The (Un)Lonely Planet Guide: Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems from a `Blue Dots' Perspective

In this contribution I summarize some recent successes, and focus on remaining challenges, in understanding the formation and evolution of planetary systems in the context of the Blue Dots initiative. Because our understanding is incomplete, we cannot yet articulate a “design reference mission” engineering matrix suitable for an exploration mission where success is defined as obtaining a spectrum of a potentially habitable world around a nearby star. However, as progress accelerates, we can identify observational programs that would address fundamental scientific questions through hypothesis testing such that the null result is interesting.