You're running JPL

[Fraser]

Okay, I've just promoted you as director for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory - the group responsible for launching robotic spacecraft to explore the solar system. You've got a few billion dollars in budget to play around with.

What part of the solar system would you like to explore?

[KB3HTS]

PLUTO!!!! :D And while we're at it, a Europa probe.
And while there's a "few billion dollar budget," how bout launching an array of space telescopes toward the orbit of Jupiter to look for Earth-size extrasolar planets. And a radio telescope on the other side of Earth's orbit so there would be a dish a few million miles across... my heart just skipped a beat thinking about that one...

[Planetwatcher]

Pluto and the Kupier belt for sure. :P

After that perhaps try to develop some means of communication which is faster then light. Not that super light space travel isn't improtant, but a means of communication which is hundreds of times faster then light would be more practical to us as we venture out into space.

After that, as KB3HTS suggested, probes on opposite sides of the Sun at least as far out as Jupiter's orbit to make parallax measuring more accurate.

[BobbyD]

B) Definitely,totally to Pluto and Europa....who says we can't land on Europa?????Then I'd photograph the polar regions of...Mars,Jupiter,and Saturn!!!I'd look for those UFO bases!!!

[DippyHippy]

My first thoughts were Pluto and Europa too :D And definitely something to look for Earth-like extra-solar planets...

...I'd love to go back to Uranus and Neptune though... we don't know enough about those strange, cold worlds...

[kashi]

Funding space-based inferometry projects such as DARWIN would be a must. Searching for extrasolar planets should be the primary focus for the next 50 years in my opinion. While Neptune and Uranus are nice aesthetically, there's nothing that could really help our civilisation there.

Kashi

[thelonewolf37]

It might be interesting to send a probe into the ocean. Kind of an odd place for a space agency to go, I know. But I am sure there is a lot left to learn about the "home planet."

[GSii]

Far, far away - Pluto & Charon is good, Quaoar better.

But I would also like to know, if there is really a 2nd moon around our earth.

Then we should start to check the asteriod belt and bring back a little rock into earth orbit for industrial use & space exploration.

Work for half of the planet.

[imported_Neil Armstrong]

First on my list would be a mission to Pluto/Charon. 2nd would be a mission to Mercury, we've only ever had one-Mariner 10 and it only photographed 40% of the planet. A modern Mercury orbital mission could photograph/map the entire surface. 3rd would be a mission to Europa to search for liquid oceans and possibly lifeforms.

[Josh]

I know the sun has been studied quite a bit, but i'd be sending a probe to the surface of the sun! If organisms can survive and even thrive in volcanic vents where the temperature is comparable to the surface of the sun then I wonder what lies in sotre on the "ground" up there.

[Deep_Eye]

What/Where is Quaoar?

[GSii]

Hi, DeepEye,

please take a look at http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~chad/quaoar/:

What is Quaoar?
Quaoar is a newly discovered Kuiper Belt object, found in June 2002 by Chad Trujillo and Mike Brown at Caltech in Pasadena. It's the largest Kuiper Belt object currently known, half the diameter of Pluto (about 1/8 the volume), and 1.6 billion kilometers (1 billion miles) further away than Pluto.

How big is Quaoar?
Quaoar is about 1250 km in diameter, roughly the size of Pluto's moon Charon. Nothing larger has been found in our solar system since Pluto was discovered in 1930 (and Pluto's moon Charon in 1978). It's huge, in fact, if you took the 50,000 numbered asteroids and put them together, it would be about the same volume as Quaoar.

Here's a picture of Quaoar compared to some other Solar System objects ...

Greetings
GSii

[imported_ROB]

why not work on sending man to mars a human with tools would be more reliable then the robots so far sent there could even set up a half way house for deeper space travel either for launching new probes or even manned flight
think of the space avalible for creation of a monster dish for monitering one that dwarfs any dish here on earth i know this would probably take a little more than the allowed budget but at least it could be started........!

rob ;)

[zephyr46]

How much money do I have ?
First I would track down the Pioneer satelites, and give them new brains eyes and voices, then a comprehesive system wide internet (http://www.ipnsig.org/), repairing Mariner probes and any other orbiting satalites.
With this system I would start distributing micro-satalites around every planet, moon and major asteroid.
When you could log on and veiw live images of every planet and moon in the solar system, I would start on the galactic plane. When there was a live and database of longitudinal data sets of the galatic plane in multiwavelengths (http://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/mw/milkyway.html)
then I would take a month long holiday on mars, staying at the Vallaris Marinaris Ecosphere Resort and research base. I would enjoy a climb of Olympus Mons.

