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Most exciting year for solar system exploration?
Superstring
post Jan 1 2015, 06:52 PM
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In light of the coming rendezvous with Ceres and the Pluto-Charon system, I thought I'd start a conversation about what everyone considers to be the most exciting years in solar system exploration. I think 1969 is obviously the most exciting year for manned exploration, so for this topic I'd like to focus more on the robotic missions.

Here are the ones I consider the top 3 contenders:

1965 - Mariner 4 sends back the first pictures of another world's surface other than Earth & Luna, revealing Mars to be utterly different than many had imagined.
1979 - Voyager 1 & 2 are the first to image the surfaces of the 4 Galilean Moons, revealing their surprising natures on a global scale.
2015 - If all goes as planned, Dawn and New Horizons will image the surfaces of 3 never-explored worlds (Ceres, Pluto, and Charon) in high resolution.

Some other notable years...

1972 - Mariner 9 is the first craft to orbit another planet, and dramatically expands the scope of Mars imagery.
1974 - Mariner 10 images Venus and Mercury for the first time.
1975 - Venera 9 is the first probe to take photos from the surface of another planet.
1980 - Voyager 1 explores Saturn and several of its moons.
1986 - Voyager 2 explores the Uranus system.
1989 - Voyager 2 explores Neptune and Triton, discovering a world with nitrogen geysers.
2005 - Huygens lands on Titan, and Cassini reveals the dark side of Iapetus and the plumes of Enceladus.
2014 - Rosetta is the first craft to image a comet in high resolution and the first to land a probe on a comet.

All just my opinion. What say you?
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Posts in this topic
- Superstring   Most exciting year for solar system exploration?   Jan 1 2015, 06:52 PM
- - dvandorn   I would add: 1958 -- Explorer 1 discovers the van...   Jan 1 2015, 07:11 PM
|- - katodomo   Mariner 9 started orbiting Mars in November 1972, ...   Jan 1 2015, 09:54 PM
|- - mcaplinger   QUOTE (katodomo @ Jan 1 2015, 02:54 PM) S...   Jan 1 2015, 10:25 PM
|- - stevesliva   QUOTE (mcaplinger @ Jan 1 2015, 06:25 PM)...   Jun 17 2015, 08:57 PM
- - craigmcg   Going from memory... Once Cassini dives into Satur...   Jan 1 2015, 09:15 PM
|- - katodomo   QUOTE (craigmcg @ Jan 1 2015, 10:15 PM) G...   Jan 1 2015, 10:14 PM
- - scalbers   How about the Galileo probe entry in 1995, first i...   Jan 1 2015, 10:57 PM
- - Explorer1   I heard that two rovers landed on Mars back in 200...   Jan 2 2015, 12:05 AM
- - tasp   Just for me, Voyager 1 approach and encounter with...   Jan 2 2015, 03:16 AM
- - angel1801   I rarely post here, though I am now a 3-year membe...   Jan 2 2015, 04:56 AM
- - climber   I don't know if 2015 will be the more exciting...   Jun 17 2015, 05:43 PM
|- - SFJCody   QUOTE (climber @ Jun 18 2015, 04:43 AM) I...   Jun 17 2015, 06:20 PM
- - climber   Yep, this was the Dawn of exploration... I can...   Jun 17 2015, 06:36 PM
- - hendric   Meh, all those asteroids look alike, amirite?   Jun 17 2015, 07:28 PM
- - Phil Stooke   1979, Jupiter - yes, that was an amazing time. Od...   Jun 17 2015, 09:57 PM
- - tanjent   I thought Mars Pathfinder in 1997 was exciting bec...   Jun 18 2015, 01:13 PM
- - JRehling   I'll post here because I was thinking of a rel...   Jul 24 2015, 06:28 PM


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