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Mission scenario and architecture:
We build this mission concept around an orbiter, a Titan aerial platform, Titan mini-probes, and Enceladus penetrators/landers carrying a large variety of instruments.
We are proposing that ESA select TANDEM as a multi-component exploration system to be built with international partners (NASA and Canadian investigators have indicated their potential interest to work in tandem on TANDEM) for a launch around 2020. The mission concept has been developed through the expertise of more than 150 scientists and engineers from all over the world, many of whom are actively involved in the exploration of the Saturn system through Cassini-Huygens or have participated in mission designs for existing and future missions. The TANDEM theme is in situ investigation of two worlds tied together by location, properties and puzzling internal processes, whose remarkable natures have been partly revealed by the ongoing Cassini-Huygens mission, but still hold mysteries requiring a more complete exploration using a variety of vehicles and instruments. However, the precise architecture of this mission will remain to be defined after further studies by the space agencies.
In depth study of the TANDEM mission concept will allow us to identify key areas for technology development.
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