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Science and technology requirements to explore caves in our Solar System

We are in the incipient phase of exploring the subterranean realm of our Solar System. Planetary caves research offers interdisciplinary, cross-planetary body investigations spanning geology, climatology, astrobiology, robotics, and human use. Caves are of great importance in advancing our understanding of planetary processes and the search for life beyond Earth. Given these advances, a diverse
Authors
Timothy N. Titus, Janna Wynne, P. J. Boston, P. de Leon, C. Demirel-Floyd, H Jones, Francesco Sauro, Kyle Uckert, Ali-akbar Agha-Mohammadi, E. Calvin Alexander, James W. Ashley, Armando Azua-Bustos, Leroy Chiao, Glen E. Cushing, J DeDecker, Alberto G. Fairén, A Frumkin, Jo de Waele, Gary L. Harris, Laura A. Kerber, Richard J. Léveillé, Michael J. Malaska, Kavya Manyapu, Matteo Massironi, Ana Z. Miller, John E. Mylroie, Bogdan P. Onac, Scott Parazynski, Charity Phillips-Lander, Thomas Prettyman, Haley Sapers, Norbert Schorghofer, Dirk Schulze-Makuch, Red Whittaker, Kaj E. Williams, Uland Wong

Planetary defense preparedness: Identifying the potential for post-asteroid impact time delayed and geographically displaced hazards

A considerable amount of effort has been done to quantify impact effects from the impact of an asteroid. The effects usually considered are: blast, overpressure shock, thermal radiation, cratering, seismic shaking, ejecta, and tsunami (e.g. Hills & Goda, 1993; Collins et al., 2005, Rumpf et al., 2017). These first-order effects typically are localized in time and diminish with increased distance
Authors
Timothy N. Titus, D. G. Robertson, Joel B. Sankey

Solar-system-wide significance of Mars polar science

1. The North Polar Layered Deposits contain thousands of ice layers that record accumulation and climate history for at least several million years, making the most accessible and most complete climate record aside from the Earth’s – and the only one to record the impact of large obliquity shifts. 2. Mars Polar Science is a diverse and integrated system spanning much of the planet, above and below
Authors
I. B. Smith, Wendy M. Calvin, D. E. Smith, C. Hansen, S. Diniega, A.S. McEwen, N. Thomas, D. Banfield, Timothy N. Titus, P. Becerra, M. Kahre, F. Forget, M. Hecht, S. Byrne, C. S. Hvidberg, P. O. Hayne, J. W. Head III, M. Mellon, B. Horgan, J. Mustard, J. Holt, A. Howard, D. McCleese, C. Stoker, P. James, N. E. Putzig, J. Whitten, P. Buhler, A. Spiga, M. Crismani, K. M. Aye, A. Portyankina, R. Orosei, A. Bramson, J. Hanley, M. Sori, O. Aharonson, S. Clifford, H. Sizemore, G. Morgan, B. Hartmann, N. Schorghofer, R. Clark, D. Berman, D. Crown, F. Chuang, M. Siegler, E. N. Dobrea, K. Lynch, R. W. Obbard, M. R. Elmaary, D. Fisher, A. Kleinboehl, M. Balme, B. Schmitt, M. Daly, R. C. Ewing, Kenneth E. Herkenhoff, L. Fenton, S. D. Guzewich, M. Koutnik, J. Levy, R. Massey, A. Łosiak, V. Eke, D. Goldsby, A. Cross, T. Hager, S. Piqueux, A Kereszturi, K. Seelos, S. Wood, E. Hauber, C. Amos, P. Russell, R. Jaumann, G. Michael, S. Conway, A. Khayat, S. Lewis, G. Luizzi, G. Martinez, K. Mesick, L. Montabone, Johnsson, A. Pankine, C. Phillips-Lander, P. Read, Lauren A. Edgar, K. Zacny, A. McAdam, A. Rutledge, T. Bertrand, J. Widmer, D. Stillman, A. Soto, Z. Yoldi, R. Young, A. Svensson, L. Sam, M. Landis, A. Bhardwaj, M. Chojnacki, E. Kite, P. Thomas, J. Plaut, J. Bapst, S. Milkovich, J. Whiteway, J. Moores, C. Rezza, R. Karimova, I. Mishev, A. Van Brenen, P. Acharya, J. Chesal, A. Pascuzzo, E. Vos, G. Osinski, C. Andres, C. Neisch, S. Hibbard, P. Sinha, J. P. Knightly, S. Cartwright, S. Kounaves, C. Orgel, M. Skidmore, J. MacGregor, R. Staehle, J. Rabassa, C. Gallagher, A. Coronato, A. G. Galofre, J. Wilson, L. McKeown, N. Oliveira, P. Fawdon, U. Gayathri, C. Stuurman, C. Herny, F. Butcher, F. Bernardini, M. Perry, R. Hu, S. Mukherjee, V. Chevrier, M. E. Banks, T. Meng, P. A. Johnson, B. Tober, J. C. Johnson, Ulamsec, J. C. Echaurren, A. Khuller, C. Dinwiddie, S. Adeli, B. L. Henderson, L. R. Lozano, D. Lalich, E. Rivera-Valentín, S. Nerozzi, E. Petersen, F. Foss, R. Lorenz, J. Eigenbrode, M. Day, A. Brown, M. Pajola, O. Karatekin, A. Lucchetti, C. Cesar, C. Newman, T. G. Cave, M. Mischna, M. Patel, P. Streeter, J. C. Stern, C. M. Dundas

