Uranus Pathfinder |  |
UranusUranus is the seventh planet from the Sun, the third largest and fourth most massive planet in the solar system.Uranus is an ice giant planet named after the Greek god Uranus. Sir William Herschel announced the discovery of Uranuson 13 March 1781. Uranus has a set of 27 natural satellites (moons), a system of rings, a highly asymmetric magneticfield, and orbits the Sun on its side with its poles pointing at the Sun during some parts of the uranian year. Thenames of the uranian natural satellites are taken from characters in the works of William Shakespeare (e.g.,Titania, Oberon and Mab) and Alexander Pope (e.g., Ariel and Umbriel)
What is Uranus Pathfinder?Uranus Pathfinder is a developing mission concept aimed at sending a spacecraft to the planet Uranus.This mission would perform the first detailed study of an ice giant planetary system which would fill thegaps in our understanding of the formation of the solar system, and the physical processes in the interiorsand atmospheres of ice giants. A short presentation is availablehere. The science traceability matrix for the mission isavailable here.
Why an expensive space mission to Uranus?All the major components of the solar system are being actively explored in situ by spacecraft apartfrom the ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune. Yet the ice giants are an important and essentially unknownpart of the solar system, they have a unique place in planet formation, and are crucial in understandingexoplanetary systems
ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025A proposal for Uranus Pathfinder is presently being developed for submission to ESA's2010 M-class mission call and will be submitted in December 2010
Who are the Team?The Uranus Pathfinder project is led by Dr. Chris Arridge from theMullard Space Science Laboratoryin the UK and the whole project involves over 120 scientists from: - Argentina
- Belgium
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Israel
- Spain
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- United States of America
We welcome all feedback, comments and suggestions from the UK, European and world-wide community. Please registerhereto show your interest in this exciting mission.
21 December 2010
Chris Arridge
csa [at] mssl.ucl.ac.uk | 
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