Convenor: Simon Green, Monica Grady
Talks: PFC 212, Thu 3 April, 11:00-12:30
Posters: Whitla Hall
Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 is the next phase of ESA's long term plan for space science missions to address the key science questions:
- What are the conditions for life and planetary formation?
- How does the Solar System work?
- What are the fundamental laws of the Universe?
- How did the Universe begin and what is it made of?
This session will present the missions selected for the assessment phase 2007-2009, their science objectives and UK involvement.
P25a - ESA Cosmic Visions Part 2
Convenor: Simon Green, Monica Grady
Talks: PFC 212, Fri 4 April, 11:00-12:30
Posters: Whitla Hall
This session is simply a continuation of P25.
P25/208 - Marco Polo: Near-Earth Object Sample Return Mission - submitted 22/02/2008
Presented by: Simon Green (The Open University)
Co-authors: Maria Antonietta Barucci (1), Makoto Yoshikawa (2), Detlef Koschny (3), Hermann Böhnhardt (4), John Brucato (5), Marcello Coradini (6), Elisabetta Dotto (7), Ian Franchi, Jean-Luc Josset (8), Junichiro Kawaguchi (3), Patrick Michel (9), Karri Muinonen (10), Jürgen Oberst (11), Hajime Yano (3), Richard Binzel (12); 1 - LESIA, Paris Observatory, 2 - JSPEC/ JAXA, 3 - ESTEC/ESA, 4 - MPI Lindau, 5 - INAF-OAA, Florence, 6 - ESA HQ, Paris, 7 - INAF-OAR, Rome, 8 - Space Exploration Institute, Neuchatel, 9 - Univ. Nice Sophia-Antopolis, Obs. de la Côte d’Azur, 10 - Univ. Helsinki Observatory, 11 - DLR Berlin, 12 - MIT.
Status: Accepted as talk. 11:05-11:25
Abstract: Marco Polo is a joint European-Japanese sample return mission to a Near-Earth Object (NEO), selected by ESA for the assessment phase of Cosmic Vision 2015-2025. The primary objective is to return unaltered materials from a primitive NEO to the Earth. NEOs are part of the small body population that represents the primitive leftover building blocks of the Solar System formation process. They offer important clues to the chemical mixture from which the planets formed about 4.6 billion years ago and carry records both of the Solar System’s birth/early phases and of the geological evolution of small bodies. This mission will provide the first opportunity for detailed laboratory study of the most primitive materials that formed the planets and advance our understanding of some of the fundamental issues in the origin and early evolution of the Solar System and possibly life itself.
Marco Polo is based on a launch with a Soyuz Fregat in ~2017 towards a primitive (spectral type D or C) NEO. On arrival at the target (2019-2021), the Mother Spacecraft (MSC) will perform global characterisation from low (a few km) orbit for several months before descending to one or more selected locations on the surface for "touch and go" sampling. An optional lander will be released to provide independent surface measurements to complement the remote sensing programme. The samples will be transferred to a Sample Return Capsule (SRC) which will be released from the MSC on a re-entry trajectory into the Earth’s atmosphere in (2022-2024).
P25/390 - Cross-Scale: A Cosmic Vision mission to study multi-scale coupling in plasmas - submitted 29/02/2008
Presented by: Steve Schwartz (Imperial College London)
Co-authors: Petr Hellinger(1), Philippe Louarn(2), Rumi Nakamura(3), Chris Owen(4), Jean-Louis Pincon(5), Luca Sorriso-Valvo(6), Andris Vaivads(7), Robert F. Wimmer-Schweingruber(8), Masaki Fujimoto(9), Yoshifumi Saito(9), Stuart Bale(10), Mona Kessel(11), C. Philippe Escoubet(12), Peter Falkner(12), Hermann Opgenoorth(12), Matt Taylor(12), Arno Wielders(12); 1 - Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, 2 - CESR/CNRS, Toulouse, 3 - Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 4 - Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Univ. College London, 5 - LPCE/CNRS, Orleans, 6 - Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita della Calabria, 7 - Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Uppsala, 8 - Institut fuer Experimentelle und Angewandte, University of Kiel, 9 - ISAS/JAXA, Japan, 10 - SSL, University of California, Berkeley, 11 - GSFC, Greenbelt, 12 - ESA/ESTEC, Noordwijk.
Status: Accepted as talk. 11:25-11:45
Abstract: Cross-Scale will be the first exploration and quantification of simultaneous multi-scale coupling in universal collisionless plasma processes (shocks, magnetic reconnection, turbulence) across three critical scales: electron, ion, fluid. It will answer fundamental questions in collisionless plasmas, notably "How do shocks accelerate and heat particles?", "How does reconnection convert magnetic energy?" and "How does turbulence control transport in plasmas?" These universal processes will be unravelled by a fleet of 12 specialised spacecraft in near-Earth built by ESA and partner agencies (e.g., JAXA, NASA). This talk will focus on the science questions and how this Cosmic Vision mission will answer them.
P25/538 - Laplace and Tandem: Missions to the Jovian and Saturnian Systems - submitted 04/03/2008
Presented by: J. C. Zarnecki, The Open University
Co-authors: The Laplace and Tandem Consortia
Status: Accepted as talk. 11:45-12:05
Abstract: Two missions for outer Solar System research namely Laplace and Tandem, have been selected for study, with an expectation of choosing one of these two candidate missions. Laplace plans to deploy three orbiting platforms to perform coordinated observations of Europa, the Jovian satellites, Jupiter's magnetosphere and its atmosphere and interior. Tandem has been proposed to explore two of Saturn's satellites, Titan and Enceladus, in-situ and from orbit. Building on questions raised by Cassini, the mission would investigate the Titan and Enceladus systems, their origins, interiors and evolution as well as their astrobiological potential.
P25/545 - LISA: A new window on the universe - submitted 05/03/2008
Presented by: A.M.Cruise ( University of Birmingham )
Status: Accepted as talk. 12:05-12:25
Abstract: The LISA Mission will enable the study of low frequency gravitational waves from a variety of astronomical sources. Supermassive black holes forming binaries during galaxy mergers will be observable out to Z~10 or more and closer events will allow the precise measurement of the gravitational potential well around black holes. In our galaxy the emission from white dwarf binaries will permit a comlete survey of this important population with several known sources acting as calibration markers. The frequency range of LISA will permit the study of cosmological background radiation generated in some early universe models. Although LISA is technically demanding the project benefits from a test flight in 2010 ( LISA Pathfinder ) to provide impetus to the preparation of subsystems for LISA.
