Neptune Orbiter, Another proposed mission |
Neptune Orbiter, Another proposed mission |
Nov 10 2005, 03:51 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 509 Joined: 2-July 05 From: Calgary, Alberta Member No.: 426 |
This seems like a good place to start off the Uranus and Neptune forum: with the next ice-giants mission.
I will admit to not knowing a whole lot about the Neptune Orbiter With Probes (NOWP), other than the fact that it's in the planning stages, and a few other details I've gathered from Wikipedia and various other Internet sources. Anyone care to get this one going with a bit more information? |
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Mar 30 2007, 03:58 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 903 Joined: 30-January 05 Member No.: 162 |
Imagine, if you will, an ion engined probe, already in Neptune orbit. Further, in view of Neptune's large Hill sphere, imagine the probe to be in an extremely elliptical orbit with a period of ~ 1 year. At apogee, even relatively minute adjustments to the orbit, made with the ion thruster perhaps over a period of a couple of months, will result in large controllable variations in the perigee portion of the orbit, ~6 months later. At perigee, orbit adjustments can be made via gravitational interactions with Triton. IIRC, large changes in period and inclination can be made easily at the very fringe of the Hill sphere. The long orbital period about Neptune is also conducive for using a relatively low power, slow data rate from Neptune to send back the perigee data.
Ignoring the challenge of the initial Neptune orbit insertion for the moment, it seems Neptune might be rather hospitable to a probe with an ion engine, as long as the probe was taking advantage of the large Neptune Hill sphere, and we would be content with a series of Neptune encounters at roughly 1 year intervals, for as long as the probe could remain functional. Considering the success with the Voyagers, we might anticipate a probe duration at Neptune of 10 years, possibly substantially more. |
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