The Science Case for a Titan Flagship-class Orbiter with Probes

Conor Nixon , James Abshire , Andrew Ashton , Jason W. Barnes , Nathalie Carrasco (1) , Mathieu Choukroun , Athena Coustenis (2) , Louis-Alexandre Couston , Niklas Edberg , Alexander Gagnon , Jason D. Hofgartner , Luciano Iess , Stéphane Le Mouélic (3) , Rosaly Lopes , Juan Lora , Ralph D. Lorenz , Adrienn Luspay-Kuti , Michael Malaska , Kathleen Mandt , Marco Mastrogiuseppe , Erwan Mazarico , Marc Neveu , Taylor Perron , Jani Radebaugh , Sébastien Rodriguez (4) , Farid Salama , Ashley Schoenfeld , Jason M. Soderblom , Anezina Solomonidou , Darci Snowden , Xioali Sun , Nicholas Teanby , Gabriel Tobie (3) , Melissa G. Trainer , Orenthal J. Tucker , Elizabeth P. Turtle , Sandrine Vinatier (2) , Véronique Vuitton (5) , Xi Zhang

1 UPCité - Université Paris Cité
2 Observatoire de Paris
3 UN - Université de Nantes
4 IPGP (UMR_7154) - Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
5 UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes

This white paper describes a small flagship-class mission concept focused on studying Titan as a global system, with particular emphasis on the polar regions. The mission would accomplish comprehensive global mapping with an orbiter, and one or more small probes to directly investigate Titan's seas, making direct measurements of their composition.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Conor Nixon, James Abshire, Andrew Ashton, Jason W. Barnes, Nathalie Carrasco, et al.. The Science Case for a Titan Flagship-class Orbiter with Probes. Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey 2023-2032 white paper e-id. 325; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 0000, à renseigner, Unknown Region. ⟨10.3847/25c2cfeb.bc2b9583⟩. ⟨insu-03590060⟩