Author Topic: ESA M5 Science Mission Competition  (Read 25288 times)

Online vjkane

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ESA M5 Science Mission Competition
« on: 01/08/2017 08:24 pm »
Proposals for ESA fifth medium class science mission have been submitted. I'm starting this thread to 1) collect a list of missions proposed and then 2) discuss the finalists following their announcement in June.

I know of three planetary missions that have been proposed:

HERA Saturn atmospheric probe
EnVision Venus mapper
Enceladus to Titan (E2T) multiple flyby orbiter

Schedule:

June 2017 finalists selected
2019 mission selected
2029 launch
« Last Edit: 02/04/2017 03:06 pm by Galactic Penguin SST »

Offline as58

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #1 on: 01/08/2017 08:44 pm »
AFAIK many (maybe most) of the M4 candidates were resubmitted for M5. Missions that I believe weren't submitted for M4:

SPICA (FIR observatory, mostly spectroscopy)
FLARE (NIR observatory for early universe research)

Offline Alpha_Centauri

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #2 on: 01/09/2017 06:53 am »
Below are proposals I know are definite, with links to clear public information;

Akon (Europa Penetrator)
https://europa.sciencesconf.org/data/pages/7_akon_jones_loi.pdf (PDF)

Alfven (Studying particle acceleration in Earth's aurora)
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016EGUGA..1816890F
http://www.alfvenmission.org/news.php

ARAGO (UV-Vis spectropolarimetry observatory)
http://arago-mission.obspm.fr/index.php

CABIBBO (Charge-Parity violation and gravity)
---

Castalia (Main Belt comet probe)
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1709.03405.pdf (PDF)
https://sites.google.com/site/castaliathemission/

CASTAway (Main Belt telescopic survey)
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1710/1710.10191.pdf (PDF)
https://sites.google.com/site/castawaymission/
http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2017/pdf/2074.pdf (PDF)

CORE ("Cosmic Origins Explorer" - CMB survey)
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1706.04516.pdf (PDF)
https://agenda.infn.it/getFile.py/access?contribId=26&sessionId=0&resId=0&materialId=slides&confId=11736 (PDF)
http://www.inaf.it/it/sedi/sede-centrale-nuova/direzione-scientifica/ufficio-spazio/cmb-day/79_16_CORE_de_Bernardis_V01_CMBDay_V01.pdf (PDF)

CORE [Shame you picked a popular acronym...] ("Comet Rendezvous Explorer" - comet hopper)
---

DePhine ("The Deimos and Phobos Interior Explorer" - remote sensing of Deimos and Phobos)
http://elib.dlr.de/114571/1/EPSC2017-539-3.pdf (PDF)

E2T ("Explorer of Enceladus and Titan" - ELF-like flyby mission)
https://e2tmission.wordpress.com/

e-ASTROGAM (Gamma-ray observatory)
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.03739.pdf (PDF)
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1711.01265.pdf (PDF)
http://eastrogam.iaps.inaf.it/

EnVision (Venus SAR mapper)
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1703/1703.09010.pdf (PDF)
http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2016/pdf/1511.pdf (PDF)

ESCAPE ("European SpaceCraft for the study of Atmospheric Particle Escape" - I believe this may have previously been called "NOBEL", was "NITRO" in M4)
https://pnst.ias.u-psud.fr/sites/pnst/files/ESCAPE_summary%20and%20supporters.pdf (PDF)
http://cluster.irap.omp.eu/public/ESCAPE/ESCAPE_M5_Proposal_V1.1.pdf (PDF)

FIRSPEX ("Far-Infrared Spectroscopic Explorer" - FIR spectroscopic surveyor)
http://futuremission.wixsite.com/firspex

FLARE ("First Light And Reionization Explorer" - NIR spectroscopic surveyor)
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1607/1607.06606.pdf (PDF)

Galileo Galilei (Equivalence principle test)
https://agenda.infn.it/getFile.py/access?contribId=31&sessionId=0&resId=0&materialId=slides&confId=11736 (PDF)

Heavy Metal (Psyche probe)
http://www.irfu.se/Heavy_Metal/
http://www.irfu.se/Heavy_Metal/Heavy_Metal_M5_Proposal.pdf? (PDF)

Hera (Saturn entry probe)
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1510.07685.pdf (PDF)
http://hera.lam.fr/

