Mission to Pluto

1
Mission to Pluto
Using the satellites and missions described here,
plan a mission to Pluto and choose the
instruments.
2
The Solar System

• Mercury
• Venus
• Earth/Moon
• Mars
• Asteroids
• Jupiter/moons
• Saturn/Titan
• Uranus
• Neptune
• Pluto

3
The Moon
4
Moon SMART1

• SMART1 - an ESA mission to survey the Moon, for
  launch in 2003 (August)
• SMART-1 orbits the Moon
• Experiments include
• cameras
• what is the Moon made from (rock composition)?
• is there water?

5
Apollo astronauts collected rocks from the Moon
Experiments included temperature, gravity
changes, moonquakes, rock composition
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Mercury

• BepiColombo planned for 2011
• Experiments include
• lander
• camera
• Mercurys magnetic field
• surface feature mapper (radar)
• solar wind effect on Mercury
• seismometer for Mercury-quakes

Picture from Mariner 10, taken in 1974
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Venus

• Venus Express, due for launch in 2005
• Experiments include
• temperature
• changes in pressure of atmosphere
• composition of atmosphere
• effect of solar wind on atmosphere

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Mars Express Beagle 2

• Due for launch in 2003 (June)
• Experiments include
• cameras
• atmosphere composition
• surface composition (water?)
• effect of the solar wind on atmosphere

• lander

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Jupiter and Almathea with the NASA Galileo
satellite
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Jupiters moons
Galileo satellite from NASA, looking at
temperature, composition, dust particles
Ganymede - a rocky core (as big as the Moon)
ice - largest moon in Solar System
Callisto - rock ice - with an ocean underneath
the surface?
Io - with the most active volcanoes in the Solar
System
Europa - an icy surface - with an ocean
underneath?
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Mission to Europa
NASAs plan to look at the surface of the moon of
Jupiter
and under the surface
12
Saturn seen by Cassini
The Cassini satellite was launched in 1997, and
carries the Huygens lander. In 2004, Cassini will
go into orbit around Saturn, and the Huygens
lander will land on Saturns moon, Titan.
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Cassini/Huygens

• The experiments include
• cameras
• dust, surface, and atmosphere analysers
• composition of the rings
• temperature and pressure (Titan)
• surface features (oceans?) (Titan)
• seismometer and effect of solar wind

• lander

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Asteroids and comets
Craters on Eros seen by NEAR-Shoemaker
Gaspera seen by Galileo
Borelly seen by Deep Space 1
Experiments include cameras, dust particle
analysers, dust composition
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Rosetta mission to a comet
Rosetta will be launched in 2004 by ESA

• Experiments include
• cameras
• surface features and composition
• studying water and molecules
• magnetic field and dust particles

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Deep Impact
A NASA mission to a comet, to be launched in 2004
to comet Tempel-1. When it arrives a large
impactor will be launched to crash into the
comet, and the bits that fly off will be analysed
to see what the comet is made of.
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Genesis/Stardust
Genesis
Genesis was launched by NASA in 2001 to travel
nearer to the Sun and collect particles of the
solar wind, then return to Earth in 2004.
Stardust was launched by NASA in 1999 to chase
comet Wild, collect particles from it and return
to Earth in 2006. The particles will be studied
in the laboratory on Earth.
Stardust
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Pluto
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Design your mission

• Possible instruments
• cameras
• thermometer
• rock and dust analyser
• gas analysers
• water detector
• particle detector
• spectrometers
• surface structure (oceans/rocks)
• magnetic field measurer
• solar activity monitor
• solar wind monitor
• gravity field measurer

• Lander extra problems
• weight
• parachute or fuel
• power source

• Lander extra instruments
• surface details
• camera
• rock analyser
• scoop
• microscope