On my return retire to the moon, unless the earth was still habitable, on the revenue of the sol asteroid mining co-op shares that I had brought with the change from Trillion dollar buget blowout.
:)

[Josh]

zephyr,

I was wondering if I could come work for you?

[zephyr46]

Josh, It would be honour to work with you, I'm still at the lobbying stage at the moment and buget is zero so we run hot on passion and vision, if you or anyone you know can come up with some technical specifications, we can start yesterday! I think we should buy spaceship one, hubble and the internetional space station, the sooner we can get some guest appearences in the ISS by notable sitcoms the sooner people will realise we are a space fareing civialisation.
On On :lol:

[Haglund]

My choices would be these (can't pick just one): Mars. A return sample mission capable of drilling several meters below the surface from different kinds of terrain, rocky, riverbeds, volcanoes and polar ice caps.
Titan. A rover and a submarine mission to this world would be nice.
Europa. A return sample mission. It should be able to drill its way down through the glaciers to send a small probe down...
Triton. Another of my favourite worlds.
The Kuiper belt and the Oort comet cloud. I suspect that we could learn quite a lot about our solar system by sending probes there (although I am aware it would take some time to reach the Oort cloud...)

[Matthew]

I'd send a probe out to Pluto. A flyby, which would drop off an orbiter, and then send off the remainer part to the Oort cloud and then to the heliosphere (or heliopause). A pretty long mission that would be. But it'd be very interesting.

[zephyr46]

I would love to get somthing on it's way to Proxima Centauri, and Alpha Cen A and B, though I would probably not admit to it in public.

[zephyr46]

oops, I just did :blink:
Has anyone noticed the great websites some of the participants have here?
TSA (http://www.terranspace.org/) and cygonaut (http://www.cygo.com/index.html), wow, anyone want to do somthing or what!

[MarQ]

I like Parker's list. We have to keep hammering away at Mars. The problem in the past has been not following up and building on each mission, including the failures that have to be reflown. Eventually, we will understand the Red Planet. Then we can go on to the other worlds.

[Haglund]

While I think we should explore as much of the other planets as we possibly can, I still believe that for the time being maybe a focus on Mars is a good idea. And I agree about following up, for example some more advanced landers right after Viking 1 & 2 to continue where they left off would've be cool. Also, why not build several smaller landers that could land in different terrain? I think that it's important to continue to study Mars, especially if we're going to go there one day.

[imported_Ziggy]

A few billion dollars? Wow! Can there buget even go that high? Any way. I would send a type of laser powered solar sail probe to the kuiper belt. There's still alot to be learnd about it. I mean with all those 1000km+ EKB objects who knows. Maybe will even find (even though the chances are low) a dark companion star for the sun. I was watching that show on super massive black holes and what really caught my attion was the part about pure energy life forms developing around faint brown dwarf stars. And who knows. Maybe if we do find a faint companion star in the kuiper belt will find some advanced civilation. Though the chances are minute.





Earth is the cradle of life, but one cannot live in the cradle forever"

[I, Brian]

I'd have to send every planet it's own probe - and include a lander with a film camera on every single one. I want to look at the solar system from every angle. I want to see the surface of Venus in colour. I'm sure there would be scientific value in it all, too. :)

[zephyr46]

Like weather satelites? I'm for that :)

[Grokker]

Quaoar, oh yes! yes! yes!

Home.

Send me there with minimium life support I will try to colonize it myself.

[Haglund]

Spaceprobes to the other two gasgiants Uranus and Neptune would be great to see as well, many interesting things to see there I am sure.

[tycho1981]

a few billion dollars is very very much money, nasa, esa, ussr, china together don't have this money :0! I should then do multipe missions in once.

I had thinking long but every planets/moons is interesting!, that all must've been explorerd by landers. + sample return from some planets!.

Voyager type mission but with solar sail then this should go very fast that can go forward of old Voyager probe in a short time! This should be intersolar mission too.

and try build a probe that can travel at speed of more then one lightspeed.:D

[Haglund]

Hmm, and why not sample returns from all the planets? Would it be possible to make short dives into the atmospheres of the gasgiants and collect some gas? Also imagine sample returns from the rings of Saturn, or from fly-overs by the volcanoes of Io and geysers of Triton. Now that would be really cool.

