Onwards to Uranus and Neptune! |
Onwards to Uranus and Neptune! |
Jan 12 2008, 09:40 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 8-February 04 From: Arabia Terra Member No.: 12 |
As soon as MESSENGER gets to Mercury, the most poorly explored planets in the solar system will be Uranus and Neptune. Could this lead to a revival of interest in the ice giants and their retinue, in the same way that the existence of New Horizons is perhaps partly due to the Pluto stamp*?
*via Pluto Fast Flyby and later Pluto Kuiper Express |
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Jan 19 2008, 09:05 AM
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8789 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Uh...say what?! We haven't launched a Galileo follow-up, which would be easy compared to Uranus/Neptune recon mission(s) (to say nothing of orbiters, the technical hurdles of which have been extensively discussed). We are extremely lucky that Voyager 2 did succeed, else I suspect that none of us now living would have ever seen these planets up close in any respect.
Think I know what you mean, but frankly it seems that you're overestimating the impetus for doing such missions. Remember that there was actually a serious proposal floated to turn off Voyager 2 while it was enroute to Uranus as a cost-cutting measure; thank God it didn't happen. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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