The Japanese space agency (ISAS department) is hosting an open, online meeting on the OPENS mission proposal:
www.isas.jaxa.jp/en/researchers/info/004084.html
Sep 17, 2025
The First OPENS International Science Workshop (Sep 29-30, 2025/ Full Online)
One would think probes to Saturn are beyond all but the biggest space agencies. JAXA begs to differ- they aim to put on a mission to the ringed planet for less than Cassini’s cost (admittedly, not an ambitious criterion there).
“As an innovative solution, JAXA/ISAS has introduced a program concept called OPENS (Outer Planet Exploration by Novel Small Spacecraft) and recently selected “OPENS-0” as the first mission for a newly created “Eco and Fast” small-class category.”
And should OPENS-0 succeed- both in mission, and in concept- there would presumably be an OPENS-1, maybe -2. After all, this was the plan with Hayabusa- the first ‘Hayabusa 1’ was officially an engineering test flight all along. Some blog-relevant meeting items:
Review: Cruising Sciences by NASA’s Legacy Deep Space Missions- Larry Esposito
Flyby Observations of Main Belt Asteroids by Lucy- John Spencer
Observations of Zodiacal Light from Deep Space- Andrew Poppe
Dust Studies in Interplanetary Cruising- Ralf Srama
During the ‘80s, NASA (having failed at a Halley mission) enacted a policy for ‘asteroid exploration’, in a sense. All missions to the outer planets would search for asteroids in the Main Belt, suitable for a flyby. Effectively, asteroid exploration would be ‘free’ (minus some staff hours, though). Here the Japanese government is proposing the same, as bonus science to improve the odds of the OPENS program. To further aid its prospects, the meeting is fully online, and with hours chosen to be decent enough for US/European collaborations.
Register for the meeting by going to the link, then downloading the Google registration form.