Trident, a NASA low cost mission to Triton Options

[MarcF]

Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientists proposed a new low cost mission to Triton, to check for the presence of an internal ocean inside the moon.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/science/...sa-trident.html

"Unlike multibillion dollar proposals for spacecraft that the agency has usually sent to the outer solar system, this spacecraft, named Trident, aims to be far less expensive, the mission’s scientists and engineers said, or the price of a small mission to the moon."

To get to Triton, the spacecraft would fly in a fast, straight trajectory after an orbital assist from Jupiter, similar to the flyby that was used by the New Horizons spacecraft to visit Pluto in 2015. It would rely on a payload of scientific instruments to conduct ocean detection and atmospheric and ionospheric science. The spacecraft would photograph the entirety of Triton, which is the largest object in the solar system that has not yet been fully imaged.
Timing is also critical because of the moon’s changing seasons as Neptune makes its orbit around the sun.

“In order to view the plumes that Voyager saw in 1989, we have to encounter Triton before 2040,” said Dr. Mitchell. Otherwise, because of the positions of the objects in their orbits, Triton will not be illuminated again for over eighty years.

Link to original abstract:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018DPS....5011415P

Fingers crossed !
Regards,
Marc.

[antipode]

Hi Phil

Sorry if this is getting a bit OT, but regarding Verona Rupes, would not the angle of repose be rather steep in the weak Mirandian gravity?
Im assuming that water ice at these temperatures would have the mechanical strength of a silicate rock?
Or am I missing something about the calculation of an angle of repose?

P