The ISECG Science White Paper: Science Opportunities Enabled by the Global Exploration Roadmap
Abstract
The 15 space agencies of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) are discussing an internationally coordinated approach for human and robotic space exploration, as documented in ISECG's Global Exploration Roadmap (GER), i.e. a coordinated international effort to prepare for collaborative space exploration missions beginning with the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and continuing to the lunar vicinity, the Moon, asteroids and, eventually, Mars.The ISECG agencies have engaged the scientific community in a coordinated discussion with two goals: 1) promoting the scientific opportunities, and 2) improving the understanding of the priority science questions that can be addressed by near-term human exploration in to the Solar System. The ISECG set up in 2015 an independent Science Advisory Group (SAG) composed of scientists from a variety of nations and diverse science disciplines, and mandated this group to elaborate a Science White Paper to identify the scientific opportunities in near-term exploration missions beyond LEO, the overarching science themes and their relevance to the GER mission concepts.The SAG - together with ISECG agencies - organized a thorough consultation of the community using several conferences and dedicated events, starting with an interactive workshop at the European Lunar Symposium in May 2015 and continuing with a COSPAR-ISECG-ESF workshop in Paris in February 2016. The result is that international science communities' perspectives have been incorporated for a broad range of scientific disciplines including planetary and space sciences, astrobiology, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and Earth science. The Science White Paper was published in December 2017 and is structured around the science themes "Understanding Our Place in the Universe" and "Living and Working in Space". The key science aspects also inform the future evolution of mission concepts considered in the GER.We will present the contents of the Science White Paper, with particular emphasis on the benefits of such a Global Exploration Roadmap enabling scientific exploration.
- Publication:
-
42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018cosp...42E3691W