We advocate for a mission concept study for a space telescope dedicated to solar system science in Earth orbit.
Such a study was recommended by the Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (CAPS) report “Getting Ready for the Next Planetary Science Decadal Survey.”
The Mid-Decadal Review also recommended NASA to assess the role and value of space telescopes for planetary science. The need for high-resolution, UV-Visible capabilities is especially acute for planetary science with the impending end of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST); however, NASA has not funded a planetary telescope concept study, and the need to assess its value remains. Here, we present potential design options that should be explored to inform the decadal survey.
Kunio M. Sayanagi, Cindy L. Young, Lynn Bowman, Joseph Pitman, Bo Naasz, Bonnie Meinke, Tracy Becker, Jim Bell, Richard Cartwright, Nancy Chanover, John Clarke, Joshua Colwell, Shannon Curry, Imke de Pater, Gregory Delory, Lori Feaga, Leigh N. Fletcher, Thomas Greathouse, Amanda Hendrix, Bryan J. Holler, Gregory Holsclaw, Kandis L. Jessup, Michael S.P. Kelley, Robert Lillis, Rosaly M.C. Lopes, Janet Luhmann, David MacDonnell, Franck Marchis, Melissa McGrath, Stephanie Milam, Javier Peralta, Michael J. Poston, Kurt Retherford, Nicholas Schneider, Oswald Siegmund, John Spencer, Ronald J. Vervack Jr., Faith Vilas, Edward Wishnow, Michael H. Wong
Comments: Whitepaper submitted to Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:2008.06816 [astro-ph.IM] (or arXiv:2008.06816v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
Submission history
From: Kunio Sayanagi
[v1] Sun, 16 Aug 2020 01:00:15 UTC (1,958 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.06816
