Dear Balazs,

many thanks for your interesting query! I think that future explorations of the outer Solar system are worthwhile and important for a number of areas, especially for learning about the evolution and changing dynamics of these planetary bodies through time - in a region that has traditionally been viewed as lying firmly outside of the "habitable zone"... The "icy satellites" which you refer to may be of particular interest, especially as we are now setting out to probing comparable objects closer to Earth. So I think there will be huge benefits of such undertakings not only for comparative planetology, but especially for astrobiology (particularly in the context of exoplanet research).

As you explicitly mention "human/manned" missions, I am afraid, though, that the outer Solar system will for a considerable amount of time still remain the realm of robotic missions. It seems that it already takes up all (?) of our limited resources to make it back to the Moon, let alone estalbishing a permanent base there as a gateway for a manned mission to Mars...

Hope this helps a bit.

PS: What specifically does your research proposal deal with?

Best,

Julius

I discovered a new model of the nucleus upon which the entire universe is built. According to my findings, there should be no small or large mass in the space between two neighboring stars, and the environment between them is completely dark, but magnetic waves are moving everywhere in space.

The signs of the cosmos are like our solar system. All signs in the world are similar and repetitive. When we look outside the solar system, we see past, present, or future events in the solar system.

I discovered a new model of the nucleus upon which the entire universe is built. According to my findings, there should be no small or large mass in the space between two neighboring stars, and the environment between them is completely dark, but magnetic waves are moving everywhere in space.

The signs of the cosmos are like our solar system. All signs in the world are similar and repetitive. When we look outside the solar system, we see past, present, or future events in the solar system.

Arash,

I don't mean to be rude, but your hypotheses have no place in the discussion promoted by the original poster.

Dr Bradák,

The objectives will be a reduced but refined subset of those that would apply to a perfectly robotic mission;

a) In-situ surface characterization and analysis of crust solids and volatiles - at small spatial scales

b) Geographic mapping over a restricted area commensurate with the landing site - in breadth and to a slight degree in depth

A robotic mission (an orbiting craft, perhaps a landed rover) allows for wider swathes of area to be mapped - barring some unforseeable advancement in robotics, humans will excel at obtaining samples that are 'just beyond the reach of that extendable arm' or on the other side of that pesky crevasse.

Of course, the absence of time-lag and the local concentration of ingenuity and intelligence is always a favourable quality of a human mission, but those aspects don't alter the objectives of a mission.

Tempering all this is the terrifying magnitude of the challenge, for the engineers, to deliver alive and sane humans to the outer edge of the solar system and presumably get them home to inner worlds.

Deara Balazs (and James),

realistically speaking, I suspect that planning for major human spaceflight missions is likely to concentrate on the Moon and Mars for at least the next couple of deacdes (i.e., the forseeable future). However, once these goals have been reached, I am pretty sure that the human spirit of endeavor and travel will look beyond our immediate planetary neighborhood. Apart from the outer Solar system, a visit to an asteroid might potentially also be one of those target destinations farther into the future.

In terms of astrobiological research, the issue of potential contamination of findings/probes should also be kept in mind. If, for example, extant life forms were to be detected robotically, e.g. on Europa or Enceladus, I'd deem it unlikely that sensible human explorers would dare to set foot there out of fear of contaminating/mixing with whatever organisms or "ecosystems" we may encounter there (similar concerns have been put forward in respect to Mars).

To the point of "justifying"/setting goals/aims and ambitions etc. that Baladzs is concerned with: I believe that - ultimately - the human drive for exploration and discovery is so strong and deeply engrained in our species that it constitutes justification enough for such missions. Robotic missions will preceed human ones virtually always. In which cases humans themselves can and will follow, is then probably best decided on a case by case basis.

Just my two cents worth...

Best,

Julius