NASA Europa Missions, projects and proposals for the 2020s |
NASA Europa Missions, projects and proposals for the 2020s |
Mar 5 2014, 12:53 AM
Post
#1
|
|
Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1374 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
|
|
|
May 27 2015, 04:59 AM
Post
#2
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
Well, think about it. If you're prospecting for the best places to melt through the ice down into the Great Ocean, you need to characterize the surface on a global scale. You can't run your ice-penetrating radar and sounding radar globally, so you have to have good enough photo coverage to match visual characterizations to the deep-structure information you get slices of from those lower-resolution, more limited coverage instruments. Then you can apply those matches to figure out all of the good potential ocean entry points, where the ice crust is the thinnest.
I would be really surprised if there aren't good visual cues in the high-resolution images of the surface that correlate to the thickness of the crust beneath. It might take some analysis, and the cues might be subtle. Bit I bet we'll find them. Now, this all makes sense if you're using the next mission to plan your assault on the Great Ocean with a melting probe. If you're planning on bringing your melting probe with you on this next flight, well -- good luck finding a good, thin-crust spot to land it on within your mission timing constraints. -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
|
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 26th September 2024 - 03:52 PM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |