Space probe

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Pioneer H  hangs in a museum

A space probe is a scientific space exploration mission in which a spacecraft leaves Earth and explores space. It may approach the Moon, enter interplanetary, flyby or orbit other bodies, or approach interstellar space. Space probes are a form of robotic spacecraft.

See list of probes by operational status for a list of active probes; the space agencies of the USSR (now Russia and Ukraine), the United States, the European Union, Japan, China and India have in the aggregate launched probes to several planets and moons of the solar system as well as to a number of asteroids and comets.

Interplanetary trajectories

Once a probe has left the vicinity of Earth, its trajectory will likely take it along an orbit around the Sun similar to the Earth's orbit. To reach another planet, the simplest method, but wasteful of fuel, would be to head straight for it. More complex techniques, such as gravitational slingshots, can be more fuel-efficient, though they may require the probe to spend more time in transit. A technique using very little propulsion, but possibly requiring a considerable amount of time, is to follow a trajectory on the Interplanetary Transport Network.[1]

Some notable probes

Luna 16

First unmanned robotic sample return probe from the Moon.

Lunokhod 1

First rover on Moon.

Mariner 10

First probe to Mercury.

Venera 3

Probe from the Soviet Union was the first man-made spacecraft to impact on another planet (Venus).

Venera 7

The Venera 7 probe was the first man-made spacecraft to successfully soft landing on another planet (Venus) and to transmit data from there back to Earth.

Mariner 9

Upon its arrival at Mars on November 13, 1971, Mariner 9 became the first space probe to maintain orbit around another planet.[2]

The Huygens landing site on Titan.

Mars 3

First soft landing on Mars the planet(between 1960 and 1973).

Sojourner

First successful rover on Mars.

Spirit and Opportunity

The Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity surface and geology, and searched for clues to past water activity on Mars. They were each launched in 2003 and landed in 2004. Communication with Spirit stopped on sol 2210 (March 22, 2010).[3][4] JPL continued to attempt to regain contact until May 24, 2011, when NASA announced that efforts to communicate with the unresponsive rover had ended.[5][6][7] Opportunity arrived at Endeavour crater on 9 August 2011, at a landmark called Spirit Point named after its rover twin, after traversing 13 miles from Victoria crater, over a three year period.[8] As of January 16, 2012, Opportunity has lasted for more than eight years on Mars — although the rovers were intended to last only three months.

Halley Armada

First multinational interplanetary probes.

ICE

First probe to comet.

VeGa

First balloons in atmosphere of Venus.

Sakigake

First non-US non-Soviet interplanetary probe.

Suisei

First UV-observation probe for comet.

Giotto

First probe passed cometary coma.

Genesis

First solar wind sample return probe from sun-earth L1.

Stardust

First sample return probe from comet tail.

NEAR Shoemaker

First probe to asteroid with landing.

Hayabusa

First sample return probe from asteroid.

Rosetta

The Rosetta space probe has flown by two asteroids and is aiming to rendezvous and explore comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It is scheduled to arrive at the comet in 2014.[9]

Pioneer 10

First probe to Jupiter.

Pioneer 11

First probe to flyby two planets and first probe to Saturn.

Voyager 1

Voyager 1 is a 733-kilogram probe launched September 5, 1977. It is currently still operational, making it the longest-lasting mission of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It visited Jupiter and Saturn and was the first probe to provide detailed images of the moons of these planets.

Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth, traveling away from both the Earth and the Sun at a relatively faster speed than any other probe.[citation needed] As of July 23, 2010, Voyager 1 is over 17 terameters (1.7×1013 meters, or 1.7×1010 km, 110 AU, 15.7 light-hours, or 10.5 billion miles) from the Sun.[10]

Voyager 2

Voyager 2 first probe for 4 planets and first probe to Uranus and Neptune.

Huygens

First landing on Titan

New Horizons

First probe to be launched to Pluto

Juno

First probe to Jupiter without atomic battery, launched August 8, 2011.

Beyond the Solar System

Along with Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, and its sister space probe Voyager 2, Voyager 1 is now an interstellar probe. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have both achieved solar escape velocity, meaning that their trajectories will not return them to the solar system.[citation needed]

Probe imagers

Examples of space probe imaging telescope/cameras (focused on visible spectrum).

Name Aperture
cm (in.)		 Type Where When
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter—HiRISE 50 cm (19.7″) R/C Mars orbit 2005
Mars Global Surveyor—MOC[11] 35 cm (13.8″) R/C Mars orbit 1996–2006
New Horizons—LORRI[citation needed] 20.8 cm (8.2″) R/C Space (33+ AU from Earth) 2006
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter LROC-NAC[12] 19.5 cm (7.68″) Reflector Lunar orbit 2009
Galileo - Solid State Imager[13] 17.65 cm (6.95″) Reflector Jupiter 1989-2003
Voyager 1/2, ISS-NAC[14] 17.6 cm (6.92″) Catadioptric Space 1977
Mariner 10 - TV Photo Experiment (x2)[15] 15 cm (5.9″) Reflector Space 1973-1975
Deep Space 1—MICAS[16] 10 cm ( 3.94″) Reflector Solar orbit 1998-2001
Voyager 1/2, ISS-WAC[14] 6 cm (2.36″) Lens Space 1977
MESSENGER MDIS-WAC[17] 3 cm (1.18″) Lens Mercury orbit 2004
MESSENGER MDIS-NAC[18] 2.5 cm (0.98″) R/C Mercury orbit 2004
Dawn Framing Camera (FC1/FC2)[19] 2 cm (0.8″) Lens Asteroid belt 2007

Image forming systems on space probes typically have a multitude of specifications, but aperture can be useful because it constrains the best diffraction limit and light gathering area.[citation needed]

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ^ Next exit 0.5 Million Kilometers
  2. ^ http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/past/mariner8-9.html
  3. ^ September 30 – October 05, 2010 Spirit Remains Silent at Troy NASA. 2010-10-05.
  4. ^ A.J.S. Rayl Mars Exploration Rovers Update Planetary Society 30 November 2010
  5. ^ Webster, Guy (25 May 2011). "NASA's Spirit Rover Completes Mission on Mars". NASA. Retrieved 2011-10-12.
  6. ^ "NASA Concludes Attempts to Contact Mars Rover Spirit". NASA. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
  7. ^ Chang, Kenneth (May 24, 2011). "NASA to Abandon Mars Spirit Rover". New York Times.
  8. ^ NASA Mars Rover Arrives at New Site on Martian Surface Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 10 August 2011.
  9. ^ "Where Comets Emit Dust: Scientists Identify the Active Regions on the Surface of Comets" - ScienceDaily (Apr. 29, 2010)
  10. ^ Voyager - Mission - Interstellar Mission
  11. ^ Mars Global Surveyor
  12. ^ eoportal - LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) - LROC
  13. ^ Basics of Spaceflight (Ch. 12) - NASA/JPL
  14. ^ a b astronautix - voyager
  15. ^ NASA/NSSDC - Mariner 10 - Television Photography
  16. ^ NASA DS1
  17. ^ Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) - NASA/NSSDC
  18. ^ NASA PDS - MDIS
  19. ^ Sierks, et al. - The Dawn Framing Camera: A Telescope En Route to the Asteroid Belt - MPS/DLR/IDA
  • Deep Space: The NASA Mission Reports / edited by Robert Godwin (2005) ISBN 1-894959-15-9
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_3

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Space probes.
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