Uranus Orbiter, The other proposed ice-giant mission |
Uranus Orbiter, The other proposed ice-giant mission |
Nov 11 2005, 05:13 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 509 Joined: 2-July 05 From: Calgary, Alberta Member No.: 426 |
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.
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Sep 22 2007, 11:45 AM
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#2
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 23 Joined: 6-June 06 From: Stockholm, Sweden Member No.: 821 |
What about building two identical probes and launching one to Uranus and the second to Neptune? It will certainly lower the cost of the missions. And if we launch them at appropriate times, we can have the same team working on both projects - first on Uranus Orbiter and later on Neptune Orbiter.
-------------------- --Atanas
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Sep 24 2007, 10:45 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 105 Joined: 27-August 05 Member No.: 479 |
What about building two identical probes and launching one to Uranus and the second to Neptune? It will certainly lower the cost of the missions. And if we launch them at appropriate times, we can have the same team working on both projects - first on Uranus Orbiter and later on Neptune Orbiter. Spirit, I remember A while back NASA had idea much like yours , it was called Mariner Mark 2 I believe. You could goggle this.I think it is a great idea perhaps now in our era a massed produced space craft modeled after the Jupiter and Saturn orbiters could be built minus the instruments and electronics and stored(off the shelf)then as opportunities came up do to orbital mechanics science instruments specific to that mission would be added to the off the shelf spacecraft body and launched. Questions I would have would be assuming we are using the Galileo design and we where building two space craft for Uranus Neptune and a re flight to Saturn and Jupiter IE 8 space craft with one atmospheric probe each. what would a JPL cost engineer cost these out as ? Issues.................. (1) can a modular mass produce space craft design accept somewhat different scientific instrument suite for each outer planet? (2) would a mass produced set off atmospheric probes work at each outer planet? each would need a somewhat different reentry cone? (3) Could the Deep space network handle a outer planet mission launched every year or every two years? mariner mark 2 according to Wiki |
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Sep 25 2007, 05:03 AM
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#4
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
(1) can a modular mass produce space craft design accept somewhat different scientific instrument suite for each outer planet? (2) would a mass produced set off atmospheric probes work at each outer planet? each would need a somewhat different reentry cone? (3) Could the Deep space network handle a outer planet mission launched every year or every two years? Jupiter and Saturn have already been revisted since Voyager, and followups to those systems (eg, a Europa Orbiter, Juno) are going to be more specialized. Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune coincidentally have about the same cloudtop gravity, so entry probes hitting all three places would accelerate similarly. However, Saturn has a greater escape velocity, so the Saturn probe would arrive at a higher velocity. I guess though that with a very superficial difference in design, one approach could work for all three. Jupiter presents very different parameters, and has already received an entry probe. Although a design that worked for Jupiter would work in the other places. The extreme differential in flight times would mitigate any worries about DSN time. Moreover, with probes in elliptical orbits, the encounter-rich time in each orbit could be staggered from one mission to the next. |
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