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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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 25 2007, 07:45 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 656 Joined: 20-April 05 From: League City, Texas Member No.: 285 |
Perhaps slightly off-topic, but there have been serious discussions recently about putting an interferometric telescope array in orbit which could resolve (2+ pixels) earth-sized planets about other stars. A quick back of the envelope calculation assuming an earth-sized planet 6 light years away corresponds to a resolution of 1 kilometer at the distance of neptune. Increase this by a factor of 10-100 and we're getting distinctly competitive with what spacecraft can do, without needing to venture much beyond earth orbit. Just playing devil's advocate here Still, the polar regions would still be troublesome, and this would never compete with a rover on the ground or a dedicated orbiter.
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Sep 25 2007, 09:08 PM
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#3
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Interplanetary Dumpster Diver Group: Admin Posts: 4404 Joined: 17-February 04 From: Powell, TN Member No.: 33 |
Perhaps slightly off-topic, but there have been serious discussions recently about putting an interferometric telescope array in orbit which could resolve (2+ pixels) earth-sized planets about other stars. A quick back of the envelope calculation assuming an earth-sized planet 6 light years away corresponds to a resolution of 1 kilometer at the distance of neptune. Increase this by a factor of 10-100 and we're getting distinctly competitive with what spacecraft can do, without needing to venture much beyond earth orbit. Just playing devil's advocate here Still, the polar regions would still be troublesome, and this would never compete with a rover on the ground or a dedicated orbiter. Ignoring the technical difficulties (such as that orbital motion and parallax would become HUGE problems at such high resolutions), there is also the problem of the fact that we see the outer planets at full or nearly full phases - high and moderate phase observations are impossible, so topographic mapping would be difficult. Also, building and operating an array with such imaging and tracking capabilities in orbit would cost a lot more than some orbiters and landers. -------------------- |
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