SRE-PAP: Planetary and Solar System Exploration Studies Section

• Mission assessment of all Cosmic Vision (potential) future missions in the areas of planetary exploration.
• Develop the technologies required for Cosmic Vision related to planetary exploration in partnership with the Advanced Technology section (SRE-PAT).
• Support the definition of long-term technology plans for future planetary exploration in partnership with the Advanced Technology section (SRE-PAT).
• Provide payload technical support to SRE-P project and project teams and SRE-S science teams in the area of planetary exploration studies.
• Conduct and support research in specific payload related technologies and instruments required for future ESA Cosmic Vision planetary science missions within the agreed SRE-PA R&D programme
• Monitor the developments in planetary exploration within and outside the agency with a view to coordinating the activities of the Advanced Studies and Technology Preparation Division (SRE-PA).

The sections work is focussed on assessment of future planetary missions as required for Cosmic Vision and identification, definition, initiation, development and monitoring of required technologies (in close cooperation with the Advanced Technologies section  (SRE-PAT) and the Science Payload Instrument section (SRE-PAI)) needed for exploration of the Sun, planetary bodies, asteroids and comets. The overall goal is to assess the feasibility of potential future missions and their payloads in order to prepare a smooth handover of these missions into the definition phase, in the case of a mission being selected for implementation by the science advisory structure.

Cosmic Vision involvement

After strong involvement in the technical, programmatic and cost evaluation of the Cosmic Vision Proposals submitted by the scientific community to ESA in summer 2007, the section is now busy with the study of the selected mission studies (in close cooperation with the Research and Scientific Support Department (RSSD), the Science Planning and Community Coordination Office (SRE-C) and the external Science Study Teams) in the area of solar system science:

• Cross Scale: Quantifying the coupling in plasmas between different physical scales in order to address fundamental questions such as how shocks accelerate and heat particles or how reconnection converts magnetic energy.
• Marco Polo (NEO Sample Return Mission): In-situ measurements and sample return from a primitive Near-Earth Object (Asteroid or dormant comet) in order to reveal information about the early formation processes of the solar system and the role of minor bodies in the origin and evolution of life on Earth.
• Laplace (A Mission to Europa and the Jupiter System) / TandEM (Titan and Enceladus Mission): Laplace: In-depth, quantitative study of the Jupiter system and its moons, which focuses on the formation of the Jupiter system, the way the Jupiter system works, and whether Europa is habitable; TandEM: In-situ exploration of the two Saturnian moons, Titan and Enceladus, in order to gain knowledge about their geological, chemical and evolutionary history and possibly understand their astrobiological potential.

SRE-PAP provides the study managers and payload managers for these mission studies.

Technology Reference Studies

SRE-PAP (SCI-AP at the time) had studied, in preparation for Cosmic Vision (see the Cosmic Vision brochure: ESA BR-247), a series of embryonic planetary exploration mission concepts, called Technology Reference Studies:

• Solar Polar Orbiter (2004)
• Jovian Minisat Explorer (2005)
• Venus Entry Probe (2005)
• Deimos Sample Return (2006)
• Interstellar Heliopause Probe (2006)
• Cross-Scale (2007)
• Jovian System Explorer (2007)
• Near Earth Asteroid Sample Return (2007)

See also the overview on Technology Reference Studies (link is given on the right-hand menu).