Voyagers 1 & 2
...still operational after more than 15 years in space and are
traveling out of the Solar System.
The two Voyagers are expected to last until at least the
year 2015 when their radioisotope
thermoelectric generators (RTG) power supplies are
expected
for fail. Their trajectories
give negative evidence about possible planets beyond
Pluto.
Their next major scientific
discovery should be the location of the heliopause.
Low-frequency radio emissions
believed to originate at the heliopause have been
detected
by both Voyagers.
Galileo
Jupiter orbiter and atmosphere probe, now in Jupiter
orbit.
It will make extensive surveys
of the Jovian moons and the probe has descended into
Jupiter's atmosphere to provide our
first direct evidence of the interior of a gas giant.
Galileo has already returned the first resolved images of
two asteroids, 951
Gaspra and 243 Ida, while in transit to Jupiter. It has
also
returned pictures
of the impact of Comet SL9 onto Jupiter from its unique
vantage point.
Hubble Space Telescope
launched April 1990; and 'fixed' in 1993 and 1999. HST has provided
pictures and spectra over a
long period of time. This provides an important extra
dimension to the higher resolution
data from the planetary probes. For example, recent HST
data
show that Mars is colder
and drier than during the Viking missions; and HST images
of
Neptune indicate that its
atmospheric features change rapidly.
Ulysses
now investigating the Sun's polar regions (European Space
Agency/NASA). Ulysses was
launched by the Space Shuttle Discovery in October 1990.
In
February 1992, it got a
gravity boost from Jupiter and to take it out of the
plane
of the ecliptic. It has now
completed its main mission of surveying both of the Sun's
poles. Its mission has been
extended for another orbit so that it can survey the
Sun's
poles near the maximum of the
sunspot cycle, too. Its aphelion is 5.2 AU, and,
surprisingly, its perihelion is about 1.5
AU-- that's right, a solar-studies spacecraft that's
always
further from the Sun than the
Earth is!
Wind
After its November 1, 1994, launch, NASA's Wind
satellite
took up a vantage point
between the Sun and the Earth, giving scientists a unique
opportunity to study the
enormous flow of energy and momentum known as the solar
wind.
The main scientific goal of the mission is to measure the
mass, momentum and energy
of the solar wind that somehow is transferred into the space
environment around the Earth.
NEAR
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission
promises
to answer fundamental
questions about the nature of near-Earth objects such as
asteroids and comets.
Launched on 17February 1996 aboard a Delta 2 rocket, the
NEAR spacecraft was to
arrive in orbit around asteroid 433 Eros in early January
1999.
IT DID, IN FACT, START ORBITTING on Feb 14 2000. Eros is
one of the largest and best-observed asteroids whose orbits
cross
Earth's path. These
asteroids are closely related to the more numerous "Main Belt"
asteroids that orbit the Sun
in a vast doughnut-shaped ring between Mars and Jupiter.
.... and its LANDING!!
COLUMBIA, Md. (AP) — The NEAR
spacecraft touched down on the barren,
rocky surface of Eros, successfully completing
history's first landing on an asteroid.
NEAR's landing was confirmed Monday (12 Feb 01)
when mission control received a beacon signal
from the craft resting on the surface of Eros,
some 196 million miles from Earth.
"I am happy to report that the NEAR has
touched down," said Robert Farquhar,
mission director. "We are still getting signals.
It is still transmitting from the surface."
Engineers watching from monitors from Mission Control broke into applause
at confirmation of history's first landing of a manmade object on an asteroid.
NEAR flawlessly performed five rocket firings, starting Monday morning, to
drop it out of a 15-mile orbit of Eros and slow it toward the surface. Early
indications are that Mission control completed its plan to guide NEAR to a
feather-like touchdown by slowing its velocity, relative to the surface of the
asteroid, to about the speed of a fast walk, 3 to 5 miles an hour.
The landing completes a five-year, 2-billion-mile mission for the robot craft
and boosts the technical experience in putting spacecraft on objects with
extremely light gravity.
Mars Surveyor Program
Mars Global Surveyor is the first mission of a new,
decade-long program of robotic
exploration of Mars, called the Mars Exploration Program. This
is an aggressive series
of orbiters and landers to be launched every 26 months, as
Mars
moves into alignment with
Earth. The program will be affordable, costing about $100
million per year; engaging to
the public, providing fresh new global and close-up images
of
Mars; and have high
scientific value obtained with the development of
leading-edge
space technologies.
Mars Global Surveyor will be a polar-orbiting spacecraft
at
Mars designed to provide
global maps of surface topography, distribution of
minerals
and monitoring of global
weather.
Mars Climate Orbiter -Launch Date - December 12, 1998 - by DELTA Rocket
............................
ALSO - planned:-
Mars Polar Lander
Launch: Jan 3, 1999
Mars Landing: Dec 3, 1999
Sep 23, 1999 - Mars Orbit Insertion
Sep 23, 1999 - Mars Aerobraking Begins
Nov 22, 1999 - Mars Aerobraking Ends
Dec 01, 1999 - Transfer to Mapping Orbit
Dec 02-03, 1999 - Mars 98 Lander Support
..........................
[Sept 23 was where things went wrong:
As I understand it, one team of engineers used metric units, whilst
the other used Imperial measures. Their formulae for conversion
were surprisingly inaccurate but the mistake wasn't noticed until
they neared Mars. They were at a somewhat lower altitude than expected,
couldn't contact the craft which aerobraked somewhat fiercely and
CRASHED!! Oh dear!!]