[zephyr46]

I've often wondered if you could insert a glider int the Jovian atmosphere. I think of all the weather Satelites (http://science.nasa.gov/RealTime/JTrack/3D/JTrack3d.html) monitoring the earths weather and mapping the surface, could a few of the older ones be sent to mars and juipiter when replacements turn up :)
Of course we would still need to set up a relay network of satelites, long over due, we could still be getting data from pioneer and voyager till they were completely dead. But yeah live pictures of all the planets would be good, and I still support my earlier mission recomendations :D


How much money do I have ?
First I would track down the Pioneer (http://leonardo.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/Programs/pioneer.html) satelites, and give them new brains eyes and voices, then a comprehesive system wide internet, repairing Mariner probes and any other orbiting satalites.
With this system I would start distributing micro-satalites around every planet, moon and major asteroid.
When you could log on and veiw live images of every planet and moon in the solar system, I would start on the galactic plane. When there was a live and database of longitudinal data sets of the galactic plane in multiwavelengths (http://adc.gsfc.nasa.gov/mw/milkyway.html)
then I would take a month long holiday on mars, staying at the Vallaris Marinaris Ecosphere Resort and research base. I would enjoy a climb of Olympus Mons.

On my return retire to the moon, unless the earth was still habitable, on the revenue of the sol asteroid mining co-op shares that I had brought with the change from Trillion dollar buget blowout.

[Cheri13]

[COLOR=green] I want to give the new eyes and ears to the Pioneers, that was such a good idea. Catch up with the Voyagers and upgrade them, as well. On the way to those projects, let's really study, Neptune and Uranus and well as Pluto.

[Alaskan]

.............Dark Matter

[tycho1981]

restarting/repair Voyager is not such good idea! how long did it take Voyager come till pluto or so? more then 10 years! so the backway is too, just better make a new probe lol

[zephyr46]

The initial Idea is to catch up with exisiting satelites and extend their life times and capabilities, the advances in speed at the moment put pioneer 10, 11, voyager 1 and 2 a little far out at the moment, but the idea is to catch up by the time the first mission catches up the third may well have caught up with the second. the reason is to extend the capabilities. My preference is the multi wavelength spectrum, the advantage of having observatories out at the heliopause are numerous. with observations from opposite ends of the solar system, a gamma ray burst would have between 8 minutes and 16 minutes to be prepared for, if we start playing around with speend of light communications. IE Gamma ray burst travels at C (the speed of light) reaches voyager 1 with gamma ray observation platform up grade, fires a projectile with a laser beam/radio transmitter towards earth, earthbound momentum + laser/radio signal (=C) can we get a message to Comptom in time to direct an observation? Maybe, but the whole sky multiwavelenght monitering programme would have a record of all events in that area of sky and capture it anyway.

I would therefore suggest that the earlier pioneer missions again, be upgraded, the NEAR mission, mariner, any mission still floating around that needs a new fuel supply and new telescope, that could build a interplanetary internet. rather than starting from scratch.
just my thoughts though. :)

[Matthew]

The initial Idea is to catch up with exisiting satelites and extend their life times and capabilities, the advances in speed at the moment put pioneer 10, 11, voyager 1 and 2 a little far out at the moment, but the idea is to catch up by the time the first mission catches up the third may well have caught up with the second. the reason is to extend the capabilities.

It'd just be easier to build new craft and send them out to the heliopause. To send a craft out to fix up voyager you would need to send out a craft, which would need to catch up with voyager, which would take a long time and would probably occur outside the heliopause, that craft would also need to carry:

The new equipment for Voyager

Machinery to install/replace the equipment

Fuel to catch up to Voyager, then fuel to refuel Voyager, for Voyager would need to keep on adjusting its course if it were to stay just outside the heliopause.

Voyager would also probably need a new nuclear reactor for it to continue operating.

Voyager's casing might not be big enough either so you might need to replace that. So you might only keep a VERY small amount of the original Voayger.




My preference is the multi wavelength spectrum, the advantage of having observatories out at the heliopause are numerous. with observations from opposite ends of the solar system, a gamma ray burst would have between 8 minutes and 16 minutes to be prepared for, if we start playing around with speend of light communications. IE Gamma ray burst travels at C (the speed of light) reaches voyager 1 with gamma ray observation platform up grade, fires a projectile with a laser beam/radio transmitter towards earth, earthbound momentum + laser/radio signal (=C) can we get a message to Comptom in time to direct an observation? Maybe, but the whole sky multiwavelenght monitering programme would have a record of all events in that area of sky and capture it anyway.

