Uranus Study Report: KISS

TL;DR

This report summarizes a 2023 workshop focused on improving understanding of Uranus's internal structure through future missions, emphasizing the importance for planetary science and exoplanet studies.

Contribution

It provides detailed insights into mission requirements, measurement strategies, and knowledge gaps for a future Uranus spacecraft, building on recent scientific and decadal survey goals.

Findings

Identified key measurement requirements for Uranus's internal structure.

Outlined mission design considerations for future Uranus exploration.

Highlighted the importance of Earth-based efforts to complement spacecraft data.

Abstract

Determining the internal structure of Uranus is a key objective for planetary science. Knowledge of Uranus's bulk composition and the distribution of elements is crucial to understanding its origin and evolutionary path. In addition, Uranus represents a poorly understood class of intermediate-mass planets (intermediate in size between the relatively well studied terrestrial and gas giant planets), which appear to be very common in the Galaxy. As a result, a better characterization of Uranus will also help us to better understand exoplanets in this mass and size regime. Recognizing the importance of Uranus, a Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) workshop was held in September 2023 to investigate how we can improve our knowledge of Uranus's internal structure in the context of a future Uranus mission that includes an orbiter and a probe. The scientific goals and objectives of the recently released Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey were taken as our starting point. We reviewed our current knowledge of Uranus's interior and identified measurement and other mission requirements for a future Uranus spacecraft, providing more detail than was possible in the Decadal Survey's mission study and including new insights into the measurements to be made. We also identified important knowledge gaps to be closed with Earth-based efforts in the near term that will help guide the design of the mission and interpret the data returned.