What Do We Know About Uranus's Interior? Preparing for a Mission to Uranus

All interested researchers and students are invited to attend. No registration is required for the short course. Seating is limited and is available on a first come, first served basis.

Program

Lecture 1 – “Giant Planet Formation: Reservoirs and Processes” – Jonathan Lunine

• What types of material were available and what were their locations?
• What processes brought the material together and modified it?
• What markers exist today to identify reservoirs and processes?

Lecture 2 – “Uranus’s Evolution and Current Structure” – Ravit Helled

• What might Uranus’s interior look like when it formed, and how might it evolve?
• What do we know about Uranus’s interior structure today?
• What are the key questions to answer about the interior?

Lecture 3 – “Measurements to Constrain Uranus’s Interior Structure” – Krista Soderlund

• Review of the techniques traditionally used to infer giant planet interior structure (bulk density, gravity and magnetic fields, atmospheric composition).
• Discuss new and emerging techniques (ring seismology, atmospheric seismology, exoplanets)
• Discuss knowledge gaps that limit our ability to interpret measurements (Equations of State, conductivities)

Lecture 4 – “Uranus Flagship Mission Constraints” – Marzia Parisi

• Review of the science, safety, engineering, and cost trades that are made in choosing instrument payloads, interplanetary trajectories, the time in orbit, the number of orbits, and orbital inclination and eccentricity.
• Review the trades associated with atmospheric entry probes (number of probes, location they enter, depth from which data are returned).
• Review plausible mission parameters for Uranus Flagship: launch year, arrival year, time in orbit, number of instruments, probe parameters.

Short Course Presentations