Any message we could send would travel at c, the gamma rays would travel at c. It would take a few milliseconds for the craft to create and then send a message to Earth. So we could warn Earth after the Gamma ray had past. Something like this would only be good for prolonged bursts, but then Earth would have detected it in the same amount of time.

But a system outside the heliopause would be good for very long wavelengeths that might be pushed past the heliopause by the Solar Wind.

[zephyr46]

What about upgrading the other Pioneer (http://leonardo.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/Programs/pioneer.html) craft?

And reactivating NEAR ? Do you see any merit in the Idea of recycling platforms and resupplying them robotically till we get there?

I think SOHO deserves a visit!

[Haglund]

I think that recycling platform designs is a good idea, and this is what ESA is doing with their Venus Express (which is based around the same platform as Mars Express.

[Matthew]

I think recycling space probes is a waste of time, unless they are still in orbit somewhere, and only 1 or 2 things need replacing. But when you try to replace almost everypart it would cost to much, and would be easier to send a totally new, top of the art probe. To replace parts in a probe you would need to first build a probe which would update the old one, it would need to be able to automatically install the new parts. Also if you found that something had been damaged in the repairing mission you'd have to then send another 'fixing' probe out.

[zephyr46]

Your probably right :(

I was thinking of Galileo originally. I fell in love with Io, and the Idea that that incredably probe was going to be destroyed because it ran out of hydrozine!

So, I though refuelling (http://www.spacedaily.com/news/uav-03zzk.html) missions, like, when will Cassini need to be restocked?

and you could include some MOST (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/ness_asteroid_000824.html) sized probes, maybe some sort of weather satelite, and new technology, so you build your interplantary mission and keep them going rather than running then down and crashing them.

The other motivation was a 'pony express' telegraph to keep contact with pioneer and voyager.

I still think, sending deep space probes resupply missions with new tech and the capability to repair themselves ultimately extends our knowlege. Because of the distances, when we loose these probes it takes so long to replace them, we loose so much. And I am a greeny, beleive it or not, we do everything on the cheap and the idea of throwing away a billion dollar investment is like throwing away a million dollar investment, not worth it.

[Dan Luna]

How about a probe to drill down into the ice at the poles of Mercury? If it's from comet impacts it might provide different information than sending probes to just 1 or 2 comets. There might also be very old material buried at depth that is not found on Mercury today.

[zephyr46]

Aircraft for other worlds (http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/aerial_off-world_031210.html), Space.com story.

Yes Dan, core samples from all the planets and their moons, with an array of weather satelites. :)

[damienpaul]

1. Interstellar mission
2. Manned mission to Mars
3. The moons of the Gas Giants
4. Pluto
5. Oort Cloud
6. and yes i agree - restart/upgrade voyagers and pioneers

[zephyr46]

Space Daily Story (http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacetravel-03k.html) about establishing a One stop depot for Space Technology.

Beyond-earth Enterprises (http://www.beyond-earth.com/)

[zephyr46]

Columbiad (http://www.columbiad.ca/industrial/index.html), here is a company aiming at just such propositions, only on the micro scale and on predesigned satelites, none the less, refuelling and reboosting.

Still, not the recycling I think is worth it. Is it cheaper to send a probe with a new solar array to mariner nine, with a new processor etc And a larger dish or two for deep space radar activities? Asteroid mapping and satelite tracking?

If the old satelites arn't worth repairing/upgrading any new vehicles should be designed for such. Galileo/JIMO really what we want around Juipiter is redeployable rovers permanent weather monitoring of Juipiters atmosphere and Io's volcanos, and the ability to maintain a presence and to repair and maintain fuel and new technology.

Io (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/research/outerp/io.html)

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/research/outerp/haemus1.gif

Amirani-Maui: Longest Known Active Lava Flow in the Solar System (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02506)

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpegMod/PIA02506_modest.jpg

[damienpaul]

can i get a job with that company???

