Trident, a NASA low cost mission to Triton Options

[antipode]

Interesting, thanks Phil. Would be nice to have a dynamically 'hot' target, but beggars cant be choosers.

P

[Webscientist]

Here is a simulated view of Neptune from the surface of Triton. I produced it in 2020 for an article upon the Trident project in the journal of my astronomy club:

We will compare to reality in a few decades !

(The apparent size of Neptune is well respected in the simulated view from my "smartphone": it would represent a disk whose apparent diameter is about 8 arc degrees or 15 times the apparent diameter of the Moon as seen from the Earth).

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[JRehling]

That's a powerful image! Triton would be getting a lot of missions if it weren't for the travel time, and an image like that can do a lot to bring Triton forward in people's minds.

I'm not sure what color the skies are on Triton, but Neptune would contribute powerfully.

[Webscientist]

Thanks,
A way for me to explore in advance that mystical world that may turn out to be more exotic than expected in fact.
I often try to imagine the type of horizon we would get from the surface of Pluto or Triton since the atmosphere of Triton is so thin ( slightly denser than Pluto's atmosphere at "sea level").
I imagined a dull sky and a darker sky toward the zenith. Intuitive logic I would say!
For the appearance of the soil, it is quite speculative I would say because we only have one image of the surface of a planetary body of the outer solar system.

[titanicrivers]

Fascinating image Webscientist! The foreground is what I imagined the 'cantaloupe' Triton surface might appear close up. Agree with JRehling such images and others https://www.google.com/search?q=neptune+fro...50&biw=1536 would inspire more interest in outer solar system exploration.

[Webscientist]

The foreground is what I imagined the 'cantaloupe' Triton surface might appear close up.

Thanks again,
For the cantaloupe, I used some "ingredients" not related to the cantaloupe terrain Voyager 2 had observed, without the purpose of producing those cantaloupe structures but the outcome reveals small scale-cantaloupes. Satisfied!
It also reminds me of the distorted surface the Phoenix lander had observed on Mars.
Let's hope we'll get higher resolution images of those cantaloupe terrains in the near future!