As many of you know, during 2008, NASA and ESA collaborated on two joint mission studies for the next outer planets mission: a Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) and a Titan Saturn System Mission (TSSM). I want to personally thank all those who participated. The results of these studies underwent independent review by both NASA and ESA in science, technical implementation, and maturity. It was clear that either mission would conduct outstanding science of significant breadth and depth and therefore science was not a discriminator between the two missions. Since the EJSM mission was judged more technically ready for implementation it was prioritized above the TSSM as the next outer planets flagship. For more information on this announcement please see: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/20090218.html

The TSSM study results will be made available to the Planetary Decadal study that is just now starting up. This will be an important year to focus our attention on the EJSM with ESA. We are currently planning a joint science instrument technology workshop where we can better understand the instrument status and development needs between the two agencies. I am sure you all will agree that this is a tremendous step forward, however, we still have a long way to go before the EJSM will became a reality. The next Outer Planets Assessment group meeting in March (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/) will be of special interest to chart our course ahead.

I look forward to seeing you all there.