[tycho1981]

i should send meself to Mars with my own rover

[damienpaul]

i'll come with you

[Matrix2]

I think that Maxis and other graet game producer are here rare visitors but sad. If they knew that Running JPL where a great idea. You are manager of NASA and you are spending money, fighting with Russian or ESA to get commercial money , and spend it to funding researches it where great.
:unsure:

And half of this graet game prize where going to Nasa :)

[scott712]

If I were running the Space program I would concentrate on exploring asteroids before trying to go to Mars. If we could learn how to inexpensively mine Asteroids, and manufacture the bulky parts of ships, stations in Space, and oxygen and hydrogen for fuel then we could have a sustainable human presence in Space and go on to Mars and so on. I think it is needlessly difficult to try to go to Mars and back before we first achieve more self-sufficiency in Space.

[zephyr46]

And Comets, where else to look for water ?
Out near mars they should be less active, more approachable ?

Again Highly recomend Cygo's website !! (http://www.cygo.com/index.html)

[zephyr46]

Stardust Surprise !

Wild 2 and the Stardust mission seems to have provoked the idea of exploring comets forward in NASAs opinion.
NASA story (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/16jan_stardust.htm?list842362)

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/images/stardust/core300_med.jpg

[Chook]

ROB told me he'd send a probe to Pluto, costing $1 billion.

What he'd REALLY do would be to put a cracker under a shell, costing $10,000, and send it up to come down in Northern Siberia somewhere.

Then he'd pocket the difference - and tell everbody it was lost after 2 years wait.

What a ROBber! ;) :D

(Just a joke!)

[zephyr46]

WIRE, crippled satelite reveils new information about Altair (http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html) Space.com story

[Spacemad]

i should send meself to Mars with my own rover


i'll come with you


I´d like to visit the stars! Too far? Well, there are the probes out there that can be our eyes & ears.

I was interested to read peoples´ comments on upgrading probes like the Voyagers l & ll. Of course it can´t be done & never will as it would be far easier - & much more practical, to send a state-of-the-art probe on similar missions than to chase after obsolete craft & then try to upgrade them!

With a couple of billion Pounds Sterling I would like to send advanced probes to Mercury & Venus. We know so little about them. Even though Venus has been mapped by synthetic aperture radar thjere is so much more we could learn about it & at the same time who knows if the knowledge gained in such an expedition might not help us here to avoid the EXAGERATED greenhouse effect of Venus here on Earth?

We probably know less about Mercury than most of the other planets in our Solar System. Might it not be possible to set up something like SOHO to moniter the Sun?

[Faulkner]

Maybe we could use the principle of "quantum entanglement" onboard a light-sail probe, send it off to a local star system like Alpha Centauri A in no time at all, and get back instantaneous pictures/signals?? Isn't this at least theoretically possible?

[Spacemad]

I was reading about this thing called "Quantum Entanglement" the other day. It's a very interesting theory - imagine being able to be - literally - in two places at once!
I seem to remember reading something similar some years ago - but to think that scientists have actually been able to do it! WOW! Where will this lead us in the future, I wonder?

[StarLab]

OK, new members, let's hear some more replies...


As for me, I'd:

Mine Cruithne
Creat colonies on the Galilean/Jovian moons
Of course get people back on the moon and onward to Mars
Dump a sh*tload of water on Venus
And anything else I may come up with whilst sitting in front of a black screen.

[zephyr46]

Starlab!

Not having even scouted Cruithne, you want to mine it?

:rolleyes:

Well, your running JPL!

Antoniseb came up with this thred (http://www.universetoday.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5557) about a particle detector on Europa. The mor I think about it, the more I like the idea of littering the solor system with multiwavelength observatories, including particle detectors. I guess we should be mining somewhere up there!

On, and as a matter of prioriety, I would start a veggie garden on the ISS, it sounds like they need one, BADLY (http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/astronauts_running_low_food.html?6122004) !

[John L]

I'd send a rover to those lunar south pole craters and see if there is any water ice worth accessing. If there is, the we can use it for rocket fuel, air, and of course water to go anywhere.

I'd send nuclear powered surface rovers to Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa (all three at once) to do a little exploration, prospecting, drilling. They all have lots of water. Humans, with some plants that can survive in low light, some basic sea life and fish, could survive on any of these moons indefinitely. Why not buld a dome, use solar collectors to focus sunlight, melt some pools for aquaculture, and grow plants in some greenhouses?

I like the Cruinthe idea, and would send some more probes to the large Earth crossing and asteroid belt asteroids and do a little prospecting.

I'd send a rover to Titan once we have a clue what the surface is like. Nuclear so it could tool around for years on end. Maybe even one that could lift back off and hop around the whole moon.

I'd send Cassini style orbiters to Uranus and Neptune. We've sent them to all of the other major planets, so we might as well hit those two, too.

