PLANETARY EXPLORATION NEWSLETTER
Volume 3, Number 9 (February 18, 2009)

PEN Website: http://planetarynews.org
Editor: Mark V. Sykes 
Co-Editors: Nic Richmond, Matt Balme
Email: pen_editor at psi.edu

o-------------------------TABLE OF CONTENTS---------------------------o

SPECIAL EDITION: The Next Outer Planets Flagship is the Europa-Jupiter 
System Mission, from James L. Green, Director, Planetary Science 
Division NASA Headquarters

o---------------------------------------------------------------------o


THE NEXT OUTER PLANETS FLAGSHIP IS THE EUROPA-JUPITER SYSTEM MISSION
James L. Green, Director, Planetary Science Division NASA Headquarters

As many of you know, during 2008, NASA and ESA collaborated on two 
joint mission studies for the next outer planets mission: a Europa 
Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) and a Titan Saturn System Mission 
(TSSM). I want to personally thank all those who participated. The 
results of these studies underwent independent review by both NASA 
and ESA in science, technical implementation, and maturity. It was 
clear that either mission would conduct outstanding science of 
significant breadth and depth and therefore science was not a 
discriminator between the two missions. Since the EJSM mission was
judged more technically ready for implementation it was prioritized 
above the TSSM as the next outer planets flagship. For more 
information on this announcement please see

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/20090218.html 

The TSSM study results will be made available to the Planetary 
Decadal study that is just now starting up.
 
This will be an important year to focus our attention on the EJSM with 
ESA. We are currently planning a joint science instrument technology 
workshop where we can better understand the instrument status and 
development needs between the two agencies. I am sure you all will 
agree that this is a tremendous step forward, however, we still have a 
long way to go before the EJSM will became a reality. The next Outer 
Planets Assessment group meeting in March 
(http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/) will be of special interest to chart 
our course ahead. I look forward to seeing you all there.


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