NASA Will Launch OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sampling Probe at 7:05 PM EST
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[QUOTE]OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) is the latest in a string of sample return attempts, and space exploration’s best shot at bringing home some serious dirt after previous efforts by the Stardust and Hayabusa missions returned with only a disappointing sprinkling of dust.[/QUOTE]
[URL="https://www.wired.com/2016/09/watch-nasa-launch-asteroid-sampling-spacecraft/"]Source[/URL]
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Let's go boys.
Asteroid Probe 2016: [I]Drill That Rock[/I]
15 minute hold
gooooooooooo
A friend of mine assisted on the guidance and control system for this probe (Uni of Arizona), hope it goes well.
It's a shame there's not much current interest in sending out a probe to Europa or even Ganymede to check out the subsurface ocean.
[QUOTE=GordonZombie;51023696]It's a shame there's not much current interest in sending out a probe to Europa or even Ganymede to check out the subsurface ocean.[/QUOTE]
theres a few massive hurdles for that, we dont have enough plutonium for a mission like that, we dont have a rocket big enough to put the kind of probe up that can even reach either of those and enter orbit, and we still havent solved the contamination problems for if we do go there
theres tons of interest but they are very hard targets
[QUOTE=GordonZombie;51023696]It's a shame there's not much current interest in sending out a probe to Europa or even Ganymede to check out the subsurface ocean.[/QUOTE]
That ocean is under kilometers of extremely hard ice, at best. We don't have readily available technology to do it, or the funds to develop something that could get under it quickly. Though a surface rover would be sweet. Get me some of that Jupiter-rise.
[QUOTE=GordonZombie;51023696]It's a shame there's not much current interest in sending out a probe to Europa or even Ganymede to check out the subsurface ocean.[/QUOTE]
There's interest, but it'd be a bloody engineering nightmare to do it. Expect the complexity/cost of the Cassini mission with just that extra bit of complication.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love for us to do that, but at minimum we'd need a three stage craft (Orbiter, Lander, Sub) and doing comm relays for that is pretty hard, especially at the distance the craft would be operating from.
Also the radiation environment for most of the Jovian system is pretty harsh (Harsher than most other planets because of its strong magnetosphere). In orbit and on the surface it receives about [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Europa#Possible_problems"]seven times more dose[/URL] than an [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_assessment_detector#Gallery"]equivalent day on Mars[/URL].
This wouldn't be a problem for the sub however, all the liquid of the Europian oceans would block most of it.
[QUOTE=GordonZombie;51023696]It's a shame there's not much current interest in sending out a probe to Europa or even Ganymede to check out the subsurface ocean.[/QUOTE]
Imagine drilling through all that ice and then watching in horror as the probe gets swallowed or something
[QUOTE=GordonZombie;51023696]It's a shame there's not much current interest in sending out a probe to Europa or even Ganymede to check out the subsurface ocean.[/QUOTE]
The Europa clipper is planned to launch sometime between 2020-2022. Due to Jupiter's crazy amount of radiation it'll not be orbiting but instead do flybys of Europa before getting to safety. Along with a planned lander it might also have some cubesats to study Europa as well.
[editline]11th September 2016[/editline]
I'm kinda curious how they'll do the lander since they'll probably have some crazy tight amounts of sanitizing to do. NASA are super paranoid about introducing foreign microbes from earth into a place like Europa even if Jupiter's radiation alone will kill almost any remainders.
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