsewhere.

"There are the exotic places that are cool and neat ... Titan and Europa ... that might be a successful place for life," Bagenal told SPACE.com.

Those taking part in the OPAG meeting are discussing a wide array of topics, such as an orbiter for Europa, a Titan orbiter and rover, a mission to Neptune, snagging bits of a far-flung comet for return to Earth, as well as new technologies for outer planet studies, such as an advanced breed of atmospheric probes.

OPAG was established by NASA in late 2004 to identify scientific priorities and pathways for exploration in the outer solar system. It solicits views from the scientific community and reports its findings to NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. While OPAG provides input to NASA, it does not make recommendations.

SLIDE SHOW   Best of Cassini Images of Saturn, its rings and its moons.

OPAG is evaluating outer solar system exploration goals, objectives, investigations and required measurements on the basis of the widest possible outreach into the scientific community.

Earlier this month, NASA announced a go-ahead on the Juno mission to conduct an in-depth study of Jupiter, the second mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program. It is to be ready for launch no later than end of June 2010.

The first New Frontiers spacecraft — the nuclear-powered New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt — is headed for a January 2006 departure. While the nuclear launch approval process still remains, the spacecraft itself is undergoing final testing for next year’s liftoff.

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