The Future Exploration of Saturn

Abstract

Despite the lack of another Flagship-class mission like Cassini-Huygens, 1 prospects for the future exploration of Saturn are nevertheless encouraging. Both NASA 2 and the European Space Agency (ESA) are exploring the possibilities of focused 3 interplanetary missions to (1) drop one or more in-situ atmospheric entry probes into 4 Saturn and (2) explore the satellites Titan and Enceladus which would provide 5 opportunities for both in-situ investigations of Saturn's magnetosphere and detailed 6 remote-sensing observations of Saturn. Additionally, a new generation of powerful 7 Earth-based and near-Earth telescopes with advanced instrumentation spanning the ultra8 violet to the far-infrared promise to provide systematic observations of Saturn’s 9 seasonally-changing composition and thermal structure, cloud structures and wind fields. 10 Finally, new advances in amateur telescopic observations brought on largely by the 11 availability of low-cost powerful computers, low-noise, large-format cameras, and 12 attendant sophisticated software promise to provide regular observations of Saturn in 13 remarkable detail. 14 14.