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Uranus Orbiter And Probe
The Uranus Orbiter and Probe is an orbiter mission concept to study Uranus and its moons. The orbiter would also deploy an atmospheric probe to characterize Uranus's atmosphere. The concept is being developed as a potential large strategic science mission for NASA. The science phase would last 4.5 years and include multiple flybys of each of the major moons. The mission concept was selected as the highest priority Flagship-class mission by the 2023–2032 Planetary Science Decadal Survey, ahead of the Enceladus Orbilander. A Neptune orbiter mission concept, Neptune Odyssey, that would address many of the same scientific goals regarding ice giants was also considered, but for logistical and cost reasons a mission to Uranus was favored. The original proposal targeted a launch in 2031 using a Falcon Heavy expendable launch vehicle with a gravity assist at Jupiter, allowing arrival at Uranus in 2044. In 2023, however, NASA announced that due to a shortfall in plutonium produ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile (astrogeology), volatiles. Atmosphere of Uranus, The planet's atmosphere has a complex layered cloud structure and has the lowest minimum temperature () of all the Solar System's planets. It has a marked axial tilt of 82.23° with a Retrograde and prograde motion, retrograde rotation period of 17 hours and 14 minutes. This means that in an 84-Earth-year orbital period around the Sun, its poles get around 42 years of continuous sunlight, followed by 42 years of continuous darkness. Uranus has the third-largest diameter and fourth-largest mass among the Solar System's planets. Based on current models, inside its volatile Mantle (geology), mantle layer is a rocky core, and surrounding it is a thick hydrogen and helium atmosphere. Trace amount ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flyby (spaceflight)
A flyby () is a spaceflight operation in which a spacecraft passes in proximity to another body, usually a target of its space exploration mission and/or a source of a gravity assist (also called ''swing-by'') to impel it towards another target. Spacecraft which are specifically designed for this purpose are known as flyby spacecraft, although the term has also been used in regard to asteroid flybys of Earth for example. Important parameters are the time and distance of closest approach. Spacecraft flyby Flyby maneuvers can be conducted with a planet, a natural satellite or a non-planetary object such as a small Solar System body. Planetary flybys have occurred with Mars or Earth for example: * List of Earth flybys * Mars flyby An example of a comet flyby is when International Cometary Explorer (formerly ISEE-3) passed about from the nucleus of Comet Giacobini-Zinner in September 1985. Another application of the flyby is of Earth's Moon, usually called a lunar flyby. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Academy Of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Election to the National Academy is one of the highest honors in the scientific field in the United States. Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Members of the National Academy of Sciences serve ''pro bono'' as "advisers to the nation" on science, engineering, and medicine. The group holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code. Congress legislated and President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress (1863) establishing the National Academy of Sciences as an independent, trusted nongovernmen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Academies Press
The US National Academies Press (NAP) was created to publish the reports issued by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (formerly known as the National Research Council (United States), National Research Council), the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine. It publishes nearly 500 titles a year on a wide range of topics in the sciences, engineering, medicine, and transportation . The NAP's stated mission is seemingly self-contradictory: to disseminate as widely as possible the works of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and to be financially self-sustaining through sales. This mission has led to great experimentation in openness regarding online publishing and open access. The National Academy Press, as it was known in 1993, was the first self-sustaining publisher to make its material available on the Web, for free, in an open access m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mars 2020
Mars 2020 is a NASA mission that includes the rover ''Perseverance (rover), Perseverance'', the now-retired small robotic helicopter ''Ingenuity (helicopter), Ingenuity'', and associated delivery systems, as part of the Mars Exploration Program. Mars 2020 was launched on an Atlas V rocket at 11:50:01 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC on July 30, 2020, and landed in the Martian crater Jezero (crater), Jezero on February 18, 2021, with confirmation received at 20:55 UTC. On March 5, 2021, NASA named the landing site Octavia E. Butler Landing. As of , ''Perseverance'' has been on Mars for Sol (day on Mars), sols ( days, total days; ). ''Ingenuity'' operated on Mars for Sol (day on Mars), sols ( days, total days; ) before sustaining serious damage to its rotor blades, possibly all four, causing NASA to retire the craft on January 25, 2024. ''Perseverance'' is investigating an Astrobiology, astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars for its Geology of Mars, surface ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ice Giant
An ice giant is a giant planet composed mainly of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, such as oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. There are two ice giants in the Solar System: Uranus and Neptune. In astrophysics and planetary science the term "ice" refers to volatile chemical compounds with freezing points above about 100 K, such as water, ammonia, or methane, with freezing points of 273 K (0 °C), 195 K (−78 °C), and 91 K (−182 °C), respectively. In the 1990s, it was determined that Uranus and Neptune were a distinct class of giant planet, separate from the other giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, which are gas giants predominantly composed of hydrogen and helium. Neptune and Uranus are now referred to as ''ice giants''. Lacking well-defined solid surfaces, they are primarily composed of gases and liquids. Their constituent compounds were solids when they were primarily incorporated into the planets during their formation, ei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flagship-class Mission