Icarus (Twin solar probes to study the corona)
http://icarus-mission.com/

JANUS ("Exploring the asymmetric magnetosphere" - observation of Earth's magnetosphere, evolution of M4's RAVENS)

JEM ("Joint Europa Mission" -  ESA Europa orbiter/carrier for NASA lander+European instruments)
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/meetings/feb2017/presentations/Blanc.pdf (PDF)
http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2017/pdf/2654.pdf (PDF)
https://europa.sciencesconf.org/data/pages/6_1_Blanc_Mission_concept_and_overview.pptx (PPTX) https://europa.sciencesconf.org/resource/page/id/3

MarcoPolo-M5 (Asteroid sample return)
http://stem.open.ac.uk/research-project/marcopolo/ / http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2017/pdf/2667.pdf (PDF)

SELMA ("Surface, Environment, and Lunar Magnetic Anomalies" - Moon probe)
http://impact.colorado.edu/dap/abstracts/stas_barabash.pdf (PDF)

SPICA ("Space Infrared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics"- M/FIR spectroscopic observatory)
http://spica-mission.org/index.html

Theia (Extreme astrometric observatory for DM/exoplanets/compact objects)
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1707.01348.pdf (PDF)
https://tu-dresden.de/bu/umwelt/geo/ipg/astro/ressourcen/dateien/staff/publications_zschocke/Theia.pdf?lang=en (PDF)

THESEUS ("Transient High Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor")
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.04638.pdf (PDF)
https://agenda.infn.it/getFile.py/access?contribId=129&sessionId=6&resId=0&materialId=slides&confId=11102 (PDF)
http://www.isdc.unige.ch/theseus/images/meetings/20171005/PreS/amati.pdf (PDF)

I'm sure that is not a complete list, for instance some M4 proposals are missing which I know were planning to submit.

EDIT: added new info
« Last Edit: 12/25/2017 12:08 pm by Alpha_Centauri »

Offline as58

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #3 on: 01/09/2017 07:40 am »
CMB CORE was already submitted for M4, so it should have priority for the acronym ;)

There's still a COrE website from M3 era: http://www.core-mission.org/, and also a much more recent white paper on arxiv describing the latest version: https://arxiv.org/abs/1612.08270

I think the official SPICA website is http://spica-mission.org/index.html
« Last Edit: 01/09/2017 06:29 pm by as58 »

Offline Alpha_Centauri

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #4 on: 01/09/2017 07:56 am »
And M3, though with a little "r" that time.  It's a rookie mistake.  :P

Thanks, I'll update.
« Last Edit: 01/09/2017 10:03 am by Alpha_Centauri »

Offline redliox

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #5 on: 01/09/2017 05:18 pm »
If the Heavy Metal Psyche probe flies, it will make the Discovery Psyche probe look woefully under-powered.  Here's their list of proposed instruments:

Quote
Optical Imager (NAC)

Wide Angle Camera (WAC)

Infrared Imager/Spectrometer (IR)

UV Spectrograph (UVS)

(Sub-)Surface Radar

Magnetometer (MAG)

Plasma Spectrometer Package

Electric field and Cold Plasma

Radio Science Experiment

That's 8 compared to Psyche's 3!  Crazy!  If that wasn't enough their page goes on to mention including a cubesat with their mission.  Ambitious to say the least, although I'd assume ESA would view such ambition as skeptically as their American counterparts would in mission evaluation.
"Let the trails lead where they may, I will follow."
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Offline JH

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #6 on: 01/09/2017 06:12 pm »
Part of the difference is that instruments are contributed by institutions for ESA missions, rather than being included in the cost cap.

Offline as58

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #7 on: 01/09/2017 06:12 pm »
That's 8 compared to Psyche's 3!  Crazy!  If that wasn't enough their page goes on to mention including a cubesat with their mission.  Ambitious to say the least, although I'd assume ESA would view such ambition as skeptically as their American counterparts would in mission evaluation.

instruments are not included in cost cap, so why not load all of them in one mission...

(Though there may be some problems with such things as power and mass margins.)

