Outstanding Science in the Neptune System from an Aerocaptured NASA "Vision Mission"

In 2003 NASA released its Vision Mission Studies NRA (NRA-03-OSS-01-VM) soliciting proposals to study any one of 17 Vision Missions described in the NRA. The authors, along with a team of scientists and engineers, sucessfully proposed a study of the Neptune Orbiter With Probes (NOP) option, a mission that performs Cassini-level science in the Neptune system without fission-based electric power or propulsion. The Study Team includes a Science Team composed of experienced planetary scientists, many of whom helped draft the Neptune discussions in the 2003 Solar System Exploration Decadal Survey (SSEDS), and an Implementation Team with experienced engineers and technologists from multiple NASA Centers and JPL.