[ In December 99, matters got even worse when the 'Lander' hit the world's headlines
by not responding to NASA - probably because it CRASHED!!]
The Mars Global Surveyor attempted, unsuccessfully, to see the components of the
Landing, so clearly, the rest of the following programme is OFF!!
-----------------------------------------------------
Mar 03, 2000 - Mars Mapping Begins
Jan 15, 2002 - Mars Relay Mission Begins
End of Mission December 1, 2004 (well 1999 actually!!)
------------------------------------------------------
However, good news in October 2001, as on Oct 24 the ODYSSEY probe went into MARS
ORBIT to start ITS Mapping Mission!!
Pathfinder
The Mars Pathfinder (formerly known as the Mars
Environmental Survey, or MESUR,
Pathfinder) is the second of NASA's low-cost planetary
Discovery missions. The mission
consists of a stationary lander and a surface rover known
as
Sojourner. The mission has
the primary objective of demonstrating the feasibility of
low-cost landings on and
exploration of the Martian surface. This objective will be
met
by tests of communications
between the rover and lander, and the lander and Earth, and
tests of the imaging devices and
sensors.
Cassini
Saturn orbiter and Titan atmosphere probe. Cassini is a
joint NASA/ESA project designed
to accomplish an exploration of the Saturnian system with
its Cassini Saturn Orbiter and
Huygens Titan Probe. Cassini was launched aboard a Titan
IV/Centaur 1997 Oct 15.
Before arriving at Saturn, Cassini will first execute two
gravity assist flybys of Venus,
then one of Earth, and then one of Jupiter (a "VVEJGA"
trajectory) before arriving at Saturn
on 2004 July 1. Upon arrival, the Cassini spacecraft performs
several maneuvers to achieve
an orbit around Saturn. Near the end of this initial orbit,
the
Huygens Probe separates from
the Orbiter and descends through the atmosphere of Titan. The
Orbiter relays the Probe data
to Earth for about 3 hours while the Probe enters and
traverses the cloudy atmosphere to
the surface.
Key Scheduled Dates for the Cassini Mission (VVEJGA
Trajectory)
(Sorry about the American date-format!!)
-------------------------------------------------------------
10/15/97 - Titan IV/Centaur Launch
04/26/98 - Venus 1 Gravity Assist
06/24/99 - Venus 2 Gravity Assist
08/18/99 - Earth Gravity Assist
12/30/00 - Jupiter Gravity Assist
07/01/04 - Saturn Arrival
11/06/04 - Probe Separation
11/27/04 - Titan Probe Entry
06/25/08 - End of Primary Mission )
So the Earth Gravity Assist on this very prolonged voyage has
gone-off OK! (according to all reports) - and the Stop-Cassini
website carried more information about its 'lethal' atomic
cargo. It is several tens of Kilos of highly reactive plutonium
etc.. They carried a sub-campaign to avoid this month's Earth
Gravity Assist. By looking at the above schedule, you can see
where and when it came from - and the remainder of its very long
journey.
Lunar Prospector
Lunar Prospector, the first NASA mission to the Moon in
almost 30 years, was launched
Jan 6th, 1998. Within a month began returning
answers to long-standing questions
about the Moon, its resources, its structure and its
origins.
NASA purposely CRASHED Prospector in the
Lunar South Pole region (at about 4000mph). Investigations followed
to analyse the possible ice for human use on later
possible manned occupation of the area. Any manned existence on
the surface would need water for a number of purposes. Good - eh??
Stardust
Scheduled for launch in February 1999, Stardust was to fly
close to a comet and, for the
first time ever, bring material from the comets coma back to
Earth for analysis by scientists
worldwide. Scheduled to fly-by Comet Wild-2 in 2004, return
to Earth in 2006.
Summary of Current Projects:
Thus the total list can be subdivided into:
a) Exploration of Solar System and beyond - including
use of -
b) Hubble Space Telescope's development
c) Sun and Solar Wind
d) Asteroids & MARS
e) MOON - Lunar Prospector
Return to Top of the 'space-page' index on this page.
THE PLANETARY SOCIETY
I think that you find it quite instructive to discover what this
Society is putting on its What's new
page!!
It discusses the near-past and future projects.
Return to Top of the 'space-page' index on this page.
TABLE of FUTURE PROJECTS:
A very graphic summary of missions is NOT NOW given (as the description of the
future) as NASA doesn't seem to know where it is going - and this is, to some extent,
because of the unreliability of one of its underfunded and less competent partners -
i.e. Russia. Shame!!!
How's about this project?
THE GENESIS MISSION
What is the sun made of? Are the Earth and planets made of the same stuff?
NASA's Genesis mission will send a spacecraft to collect pieces of the sun,
called solar wind, that may contain the answers. After an August 2001 launch,
the Genesis spacecraft will journey a million miles sunward, unfold its
collectors, and "sunbathe" for nearly three years before returning to Earth with
its precious cargo. Scientists will study the solar wind samples for years to
come.
GENESIS LAUNCH RESCHEDULED The launch of NASA's Genesis
spacecraft was scrubbed again August 3 because of poor weather at the
launch site at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Launch is now scheduled to occur
at 12:08:13 p.m. EDT (9:08:13 a.m. PDT) on Sunday, Aug.12. JPL Press
Release Liftoff will occur aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Pad A at Launch
Complex 17 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The launch will be broadcast
live over the Internet on NASA TV via several Web sites, including the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory Webcast, Kennedy Space Center, and NASA. Learn more
about launch programming here.
Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous