Mission to Pluto

Using the satellites and missions described here, plan a mission to Pluto and choose the

instruments.

The Solar System• Mercury

• Venus

• Earth/Moon

• Mars

• Asteroids

• Jupiter/moons

• Saturn/Titan

• Uranus

• Neptune

• Pluto

The Moon

Moon + SMART1SMART1 - 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?

Apollo astronauts collected rocks from the Moon

Experiments included temperature, gravity changes, moonquakes, rock composition

Mercury BepiColombo planned for 2011

Experiments include:

• lander

• camera

• Mercury’s magnetic field

• surface feature mapper (radar)

• solar wind effect on Mercury

• seismometer for Mercury-quakes

Picture from Mariner 10, taken in 1974

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

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

Jupiter and Almathea with the NASA Galileo satellite

Jupiter’s moons

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?

Galileo satellite from NASA, looking at temperature, composition, dust particles

Mission to EuropaNASA’s plan to look at the surface of the moon of Jupiter

and under the surface

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 Saturn’s moon, Titan.

Cassini/HuygensThe 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

Asteroids and comets

Gaspera seen by Galileo

Craters on Eros seen by NEAR-Shoemaker

Borelly seen by Deep Space 1

Experiments include cameras, dust particle analysers, dust composition

Rosetta – mission to a cometRosetta will be launched in 2004 by ESA

Experiments include:

• cameras

• surface features and composition

• studying water and molecules

• magnetic field and dust particles

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.

Genesis/Stardust

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.

Pluto

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 instruments:

• surface details

• camera

• rock analyser

• scoop

• microscope

Lander – extra problems:

• weight

• parachute or fuel

• power source