Key committee of scientists
has recommended that a flagship mission to Uranus should be NASA's highest-priority large planetary science mission for the next decade.
Uranus is a mostly unexplored world
NASA's only visit to the seventh planet was Voyager 2's brief fly-by on Jan. 24, 1986
The new recommendation
comes from a process called the decadal survey, which is led by the National Academy of Sciences and offers NASA guidance for prioritizing science goals.
Committee's new report
published Tuesday (April 19), highlighted a mission concept called the Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP) for a multi-year orbital tour
For now,
the Uranus Orbiter and Probe isn't a specific mission, but a concept.
Other reports have also
stressed the need for a fully-equipped Uranus orbiter, complete with an atmospheric probe to dive beneath the planet's clouds.