Planetary Exploration 3.0: A New Paradigm for Outer Solar System Missions

A recent research article introduces Planetary Exploration 3.0 (PE 3.0), signaling a significant transformation in the exploration of the outer Solar System. The researchers contend that NASA's gradual strategy for Mars, known as Planetary Exploration 2.0 (PE 2.0), is impractical for investigating distant celestial bodies due to extended travel durations. PE 3.0 proposes a limited number of missions utilizing highly adaptable space systems capable of performing both initial exploratory science and subsequent hypothesis-driven research based on in situ findings, enhancing spacecraft functions for unknown environments. The authors emphasize that the surfaces and subsurfaces of regions beyond Mars remain largely uncharted, yet they may reveal crucial insights into potentially habitable subsurface oceans on icy moons and ancient records within Kuiper Belt objects. This study is available on arXiv with the identifier 2604.20910.