Charting The Next Move

NASA and ESA are discussing possible new missions to the systems of Jupiter and Saturn that would more thoroughly examine the most fascinating worlds in the realm of the gas giants.

The approach under discussion envisions joint ESA-NASA missions, similar to the extraordinarily successful Cassini, which is currently at Saturn, and may operate for several more years. The proposed mission to Jupiter would include one probe to orbit the planet, and another to study the moons Io, Europa, Callisto, and Ganymede in detail over several years. The Saturn mission would concentrate on Saturn, Titan, and Enceladus. The Titan component would include a lander, and, perhaps, a balloon that would examine large areas of that world by flying through its dense atmosphere.

The twin efforts are seen together as the capstone of Solar System exploration in the first half of the twenty-first century.