Opportunities for Technosignature Science in the Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey

TL;DR

This paper explores how ongoing and future solar system missions can be utilized to search for technosignatures, offering a cost-effective approach to complement biosignature searches in astrobiology.

Contribution

It identifies opportunities within current planetary missions to search for technosignatures and assesses gaps in the existing search strategies.

Findings

Technosignature searches can be integrated into ongoing missions at minimal additional cost.

There are significant opportunities to constrain technosignatures within the solar system.

Gaps exist in current search strategies that could be addressed in future missions.

Abstract

Solar system exploration provides numerous possibilities for advancing technosignature science. The search for life in the solar system includes missions designed to search for evidence of biosignatures on other planetary bodies, but many missions could also attempt to search for and constrain the presence of technology within the solar system. Technosignatures and biosignatures represent complementary approaches toward searching for evidence of life in our solar neighborhood, and beyond. This report summarizes the potential technosignature opportunities within ongoing solar system exploration and the recommendations of the "Origins, Worlds, and Life" Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey. We discuss opportunities for constraining the prevalence of technosignatures within the solar system using current or future missions at negligible additional cost, and we present a preliminary assessment of gaps that may exist in the search for technosignatures within the solar system.