What Unmanned Missions Would You Like to See?

[LostCosmonaut]

There's a shitload of real estate in the solar system, and we don't know much about most of it. What unmanned probes would you like to see built to learn more about the planets and other objects?

 

My first choice is an Enceladus orbiter/lander; it's one of the best candidates for extraterrestial life, has confirmed cryovolcanism, and organics have been found near it. Plus, any mission you send there can get some bonus science of Titan and other cool places in the Saturn system.

 

I also like FOCAL, just for the sheer audacity of it.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOCAL_(spacecraft)

 

Quote

 

Fast Outgoing Cyclopean Astronomical Lens (FOCAL) is a proposed space telescope that would use the Sun as a gravity lens.
 

 

[Lord_James]

Perhaps some space telescopes stationed at Lagrange points 4 or 5, to look at point 3 cause we can’t actually see it (darn sun). 

 

Jupiter’s Europa was also a good candidate for life, iirc. It’s also closer than titan or Enceladus. 

 

That sounds pretty rad, using the sun as a lens; I would be curious just to see how well it works, and what we could see with it. 

[juretrn]

Mars sample return mission, that would be a great prelude to an actual manned mission.

[Ramlaen]

A probe to Uranus similar to the Juno probe with a goal of figuring out why the insides appear to be wonky (offset magnetic field etc.).

[LostCosmonaut]

1 hour ago, Ramlaen said:

A probe to Uranus similar to the Juno probe with a goal of figuring out why the insides appear to be wonky (offset magnetic field etc.).

 

An outer planets orbiter would be neato. I'd personally prefer Neptune, since that gets you both an ice giant, and Triton as a scientific target (so even more data on KBOs, assuming Triton is a captured one).

 

Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter would have been extremely cool. On orbit assembly for a huge probe, plus nuclear power (actual nuclear, not RTGs), so much more power for instruments and data transmission. I'm curious how much weight BFR could put into a Earth-Jupiter transfer orbit, such a large, cheap rocket could potentially open up a lot of opportunities for science in the outer system.

[T___A]

We must close the venus lander gap with the Soviets!