Europe picks categories for three flagship space missions

Europe picks categories for three flagship space missions

2 years ago
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http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/06/europe-picks-categories-three-flagship-space-missions

Saturn’s moon Enceladus, with its geysers of water (artist’s illustration), could be the target for a future European flagship mission.

The biggest space missions gestate for the longest time. Today, the European Space Agency (ESA) revealed the three broad science themes it wants to pursue for large-scale missions of €1 billion or more that would launch between 2035 and 2050. They include a close look at icy moons around Jupiter and Saturn, dissecting the atmospheres of nearby exoplanets, and new ways to study the formation of the universe’s first stars, galaxies, and black holes. “We must start planning the science and the technology we’ll need for the missions we want to launch decades from now,” Günther Hasinger, ESA’s director of science, said in a statement.