Uranus Orbiter, The other proposed ice-giant mission Options

[Rob Pinnegar]

Since the Neptune Orbiter thread has started to veer into talking about a Uranus orbiter as well, it seemed like a good idea to start a topic for Uranus.

[tasp]

Yeah, the Longuski paper describes a mission phase for reducing the inclination of the initial orbit to the equatorial plane.

Actually, this is an advantage.

We get a couple of years of excellent field and particles study at Uranus (fascinating magnetically anomalied orb that it is), and if we are encountering Titania (or Oberon) every orbit, we might have some pretty precise control of our other ring plane crossing point too. Maybe some close flybys of Miranda (not approached closely in 'Galileo' phaseof the mission, btw) and the inner 'rocks' too.

Wouldn't hurt to check out the extent of the ring plane debris prior to orbiting in it, too. I'm curious if there are any co-orbital satellites lurking there.

The paper contemplates 2 years in the ring plane, and maybe a year at mission end orbiting Ariel. I wouldn't think 2 or 3 years cranking down the incliniation would be unendurable. Cassini has been doing interesting things in all kinds of inclinations at Saturn.


A follow on New Horizon styled orbiter doesn't seem too useful too me at Uranus (in an orbit at Neptune with a period around ~ 1 year is another story).

The flybys happen pretty quickly, and NH is optimized for high data rate collection in brief spurts at long intervals, Uranus is pretty taxing all the time. ( a Neptune mission, OTOH, with perhaps a 20 year 'loiter' time there, and close Neptune approaches once a year seems pretty NH friendly to me. Neptune has a big Hill sphere, might as well exploit it.)