Mission To Sedna, space mission to sedna |
Mission To Sedna, space mission to sedna |
Jan 13 2008, 12:51 PM
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#1
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 27 Joined: 27-September 07 From: Tampere, Finland Member No.: 3919 |
I have tried to search but could not see any serious planning of sending a fly-by mission to Sedna. Does anyone have any info if the scientific community is planning such...?
In my opinion, Sedna would be very interesting target, far more interesting than any KBO etc. The fact that it spends most of the time outside heliopause under the influence of cosmic rays during aphelion could reveal some interesting results and also the reddish colour it has might be worth investigating. And good for us, at the moment it is approaching its closest point to Sun on its orbit, so mission to Sedna would not be such a big effort if done e.g. a'la NH with Jupiter gravity assist...? Maybe possible NH2 could be sent that direction.......? Any comments, any info? Especially the fact that it is a body from outside the heliopause, could that add some interest towards it? -------------------- Spamming the Solar System with greetings since 1997!
(New Horizons, Huygens, Opportunity/Spirit, Deep Impact, Dawn, Phoenix, Selene... to name a few) :) |
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Jan 13 2008, 02:57 PM
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#2
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 94 Joined: 22-March 06 Member No.: 722 |
Unfortunately, I don't see this happening any time soon, for two reasons:
1.) Sedna even at its closet will be more than two and half times farther than Neptune. 2.) It's well beyond the plane of the Solar System, complicating any trajectory. To be fair, I think Sedna would be an extremely interesting target. Any serious attempt to reach it, though, will probably have to wait for new propulsion technology. -------------------- Mayor: Er, Master Betty, what is the Evil Council's plan?
Master Betty: Nyah. Haha. It is EVIL, it is so EVIL. It is a bad, bad plan, which will hurt many... people... who are good. I think it's great that it's so bad. -Kung Pow: Enter the Fist |
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Jan 13 2008, 07:08 PM
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#3
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 27 Joined: 27-September 07 From: Tampere, Finland Member No.: 3919 |
I don't think that the roughly 80-90 AU distance of Sedna at the moment is too overwhelming, after all we have four (two of them functioning still) probes on that distance (and beyond) at the moment, and if we put that little probe on top of Atlas 5 like NH or some other Heavy configuration we could reduce the travel time to a reasonable level (<20 years). RTG's and components can handle that.
The issue of Sedna been so much out of the ecliptic plane does not concern me, after all, at the moment both Voyagers are over 30 degrees above/below the ecliptic, so not much less than Sedna is. And as Ulysses has shown, Jupiter can swing probes in various directions. Of course we might lose some velocity/time if bending the route 40-50 degrees but I don't think that's a critical factor here...? And I believe we should also have quite many launch window opportunities if we do only single fly-by (Jupiter) and then off to Sedna. But of course, all this is just a meaningless daydreaming and speculation unless somebody puts the money on the table... -------------------- Spamming the Solar System with greetings since 1997!
(New Horizons, Huygens, Opportunity/Spirit, Deep Impact, Dawn, Phoenix, Selene... to name a few) :) |
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