The science case for spacecraft exploration of the Uranian satellites: Candidate ocean worlds in an ice giant system

Abstract

The 27 satellites of Uranus are enigmatic, with dark surfaces coated by material that could be rich in organics. Voyager 2 imaged the southern hemispheres of Uranus' five largest 'classical' moons Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon, as well as the largest ring moon Puck, but their northern hemispheres were largely unobservable at the time of the flyby and were not imaged. Additionally, no spatially resolved datasets exist for the other 21 known moons, and their surface properties are essentially unknown. Because Voyager 2 was not equipped with a near-infrared mapping spectrometer, our knowledge of the Uranian moons' surface compositions, and the processes that modify them, is limited to disk-integrated datasets collected by ground-and space-based telescopes. Nevertheless,

Mapping Long-Term Natural Orbits about Titania, a Satellite of Uranus

“…Their high obliquity and low luminosity are intriguing. In addition to all these issues, information about Uranus' satellites would also be of great importance, as they have irregular surfaces and there is evidence of oceanic formation [1,2]. According to [3], NASA is working in partnership with ESA to plan possible missions to the ice giants during the period 2024-2037.…”

“…In addition, there are indications that its surface has a mixture of water and ice with carbon dioxide [4][5][6]. An orbiter around Titania could investigate, for example, whether this satellite is or once was an ocean world, or even determine recent endogenous geological activity [2].…”