Thursday, August 18, 2022

"I'm not necessarily here to advocate for Neptune over Uranus but..." -Abigail Rymer


This LPI is about a misson proposal. A flagship budget to Neptune. Strictly speaking, it's less likely than a similar Uranus mission because Uranus will be in a better position for the next decade; they move slow and wide. 

This begs the topic though, so much of the outer solar system is so far and inaccessible, yet so baited with temptations, that I wonder if it will compel engineering in the near future. This, the age of probes, and so many targets are so far and separated that scientists are discouraged before they try. Wouldn't it be nice if we could get the probes to go faster, and still get into orbit around objects with scant gravity? Maybe two delta-V launches, the probe, then a bonus fuel tank for the probe. It's sad to realize many of these temptations cannot be reached in my lifetime, and I would like to be greedy.  

This short mission proposal LPI actually has it’s own time-stamps between slides. It's intuitive and needs little paraphrasing from me. Probes themselves begin to have personality at some point, and this is one I would like to meet one day.   

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