1-I heard about the Voyager Jupiter-Uranus-Probe concept. 2-I almost wish they'd send out fly-bys again with probes; cheaper than going the complete Galileo/Cassini route. I suppose now that we have technology they want anything sent out to give more bang for the buck.
Quote from: redliox on 04/05/2014 11:46 am1-I heard about the Voyager Jupiter-Uranus-Probe concept. 2-I almost wish they'd send out fly-bys again with probes; cheaper than going the complete Galileo/Cassini route. I suppose now that we have technology they want anything sent out to give more bang for the buck.1-Posted at the beginning of the thread.2-The instruments are better today, but the cost/science ratio for flybys is bad. For example, a flyby will only show half the planet, not the whole thing. If you're going all that way, you want to go into orbit.
the cost/science ratio for flybys is bad. For example, a flyby will only show half the planet, not the whole thing. If you're going all that way, you want to go into orbit.
Quote from: Blackstar on 04/06/2014 12:31 am the cost/science ratio for flybys is bad. For example, a flyby will only show half the planet, not the whole thing. If you're going all that way, you want to go into orbit.The exception might be for atmospheric probes whose value is not hugely improved by long term global imaging (approach imaging, if carried, would see the major planes spin before them). However, it has proven difficult to justify a remote sensing flyby mission for the reasons Blackstar gave.
I'm not sure that atmosphere probes make any sense without a remote sensing mission. The orbiter is able to provide context for the data that is collected during the descent. Without that context, I'm not sure that the probe would provide very useful data.
...Pioneer Venus (probes arrived before orbiter)
Sadly although Europe made a ton of planetary proposals the only ones that will make it to the launch pad for now will be JUICE and BepiColombo. So sadly that means it will be a while before the reach out beyond Saturn, although it was great to hear they have as much interest in the Ice Giants as their American counterparts. They are definitely promising in their deep space expeditions.
But I consider one of the unfortunate aspects of their selection process is that they don't have separate program lines for astronomy and planetary missions. As a result, they end up competing against each other, so if astronomy wins, planetary loses, and vice versa.
I'm not sure if separate program lines for planetary science and astrophysics would work for ESA with current funding levels. If the science budget were split between two programs, the funding level for each of them would be very low. At least large missions would be hard to develop, as there would not be room for a large enough program slice. With the current scheme, the selected missions have access to a larger annual budget.
http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/icegiants2014/
Fast E-sail Uranus entry probe missionThe solar wind electric sail is a novel propellantless space propulsion concept. According to numerical estimates, the electric sail can produce a large total impulse per propulsion system mass. Here we consider using a 0.5 N electric sail for boosting a 550 kg spacecraft to Uranus in less than 6 years. The spacecraft is a stack consisting of the electric sail module which is jettisoned at Saturn distance, a carrier module and a probe for Uranus atmospheric entry. The carrier module has a chemical propulsion ability for orbital corrections and it uses its antenna for picking up the probe's data transmission and later relaying it to Earth. The scienti c output of the mission is similar to what the Galileo Probe did at Jupiter. Measurement of the chemical and isotope composition of the Uranian atmosphere can give key constraints for dierent formation theories of the solar system. A similar method could also be applied to other giant planets and Titan by using a fleet of more or less identical electric sail equipped probes.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.6554QuoteFast E-sail Uranus entry probe missionThe solar wind electric sail is a novel propellantless space propulsion concept. According to numerical estimates, the electric sail can produce a large total impulse per propulsion system mass. Here we consider using a 0.5 N electric sail for boosting a 550 kg spacecraft to Uranus in less than 6 years. The spacecraft is a stack consisting of the electric sail module which is jettisoned at Saturn distance, a carrier module and a probe for Uranus atmospheric entry. The carrier module has a chemical propulsion ability for orbital corrections and it uses its antenna for picking up the probe's data transmission and later relaying it to Earth. The scientic output of the mission is similar to what the Galileo Probe did at Jupiter. Measurement of the chemical and isotope composition of the Uranian atmosphere can give key constraints for dierent formation theories of the solar system. A similar method could also be applied to other giant planets and Titan by using a fleet of more or less identical electric sail equipped probes.
Fast E-sail Uranus entry probe missionThe solar wind electric sail is a novel propellantless space propulsion concept. According to numerical estimates, the electric sail can produce a large total impulse per propulsion system mass. Here we consider using a 0.5 N electric sail for boosting a 550 kg spacecraft to Uranus in less than 6 years. The spacecraft is a stack consisting of the electric sail module which is jettisoned at Saturn distance, a carrier module and a probe for Uranus atmospheric entry. The carrier module has a chemical propulsion ability for orbital corrections and it uses its antenna for picking up the probe's data transmission and later relaying it to Earth. The scientic output of the mission is similar to what the Galileo Probe did at Jupiter. Measurement of the chemical and isotope composition of the Uranian atmosphere can give key constraints for dierent formation theories of the solar system. A similar method could also be applied to other giant planets and Titan by using a fleet of more or less identical electric sail equipped probes.
Quote from: Burninate on 06/23/2014 04:37 pmhttp://arxiv.org/abs/1312.6554QuoteFast E-sail Uranus entry probe missionThe solar wind electric sail is a novel propellantless space propulsion concept. According to numerical estimates, the electric sail can produce a large total impulse per propulsion system mass. Here we consider using a 0.5 N electric sail for boosting a 550 kg spacecraft to Uranus in less than 6 years. The spacecraft is a stack consisting of the electric sail module which is jettisoned at Saturn distance, a carrier module and a probe for Uranus atmospheric entry. The carrier module has a chemical propulsion ability for orbital corrections and it uses its antenna for picking up the probe's data transmission and later relaying it to Earth. The scientic output of the mission is similar to what the Galileo Probe did at Jupiter. Measurement of the chemical and isotope composition of the Uranian atmosphere can give key constraints for dierent formation theories of the solar system. A similar method could also be applied to other giant planets and Titan by using a fleet of more or less identical electric sail equipped probes.That is a pretty interesting idea. I'd like to see a hypothetical sketch of what it would look like. And of course a preliminary cost analysis, but I guess it's too early for that. Nonetheless, I would think this concept (fleet of low cost atmospheric icy planet probes) would be considered very promising. It gets me excited at the possibility of relatively near-term exploration of the outer planets at a reasonable cost.