Asteroid impacts - downwind and downstream effects

For this abstract, we have selected an impact location, consistent with the PDC2021 initial scenario [1], in the San Juan Mountains, in southwestern Colorado. This is a low-density population area but is part of the watershed system within the Colorado River basin, a major source for water and power for the southwestern United States. Several large cities and major airports are potentially downwin
Authors
Timothy N. Titus, D. G. Robertson, Joel B. Sankey, Larry G. Mastin

The scientific rationale for deployment of a long-lived geophysical network on the Moon

This white paper focuses on the scientific rationale for deploying a global, long-lived network of geophysical instruments on the surface of the Moon to understand the nature and evolution of the lunar interior from the crust to the core.
Authors
Renee Weber, Clive Neal, Robert E. Grimm, Matthias Grott, Nick Schmerr, Mark Wieczorek, James D. Williams, Bruce Banerdt, Caroline Beghein, Peter Chi, Douglas Currie, Simone Dell'Agnello, Jared Espley, Raphael Garcia, Ian Garrick-Bethell, Heidi Haviland, Stephen Indyk, Catherine L. Johnson, Taichi Kawamura, Sharon Kedar, Philippe Lognonné, Seiichi Nagihara, Yosio Nakamura, Ceri Nunn, Lillian R. Ostrach, Mark Panning, Noah E. Petro, Matthew Siegler, Thomas R. Watters, Kris Zacny, S. Hop Bailey, Maria Banks, Donald Barker, Hannes Bernhardt, Valentin Bickel, Joshua T. Cahill, Jackie Clark, Dani DellaGiustina, Jesse-Lee Dimech, Andrew Dombard, Catherine Elder, Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Marshall Eubanks, Kerri Donaldson Hanna, Jan Harms, Steve Hauck, Lon Hood, Jose Hurtado, Seth Jacobson, Devanshu Jha, James Tuttle Keane, Amir Khan, Walter Kiefer, Martin Knapmeyer, Brigitte Knapmeyer-Endrun, Krishan Khurana, Juan Manuel Lorenzo, Angela Marusiak, Patrick McGovern, Laurent Montesi, Francis Nimmo, Deanna Phillips, Jacob A. Richardson, Charles Shearer, Krista Soderlund, Sean C. Solomon, Tilman Spohn, Eleonore Stutzmann, Sonia Tikoo, Slava Turyshev, Dany Waller, Ryuhei Yamada, Maria Zuber

A Next Generation Lunar Orbiter mission

The Moon is the scientific foundation for our knowledge of the early evolution and impact history of the terrestrial planets. Over the last decades the lunar science community has made significant progress in addressing key lunar science and exploration goals, while defining many new high-priority scientific questions regarding the formation and evolution of the Moon. On a broad scale, the last Pl
Authors
Timothy Glotch, Lynne Carter, Pamela Clark, Brett W. Denevi, Benjamin T Greenhagen, G. Wes Patterson, Noah E. Petro, Kurt Retherford, Sarah Valencia, Joshua T. Cahill, Ryan Watkins, Kerri Donaldson Hanna, Catherine Elder, Harald Hiesinger, Georgiana Kramer, Timothy Livengood, Heather Meyer, Lillian R. Ostrach, Michael Poston, Morgan Schusterman, Matthew Siegler, Emerson Speyerer, Angela Stickle, Carolyn H. Van der Bogert, Daniel Moriarty, Lisa R. Gaddis