NASA's large strategic science missions or large strategic missions, formerly known as Flagship missions or Flagship-class missions, are the costliest and most capable NASA science spacecraft. Flagship missions exist within all four divisions of NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD): the astrophysics, Earth science, heliophysics and planetary science divisions. "Large" refers to the budget of each mission, typically the most expensive mission in the scientific discipline. Within the Astrophysics Division and the Planetary Science Division, the large strategic missions are usually in excess of US$1 billion. Within Earth Science Division and Heliophysics Division, the large strategic missions are usually in excess of US$500 million.Powering Science: NASA's Large Strategic Science Missions (201 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voyager 2
''Voyager 2'' is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, as a part of the Voyager program. It was launched on a trajectory towards the gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) and enabled further encounters with the ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). The only spacecraft to have visited either of the ice giant planets, it was the List of artificial objects leaving the Solar System, third of five spacecraft to achieve Solar escape velocity, which allowed it to leave the Solar System#Farthest regions, Solar System. Launched 16 days before its twin ''Voyager 1'', the primary mission of the spacecraft was to study the outer planets and its extended mission is to study interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. ''Voyager 2'' successfully fulfilled its primary mission of visiting the Exploration of Jupiter, Jovian system in 1979, the Exploration of Saturn, Saturnian system in 1981, Exploration of Uranus, Uranian system in 1986, and the Exploration of Neptune, Neptunian system ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plutonium
Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation states. It reacts with carbon, halogens, nitrogen, silicon, and hydrogen. When exposed to moist air, it forms oxides and hydrides that can expand the sample up to 70% in volume, which in turn flake off as a powder that is pyrophoric. It is radioactive and can accumulate in bones, which makes the handling of plutonium dangerous. Plutonium was first synthesized and isolated in late 1940 and early 1941, by deuteron bombardment of uranium-238 in the cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. First, neptunium-238 (half-life 2.1 days) was synthesized, which then beta-decayed to form the new element with atomic number 94 and atomic weight 238 (half-life 88 years). Since uranium had been named after the planet Uranus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gravity Assist
A gravity assist, gravity assist maneuver, swing-by, or generally a gravitational slingshot in orbital mechanics, is a type of spaceflight flyby (spaceflight), flyby which makes use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the Course (navigation), path and speed of a spacecraft, typically to save propellant and reduce expense. Gravity assistance can be used to accelerate a spacecraft, that is, to increase or decrease its speed or redirect its path. The "assist" is provided by the motion of the gravitating body as it pulls on the spacecraft. Any gain or loss of kinetic energy and linear momentum by a passing spacecraft is correspondingly lost or gained by the gravitational body, in accordance with Newton's laws of motion#Newton's third law, Newton's Third Law. The gravity assist maneuver was first used in 1959 when the Soviet probe Luna 3 photographed the far side of Earth's Moon, and it was used by inter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ice Giants
An ice giant is a giant planet composed mainly of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, such as oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. There are two ice giants in the Solar System: Uranus and Neptune. In astrophysics and planetary science the term "ice" refers to volatile chemical compounds with freezing points above about 100 K, such as water, ammonia, or methane, with freezing points of 273 K (0 °C), 195 K (−78 °C), and 91 K (−182 °C), respectively. In the 1990s, it was determined that Uranus and Neptune were a distinct class of giant planet, separate from the other giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, which are gas giants predominantly composed of hydrogen and helium. Neptune and Uranus are now referred to as ''ice giants''. Lacking well-defined solid surfaces, they are primarily composed of gases and liquids. Their constituent compounds were solids when they were primarily incorporated into the planets during their formation, eith ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neptune Odyssey
Neptune Odyssey is an orbiter mission concept to study Neptune and its moons, particularly Triton. The orbiter would enter into a retrograde orbit of Neptune to facilitate simultaneous study of Triton and would launch an atmospheric probe to characterize Neptune's atmosphere. The concept is being developed as a potential large strategic science mission for NASA by a team led by the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. The current proposal targets a launch in 2033 using the Space Launch System with arrival at Neptune in 2049, although trajectories using gravity assists at Jupiter have also been considered with launch dates in 2031. The mission concept was considered for possible recommendation as a mission priority in the 2023–2032 Planetary Science Decadal Survey. However, for logistical reasons the Uranus Orbiter and Probe mission was selected as the ice giant orbiter mission recommendation, with top priority ahead of the Enceladus Orbilander. Background ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
