Quote:
Originally Posted by Ilya
All of your choices are "flagship", $1.5 billion-plus missions. If any one of them started (as in, design began) today, it would reach its target ten years from now, if not later. So none of them can be "next" mission -- several much smaller missions will happen sooner. Which is fine with me. 
So if you rephrase the question "Which BIG planetary exploration mission would you prefer to see happening next?" then my answer is Gallilean Moons Orbiter/Lander -- which is what I voted.
If your question is "Which planetary exploration mission would you prefer to see happening that would actually have a chance to be launched NEXT?" then my answer is: Deep Impact-style excavator on Saturn's moon Phoebe. For a long time there will be no better way to examine composition of a pristine Kuiper Belt Object. Power requirements of "mother ship" could be met with solar+batteries if Cassini acts as a transmission relay. In fact, if Cassini could be directed close to Phoebe during impact, there is no need for a mother ship at all -- but I do not know if this is physically possible. |
I put "next" in quotes for exactly the reasons you ascribe to the question. The timeframes with these sort of things are so long its hard to know exactly what "next" means - as you amply illustrate.
The other reason being, I'm not sure which of these missions are currently on drawing boards / temporarily shelved / "permanently" shelved (what does that word mean in this context? 20 years? 30 years?) / planning stages etc.
I agree Jetlack - it is a tough question, but I particularly didn't offer multiple choice because then I know I would have ticked at least the first 4 possibilities myself, and I'm sure others would have done the same! (ie Pointless survey!)
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