  Collisionless shocks are fundamental processes that are ubiquitous in space
plasma physics throughout the Heliosphere and most astrophysical environments.
Earth's bow shock and interplanetary shocks at 1 AU offer the most readily
accessible opportunities to advance our understanding of the nature of
collisionless shocks via fully-instrumented, in situ observations. One major
outstanding question pertains to the energy budget of collisionless shocks,
particularly how exactly collisionless shocks convert incident kinetic bulk
flow energy into thermalization (heating), suprathermal particle acceleration,
and a variety of plasma waves, including nonlinear structures. Furthermore, it
remains unknown how those energy conversion processes change for different
shock orientations (e.g., quasi-parallel vs. quasi-perpendicular) and driving
conditions (upstream Alfv\'enic and fast Mach numbers, plasma beta, etc.).
Required to address these questions are multipoint observations enabling direct
measurement of the necessary plasmas, energetic particles, and electric and
magnetic fields and waves, all simultaneously from upstream, downstream, and at
the shock transition layer with observatory separations at ion to
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) scales. Such a configuration of spacecraft with
specifically-designed instruments has never been available, and this white
paper describes a conceptual mission design -- MAKOS -- to address these
outstanding questions and advance our knowledge of the nature of collisionless
shocks.
