The Case for Exploring the Planet Uranus

Once every 10 years there's a report released by America's National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Released this year, the report recommends prioritizing a mission to the planet Uranus to map its gravitational and magnetic fields and study how the planet's internal heat moves to the surface. BGR reports:Despite being the seventh planet in our solar system, there's very little we know about Uranus as a whole. In fact, one of the best images we have of the planet was captured in 1986 by the Voyager 2... Additionally, scientists want to learn more about the various moons that surround the planet. We also know very little about the ring system that surrounds the blue planet. A team led by Mark Hofstadter, a planetary scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab wrote a white paper on their goals.... We currently already have the tech we need to get a spacecraft there that can orbit the planet. Additionally, scientists have found that launching a mission in 2031 would allow us to capitalize on gravity assistance from Jupiter. The report also recommends studying Enceladus, an icy moon orbiting Saturn which has shown signs it could sustain microbial life. Thanks to Slashdot reader alaskana98 for submitting the story.

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