An L-class Multirole Observatory and Science Platform for Neptune
Abstract
A coming resurgence of super heavy-lift launch vehicles has precipitated an immense interest in the future of crewed spaceflight and even future colonisation efforts. While it is true that a bright future awaits this sector, driven by commercial ventures and the reignited interest of old space-faring nations, and the joining of new ones, little of this attention has been reserved for the science-centric applications of these launchers. The Arcanum mission is a proposal to use these vehicles to deliver an L-class observatory into a highly eccentric orbit around Neptune, with a wide-ranging suite of science goals and instrumentation tackling Solar System science, planetary science, Kuiper Belt Objects and exoplanet systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2106.09409,
title = {An L-class Multirole Observatory and Science Platform for Neptune},
author = {James McKevitt and Sophie Bulla and Tom Dixon and Franco Criscola and Jonathan Parkinson-Swift and Christina Bornberg and Jaspreet Singh and Kuren Patel and Aryan Laad and Ethan Forder and Louis Ayin-Walsh and Shayne Beegadhur and Paul Wedde and Bharath Simha Reddy Pappula and Thomas McDougall and Madalin Foghis and Jack Kent and James Morgan and Utkarsh Raj and Carina Heinreichsberger},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.09409},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
Global Space Exploration Conference 2021, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, 14 - 18 June 2021. Published by the International Astronautical Federation with permission