NASA Completes Study of Future ‘Ice Giant’ Mission ConceptsJune 20, 2017
A NASA-led and NASA-sponsored study of potential future missions to the mysterious “ice giant” planets Uranus and Neptune has been released—the first in a series of mission studies NASA will conduct in support of the next Planetary Science Decadal Survey. The results of this and future studies will be used as the Decadal Survey deliberates on NASA’s planetary science priorities from 2022-2032. The study identifies the scientific questions an ice giant mission should address, and discusses various instruments, spacecraft, flight-paths and technologies that could be used. (...)
A variety of potential mission concepts are discussed in the study, including orbiters, flybys, and probes that would dive into Uranus’ atmosphere to study its composition. A narrow-angle camera would send data back to Earth about the ice giants and their moons. Uranus has 27 known moons, while Neptune has 14. (...)
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-completes-study-of-future-ice-giant-mission-concepts