UMaMI: A New Frontiers-style Mission Concept to Explore the Uranian System

Abstract

Abstract With the public and scientific community’s growing interest in ocean worlds, the icy moons of Uranus offer an ideal opportunity to explore a native ice giant satellite system. Although it is uncertain whether any of the Uranian moons currently host subsurface oceans, there is tantalizing evidence—including geologically young surface features and volatiles that are not stable—that this could be the case, making these objects possible ocean worlds in their own right. Determining whether subsurface oceans are present in the interiors of these moons would increase our understanding of the conditions under which subsurface oceans are formed and maintained over the history of the solar system. The presence and stability of a subsurface ocean in the interiors of any icy body is key to identifying its potential as a habitable environment. In this work, we describe a midsize (New Frontiers class) mission concept: the Uranian Magnetosphere and Moons Investigator. The magnetosphere and moons are tightly coupled parts of the Uranian system, complementary to study, and best analyzed together in order to investigate the Uranian moons as potential ocean worlds. Additionally, this mission concept includes study of Uranus’s unique rings and magnetosphere–solar wind interaction. With a future, more detailed trade study, there also could be opportunities for studies of Uranus itself.