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Why a new mission to Titan and Enceladus after Cassini-Huygens?(If you want more details, follow this link)
Cassini and Huygens will leave us with an outstanding list of questions about Titan that are directly relevant to our understanding of the nature of planetary evolution, processes and habitability. Even though the Cassini orbiter is expected to continue to operate for up to 3 more years assuming an extended mission, but spends only short flyby periods at these two targets. Thus, even with the Cassini Orbiter extended mission, we will lack coverage of Titan's surface at 300 meter (best radar) resolution over about half of Titan's surface. However, Huygens data over tens of square kilometres demonstrated that fluvial and geological features providing the key in understanding surface and tectonic processes exist at sub-100 meter resolution. The issue of whether liquid water exists under the south pole of Enceladus may well remain unresolved by Cassini-Huygens. Future in situ chemical studies of surface and atmospheric processes will also be required to address questions about both Titan and Enceladus raised by Cassini-Huygens.
Considering the complementary nature of the geological, chemical and evolutionary history of Titan and Enceladus, and their close proximity in space, we propose to carry out studies for a mission to perform an in situ exploration of these two objects in tandem.
This proposal addresses directly several of the scientific questions highlighted in the ESA Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 call, particularly: 1.3 Life and habitability in the Solar System and 2.2 The giant planets and their environmentsÓ, but also 2.1 From the Sun to the edge of the Solar System.
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