Planetary Exploration Horizon 2061

Planetary Exploration Horizon 2061: A Long-Term Perspective for Planetary Exploration synthesizes all the material elaborated and discussed during three workshops devoted to the Horizon 2061 foresight exercise. Sections cover the science of planetary systems, space missions to solar system objects, technologies for exploration, and infrastructures and services to support the missions and to maximize their science return. The editors follow the path of the implementation of a planetary mission, from the needed support in terms of navigation and communication, through the handling of samples returned to Earth, to the development of more permanent infrastructures for scientific human outposts on the Moon and Mars.

This book also includes a special chapter entirely devoted to contributions from students and early-career scientists: the “Horizon 2061 generation” and a final chapter on important avenues for the actual implementation of the planetary missions coming out of our “Dreams for Horizon 2061”: International cooperation, and the growing role and initiatives of private enterprise in planetary exploration.