GANGOTRI mission concept on the glacial key to the Amazonian climate of Mars

The GANGOTRI mission concept would investigate in situ the geologic origins of midlatitudinal Martian glaciers, as underlain by Amazonian climate evolution, by riddling the ice with a hybrid thermo-mechanical drill for deep englacial sampling. GANGOTRI would use regolith compositional measurements to characterize ice-regolith interaction, and stable isotope measurements to characterize fundamental
Authors
Suniti Karunatillake, Ali M Bramson, Kris Zacny, Colin M. Dundas, Lujendra Ojha, Oded Aharonson, Eran Vos, Don R Hood, A. Deanne Rogers, Joseph S. Levy, Peter Doran, Kathleen Mandt, Jack Wilson, Emily B Hughes, Heidi Fuqua-Haviland, Jeffrey Moersch, Scott M. Perl, Dewan E. Haque, J. R. Skok, Harish, S. Vijayan, A. Bhardwaj, Brent Christner, Hanna Sizemore, A Kereszturi, Norbert Schorghofer, Kurt Retherford, Paul Niles, Juan Manuel Lorenzo, Katherine Mesick, Heather Franz, Jose Rodriguez-Manfredi, Daniel Coupland, Peter Bertone

Maximizing the science and resource mapping potential of Orbital VSWIR Spectral measurements of Mars

The last 16 years witnessed a rapid growth in understanding the composition and aqueous alteration of Mars’ surface from orbital data from the Observatoire pour la Mineralogie, l’Eau, les Glaces et l’Activité (OMEGA) [1] and Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) [2]. Both are sensitive to water-, hydroxyl-, sulfate-, and carbonate-bearing and ferric phases that record past l
Authors
Scott L. Murchie, Raymond E. Arvidson, Janice L Bishop, Wendy M. Calvin, John Carter, John Christian, Roger N. Clark, Colin M. Dundas, Bethany L. Ehlmann, Valerie K. Fox, Abigail A. Fraeman, Timothy A Goudge, Briony H. N. Horgan, Madison N Hughes, Ellen K Leask, Alfred S. McEwen, John F Mustard, Mario Parente, Kathryn E Powell, Frank P. Seelos, Kimberly D. Seelos, Jesse D Tarnas, Christina E Viviano, James J. Wray

Current activity on the Martian surface: A key subject for future exploration

One of the fundamental discoveries in Mars science in the last decade has been the extent and importance of current surface activity. Recent results have shifted our view of Mars from a world where the most interesting geologic events were in the distant past (similar to the Moon) to a world that undergoes active evolution and one where understanding the present is key to deciphering the planet’s
Authors
Colin M. Dundas, Shane Byrne, Matthew Chojnacki, Serina Diniega, Ingrid J. Daubar, Christopher W. Hamilton, Candice J. Hansen, Alfred S. McEwen, Ganna Portyankina, Hanna G Sizemore

Mid-latitude ice on Mars: A science target for planetary climate histories and an exploration target for in situ resources

In the last decade, aided by the high-resolution data and long-term monitoring by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and other spacecraft, extensive evidence has emerged supporting the presence of abundant H2O ground ice throughout much of the mid-latitudes of Mars. Growing evidence indicates that much of this ice is relatively pure, exists within a few meters of the surface, and reaches low
Authors
Ali Bramson, Chimira Andres, Jonathan Bapst, Patricio Becerra, Samuel W Courville, Colin M. Dundas, Shannon M Hibbard, John W Holt, Suniti Karunatillake, Aditya Khuller, Michael T. Mellon, Gareth A Morgan, R. W. Obbard, Matthew R Perry, Eric I Petersen, Nathaniel E. Putzig, Hanna G Sizemore, Isaac B. Smith, David E Stillman, Paul Wooster

A critical gap: In situ measurements of surface-atmosphere interactions from outside earth

This white paper demonstrates five points: (1) The lack of robust measurements of the vertical gradients of natural boundary layers and transport fluxes on other planetary bodies precludes adequate estimation of aeolian and other meteorological processes throughout our Solar System (§1). (2) Thus, there exist critical knowledge gaps within high-priority planetary science questions that motivate th
Authors
Serina Diniega, Devon M. Burr, Colin M. Dundas, Brian Jackson, Michael Mischna, Scot Rafkin, Isaac B. Smith, Robert Sullivan, Timothy N. Titus, Nathalie Vriend, Ian J. Walker, Kaj E. Williams

Summary of the final report from the Ice and Climate Evolution Science Analysis group (ICE-SAG)

The Ice and Climate Evolution Science Analysis Group (ICE-SAG) was convened by the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) in fall 2018, with the aims of (1) identifying and prioritizing fundamental science questions related to the recent and ongoing evolution of Mars volatiles and climate, and (2) exploring new mission approaches that could address these high-priority science questions du
Authors
Serina Diniega, Nathaniel E. Putzig, Shane Byrne, Wendy M. Calvin, Colin M. Dundas, Lori K. Fenton, Paul O. Hayne, David M H Baker, John W Holt, Christine S. Hvidberg, Melinda Kahre, Michael Mischna, Gareth A Morgan, Dorothy Oehler, Ganna Portyankina, A. Deanne Rogers, Hanna G Sizemore, Isaac B. Smith, Alejandro Soto, Leslie Tamppari, Timothy N. Titus, Chris Webster