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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Apr 10 2007, 03:22 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
The other attraction of Triton is, of course, that it is almost definitely a captured KBO. A Neptune orbiter would give you both a good look into the satellite system of an ice giant *and* an opportunity to study what may well be a prototypical KBO.
For my money, though, I think we need to wait for the next major breakthrough in propulsion technology. Then we may be able to launch an unmanned probe to *both* Uranus and Neptune -- and even have a chance of letting all of us see the data in our lifetimes! -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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Apr 10 2007, 05:37 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
The other attraction of Triton is, of course, that it is almost definitely a captured KBO. A Neptune orbiter would give you both a good look into the satellite system of an ice giant *and* an opportunity to study what may well be a prototypical KBO. -the other Doug I think in bulk composition, perhaps, Triton is a prototypical KBO, but its got a history (and present) of tides that only one character in the neighborhood can churn up, and that character is Neptune. It's almost a thousand times the mass of anything else out there. It may be that massive impacts or tight coorbital situations (like Pluto-Charon) may have melted the odd KBO or two, but Triton's probably pretty damned irregular by now, however it may have begun. Pluto may be pretty irregular itself, being a tidally-locked world with a curiously patchy surface. And of course Triton and Pluto are both on the larger end of KBOs. Charon may be more like a typical KBO than either of them. Really, the post-Pluto encounter(s) by NH will be most important for a chance of truly seeing an ordinary KBO. |
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