Offline Alpha_Centauri

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #8 on: 01/20/2017 07:12 pm »
Turns out previous finalist LOFT did not submit, they are focusing on working with China on eXTP;

https://personal.sron.nl/~jeanz/
http://www.isdc.unige.ch/extp/the-extp-payload.html

Offline as58

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #9 on: 01/21/2017 07:16 am »
I wonder if unsuccessful M4 finalists will be considered for M5 as was done with PLATO (lost M2 selection against Euclid, won M3). M4 decision is supposed to happen around the same time as the selection of M5 finalists.

Offline Alpha_Centauri

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #10 on: 01/21/2017 12:04 pm »
As I understand it the PLATO situation was a special case.  When PLATO failed to be selected for M1/M2 it was specifically decided it would be retained to compete in a future selection;

http://sci.esa.int/cosmic-vision/49385-dark-and-bright-esa-chooses-next-two-science-missions/

I suspect this was done to ensure the exoplanet community didn't give up proposing so ESA wouldn't be left without the choice. As far as I know there was no similar statement after the M4 selection.
« Last Edit: 01/21/2017 12:12 pm by Alpha_Centauri »

Offline as58

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #11 on: 01/21/2017 12:27 pm »
As I understand it the PLATO situation was a special case.  When PLATO failed to be selected for M1/M2 it was specifically decided it would be retained to compete in a future selection;

http://sci.esa.int/cosmic-vision/49385-dark-and-bright-esa-chooses-next-two-science-missions/

I suspect this was done to ensure the exoplanet community didn't give up proposing so ESA wouldn't be left without the choice. As far as I know there was no similar statement after the M4 selection.

I know some X-ray astronomers and I'm getting the feeling that the high-energy community is becoming as desperate as exoplanet people were a few years ago. There's Athena, but it's still more than a decade away.

Offline Alpha_Centauri

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #12 on: 01/21/2017 04:20 pm »
Well that's ESA's decision based on their strategic needs. Besides, X-rays has XIPE in M4 and even if an X-ray mission was selected for M5 it isn't going to launch any sooner than Athena.  At least X-rays has a flagship!

Offline as58

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #13 on: 01/21/2017 05:31 pm »
I would expect a lot of missions getting eliminated by technical/cost evaluation. Some of the proposed missions don't look very M-class to me (though maybe they have plans for significant contributions from NASA/JAXA/Chinese/Russians/someone else).

Offline Star One

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M5 Competition
« Reply #14 on: 01/21/2017 08:47 pm »
Will not the cost of the forthcoming orbital gravitational wave observatory impact all these kind selections?
« Last Edit: 01/21/2017 09:08 pm by Star One »

Offline as58

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #15 on: 01/21/2017 10:30 pm »
Will not the cost of the forthcoming orbital gravitational wave observatory impact all these kind selections?

Why would L3 mission that is almost two decades from launch have any effect here? I'm also not sure why you think a gravitational wave mission would be especially costly (more so than any other large-class mission). ExoMars stuff, on the other hand, could have an effect if they go ahead with plans to divert money from science budget.

Offline Star One

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #16 on: 01/21/2017 10:38 pm »
Will not the cost of the forthcoming orbital gravitational wave observatory impact all these kind selections?

Why would L3 mission that is almost two decades from launch have any effect here? I'm also not sure why you think a gravitational wave mission would be especially costly (more so than any other large-class mission). ExoMars stuff, on the other hand, could have an effect if they go ahead with plans to divert money from science budget.

I don't know where you're getting that time scale from being as they've been indicating that they want to bring forward as soon as possible the mission I thought to the late 2020s.

Offline Quagga

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #17 on: 01/22/2017 07:33 am »
I don't know where you're getting that time scale from being as they've been indicating that they want to bring forward as soon as possible the mission I thought to the late 2020s.

Directly from ESA's website:
"Planned launch date for L3: 2034"

http://sci.esa.int/cosmic-vision/42369-l-class-timeline/

Offline as58

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #18 on: 01/23/2017 10:14 pm »
Are there any rumours about the results of the technical screening? If the process follows roughly the same time line as M4, the initial culling should happen soon.

Offline Kaputnik

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Re: M5 Competition
« Reply #19 on: 02/02/2017 07:28 am »
Some info about the E2T mission from thr Planetary Society: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/van-kane/20170201-explorer-of-enceladus-and-titan.html

Proposed launch is interesting- piggyback a ride to GTO with a comsat, and then SEP from there.
"I don't care what anything was DESIGNED to do, I care about what it CAN do"- Gene Kranz

Tags: Phobos Deimos 
 

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