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Posted

NASA has chosen four new mission proposals for funding. An orbiter and atmospheric probe for Venus. Two missions total. And orbiter for Io and an Orbiter for Triton. 

Venus of course is interesting because it is close, earth sized and only slightly less than earth gravity. Aerostat science has a possible future in the clouds above Venus before you get so far down into the hellish temperatures and pressures of the surface. 

Io is sort of interesting I guess. It is not just the most volcanicly active moon in the solar system, it is the most active of any body other than Earth. 

Triton though? It's only interesting feature is the age of it's surface. Neptune does not have the gravity to cause tectonic convection that would generate heat. It does not have the magnetic field of Jupiter or Saturn for it's radiation belts are minimal. IF Triton has water or an atmosphere it  will be frozen solid. It's too far from the sun and Neptune has nothing to help it. Plus it's orbit it retrograde and the moon is doomed. Eventually it will either collide with Neptune or, more likely, break up and form a ring. 

IMO planetary science right now should for focused on Titan, Europa, & Encaledus. 

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/14/world/nasa-discovery-program-mission-proposals-scn/index.html

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"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

Posted

I am surprised there are not more missions for Europa, It seems like most hospitable place in our system except from Earth

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I'm the enemy, 'cause I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech, and freedom of choice. I'm the kinda guy that likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecue ribs with the side-order of gravy fries?" I want high cholesterol! I wanna eat bacon, and butter, and buckets of cheese, okay?! I wanna smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section! I wanna run naked through the street, with green Jell-O all over my body, reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly may feel the need to, okay, pal? I've SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing "I'm an Oscar Meyer Wiene"

Posted
1 hour ago, Chilloutman said:

I am surprised there are not more missions for Europa, It seems like most hospitable place in our system except from Earth

There are two actually. One is unnamed and scheduled for a 2028 launch. That one will include a rover or, possibly, a submersible. To prepare to that is the Europa Clipper launching in 2025:  https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/

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"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

Posted

Triton is probably being visited because it's an (well, thought to be an) accessible captured Plutoid/ dwarf planet/ planetoid or whatever they're calling them today; most of which have weird orbits that make getting to them difficult, and are small which makes slowing a space craft down to get into orbit or even drop a payload (without the payload splattering on impact) very difficult too. Triton is relatively easy to get to via Neptune which has been visited before multiple times before. It's an odd choice if you're looking for life, but as it certainly isn't a 'typical' moon it is of fundamental interest.

Posted
2 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Triton is probably being visited because it's an (well, thought to be an) accessible captured Plutoid/ dwarf planet/ planetoid or whatever they're calling them today; most of which have weird orbits that make getting to them difficult, and are small which makes slowing a space craft down to get into orbit or even drop a payload (without the payload splattering on impact) very difficult too. Triton is relatively easy to get to via Neptune which has been visited before multiple times before. It's an odd choice if you're looking for life, but as it certainly isn't a 'typical' moon it is of fundamental interest.

There is that. Everyone agrees it was a captured Kuiper Belt object. Still, of all the moons to throw money at I figured Uranus with it's huge collection would be a more tempting target. It gets 40% more sunlight than Neptune. Both ice giants have only been visited by Voyager 2. And that was a fly by. An orbiter around Uranus would be more interesting I'd think. Not that planet itself. It's just a big ball of frozen helium, hydrogen, and other misc gasses. But the moons might be really interesting. Most of the Voyager images were poor. Miranda and Ariel were the only ones the probe got a good look at. Ariel looks a lot like Europa and Encaledus

"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

Posted
On 2/16/2020 at 2:47 PM, Guard Dog said:

IMO planetary science right now should for focused on Titan, Europa, & Encaledus.

Yes indeed. 100% agree. I especially like the odds of a great find on Enceladus. I think Ganymede could also be useful to study.

Posted

From a couple of years ago, but kind of interesting to stumble upon it...  I wonder how far it's advanced now?

 

Wired - Biohackers encoded malware into DNA strand

 

In new research they plan to present at the USENIX Security conference on Thursday, a group of researchers from the University of Washington has shown for the first time that it’s possible to encode malicious software into physical strands of DNA, so that when a gene sequencer analyzes it the resulting data becomes a program that corrupts gene-sequencing software and takes control of the underlying computer.

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"Cuius testiculos habeas, habeas cardia et cerebellum."

Posted

a flat earther proved that a home made rocket doesn't have enough power to take you to space... at best it takes you about 200 meters high and then you fall to your death

The words freedom and liberty, are diminishing the true meaning of the abstract concept they try to explain. The true nature of freedom is such, that the human mind is unable to comprehend it, so we make a cage and name it freedom in order to give a tangible meaning to what we dont understand, just as our ancestors made gods like Thor or Zeus to explain thunder.

 

-Teknoman2-

What? You thought it was a quote from some well known wise guy from the past?

 

Stupidity leads to willful ignorance - willful ignorance leads to hope - hope leads to sex - and that is how a new generation of fools is born!


We are hardcore role players... When we go to bed with a girl, we roll a D20 to see if we hit the target and a D6 to see how much penetration damage we did.

 

Modern democracy is: the sheep voting for which dog will be the shepherd's right hand.

Posted

It's especially dumb because even a simple weather balloon would have been more effective.

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"only when you no-life you can exist forever, because what does not live cannot die."

Posted
1 hour ago, Gfted1 said:

Instead, the idea is that the new type of thruster could be used to effectively tow cargo around once it’s already in space

Alas, I was born too early to become a space trucker. Instead, I am a lowly terrestrial trucker. ;(

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🇺🇸RFK Jr 2024🇺🇸

"Any organization created out of fear must create fear to survive." - Bill Hicks

Posted

Maybe try an alternative...?

 

I cannot - yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do "must" and "cannot" meet? Yet I must - but I cannot! ~ Ro-Man

Posted

^ I bet that's a big load of BS.

"only when you no-life you can exist forever, because what does not live cannot die."

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