Building upon the highly successful inaugural session last year, you are cordially invited to join the Second OPENS International Science Workshop in a hybrid format at the Sagamihara Campus, Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Kanagawa, Japan, on September 28-29, 2026.
Background:
The outer planet region of the Solar System offers us natural laboratories for planetary formation and evolution, references for comparative study with exoplanetary systems, and the search for a second genesis in the ocean worlds.
For the past decades, the outer planet region beyond Mars has been seen as a destination only for legacy space agencies with large launch capabilities, RTG technology, multi-billion-dollar budgets, and multi-generational commitments. On the contrary, recent advances in telescopic observations of the outer planets from the Earth's vicinity provide more frequent and shorter turnaround scientific outcomes than decade-long spacecraft missions. The traditional game of deep space exploration as described above thus needs to change to a more agile and sustainable way so that it can complement exciting discoveries from remote sensing of astronomical observatories and provide synergy with what in-situ exploration can only offer, such as observation at higher spatial and temporal resolutions, measurement of physical parameters and chemical compositions by direct contact, and ultimate sample returns.
Scopes:
As an innovative solution, JAXA/ISAS has introduced the OPENS (Outer Planet Exploration by Novel Small Spacecraft) program and selected "OPENS-0" as the first mission candidate for a newly created "Eco and Fast" small-class category in 2025. While its extremely constrained mass and power resources do not permit dedicated science payload resources, in-situ cruising science with multi-purpose instruments will be performed from the earliest phase of the mission, right after the launch until the eventual reach of the Saturn system.
To complement legacy flagship-class missions, the "OPENS program concept" aims for higher frequency, shorter duration, and less cost, and it will be built upon the success of the OPENS-0 technology demonstration, operational experience, and lessons learned. Following up on the OPENS-0 tech demo mission, the subsequent OPENS-1 mission is currently planned as an independent rendezvous mission to an outer planet target with electric propulsion; OPENS-Piggy missions can enhance mission capabilities and mitigate risks of the mothership by providing OPENS-based daughtership to international flagship-class missions to targets like Enceladus and Uranus; OPENS-OTV concept may enable a sample return mission design from ocean worlds by relying its outbound journey on a larger orbital transfer vehicle.
With these prospects, this workshop aims at the following three scopes.
(1) Overviews of the OPENS-0, OPENS-1, and subsequent OPENS program concepts will be shared with all the interested stakeholders worldwide.
(2) Science enabled by OPENS-0, OPENS-1, and subsequent OPENS program concepts will be discussed by welcoming both solicited and contributed talks.
(3) The OPEN International Science Network community will be expanded through the full two-day interactive sessions.
Please join us by following the registration instructions stated below.
| Date and Time |
September 28-29, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format /Venue |
Hybrid (in-person and online) Conference Hall (New-A Building-2F), Sagamihara Campus, https://www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp/mercury/announce/Travel_Information_to_ISAS.pdf |
| Fee |
Free |
| Registration |
Required (Due: September 29) |
| Contributed Presentations |
The workshop consists of both invited and contributed talks, as well as poster presentations.
Notifications will be sent during the week of September 14th in JST. |
| Language |
English |
| Agenda |
The tentative agenda is as follows. Day-1: Science Investigations Enabled by OPENS-0
Day-2: Science Quests for the OPENS Program
The final program will be made available in mid-September. |
| Timetable |
The tentative timetable is planned as follows. Day-1 (Time in JST) Day-2 (Time in JST) |
| SOC |
ISAS OPENS-0 Pre-Project Preparation Team |
| Contact |
yano.hajime [AT] jaxa.jp |
| Associated Events |
There is a related event to be held close to this workshop. For those who are interested, please visit the event homepage. Planetary Exploration Workshop 2026 |