Michel Blanc – författare

Planetary Exploration Horizon 2061: A Long-Term Perspective for Planetary Exploration synthesizes all the material elaborated and discussed during three workshops devoted to the Horizon 2061 foresight exercise. Sections cover the science of planetary systems, space missions to solar system objects, technologies for exploration, and infrastructures and services to support the missions and to maximize their science return. The editors follow the path of the implementation of a planetary mission, from the needed support in terms of navigation and communication, through the handling of samples returned to Earth, to the development of more permanent infrastructures for scientific human outposts on the Moon and Mars.

This book also includes a special chapter entirely devoted to contributions from students and early-career scientists: the "Horizon 2061 generation� and a final chapter on important avenues for the actual implementation of the planetary missions coming out of our "Dreams for Horizon 2061�: International cooperation, and the growing role and initiatives of private enterprise in planetary exploration.

This volume reviews what we know of the corresponding plasma source for each intrinsically magnetized planet. Plasma sources fall essentially in three categories: the solar wind, the ionosphere (both prevalent on Earth), and the satellite-related sources. 

Throughout the text, the case of each planet is described, including the characteristics, chemical composition and intensity of each source. The authors also describe how the plasma generated at the source regions is transported to populate the magnetosphere, and how it is later lost. To summarize, the dominant sources are found to be the solar wind and sputtered surface ions at Mercury, the solar wind and ionosphere at Earth (the relative importance of the two being discussed in a specific introductory chapter), Io at Jupiter and – a big surprise of the Cassini findings – Enceladus at Saturn. The situation for Uranus and Neptune, which were investigated by only one fly-by each, is still open and requires further studies and exploration. In thefinal chapter, the book offers a summary of the little we know of Uranus andNeptune, then summarizes in a comparative way what we know of plasma sourcesthroughout the solar system, and proposes directions for future research.