Proposed Science Themes for NASA's Fifth New Frontiers Mission

NASA's New Frontiers (NF) program plays a crucial role in solar system exploration by soliciting principal investigator (PI)-led missions at a more frequent cadence of two per decade than flagship missions, but with a larger budget and scope than Discovery missions. Mission themes for the New Frontiers 5 (NF-5) announcement of opportunity (AO) were evaluated in the 2011 planetary science decadal survey Vision and Voyages for Planetary Science in the Decade 2013-2022 and reevaluated in Report Series - Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science: Options for the Fifth New Frontiers Announcement of Opportunity. The most recent planetary science decadal survey, Origins, Worlds, and Life: A Decadal Strategy for Planetary Science and Astrobiology 2023-2032, recommended mission themes for NF-6 and NF-7 for the current decade (20232032). Since the completion of the Origins, Worlds, and Life report, the timing for the upcoming NF-5 AO has been delayed to no earlier than 2026, overlapping with the timeframe expected for NF-6. Therefore, NASA requested that the National Academies investigate and report on any scientific, programmatic, and technological advances that have a significant impact on the mission themes prioritized for the next NF AO.