I'd pick the fastest system we can and get the interstellar probes starting. VASMIR? High thrust nuclear ion engines? Orion? Plain old chemical, but REALLY BIG? M2P2? Solar Sail? What's the fastest in the long run?

[zephyr46]

Why not send one of each?

Your running the show :)

[Spacemad]

It's a long time since most of us visited this thread!

I was reading some of the old posts we'd made & I see that my idea of sending a probe to Mercury has actually taken off (quite literally!!). Messenger will take a few years yet to get there but when it does the scientific info & images it sends back will increase our little present knowledge by leaps & bounds!

If I were in charge of NASA I think I would send a couple of nuclear powered probes to study Pluto & Caronte. They would be worth studying as a binary planetary system.

When thinking about exploring the outer Solar System I have often thought about the possibility of landing a probe on a comet, once it has passed around the Sun & was on its way back to the outer reaches. We could send a probe to rendezvous with it at the point of closest approximation to Earth´s orbit , it would then land, anchor itself & as the comet ( or asteroid) would transport it, free of charge, to the outer most extensions, it would transmit back info, not only of the comet´s composition but also of the conditions of these outer reaches & then as the comet returned to the innermost reaches of the Solar System the probe would relay info about the changes that take place on its host.

All that would be necessary would be a nuclear power generator to keep the scientific instruments from freezing & to maintain an info contact with Earth while it´s many years away.

Bit of a pipe dream perhaps! :unsure:

[martyism]

I say we head directly to the asteroid belt and start looking for mineral laden asteroids to mine. Returning the materials to earth orbit could be set up cheaply with ion engines and big business would suddenly support our efforts to explore the universe.

Not my idea , Jerry Pournelle’s, but I don’t see what could make more sense. The space program has driven so many advances in technology that it has clearly paid for itself many times over, both economically and socially, yet there are groups of individuals out that that still ask, “Why should we go to space when we have problems here at home?”

The drive to mine the asteroid belt would also create technology that would be still ignored, while being extremely valuable. But in this case the Nay Sayers would be irrefutably reminded of the value of our space programs with every shipment of ore arriving into earth orbit that enriches our standard of living making larger and more realistic budgets readily available to the space program.

Marty

[John L]

Originally posted by Spacemad@Dec 8 2004, 03:19 PM
When thinking about exploring the outer Solar System I have often thought about the possibility of landing a probe on a comet, once it has passed around the Sun & was on its way back to the outer reaches. We could send a probe to rendezvous with it at the point of closest approximation to Earth´s orbit , it would then land, anchor itself & as the comet ( or asteroid) would transport it, free of charge, to the outer most extensions, it would transmit back info, not only of the comet´s composition but also of the conditions of these outer reaches & then as the comet returned to the innermost reaches of the Solar System the probe would relay info about the changes that take place on its host.
It's called Rosetta, and the ESA has already launched it. It will have an orbiter (Rosetta) and a lander (I forget its name) that will anchor itself to the comet and do an onsite study. The comet picked doesn't get out much farther than Jupiter, though, but this will prove your idea is feasible.

[astromark]

I like these ideas, and as well as not insdead of, I would like the ISS to be made bigger. Lets not stop building it untill its huge. I want to see a space station that could be a real asset to us all. Maybe even a university. hotel or resort. Move it up untill its geostatic. A real space base.

[Moseley]

Hi - just read this thread for the first time - great stuff. It just happens I found this story soon after:

http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=109777

so it's 1 up to the Neptune crowd.

[zephyr46]

Ok, I have decided to build a sister observatory for Keck (http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/) on the moon (what the heck, lets make it 2 and a couple sisters for Spitzer (http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/) to go to the L4 and 5 Lagrange points (http://www.physics.montana.edu/faculty/cornish/lagrange.html)) and one in the Himalayas (http://library.thinkquest.org/10131/) and the south pole.

And to extend the radio monitering for 'Earth Killers' (Just doing my bit for the UN (http://www.universetoday.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=6164&st=0&#entry59730)), I have decided to build sisters to the VLA, VLBA and Alma (for when it is finished) (http://www.nrao.edu/imagegallery/php/level1.php) :)

Any objections?

[damienpaul]

no objections and if you want, I have a shed for you to use as a monitoring station

[zephyr46]

Cool, what are you up to in about a month? :lol:

[Spacemad]

Originally posted by damienpaul@Jan 22 2005, 02:57 AM
no objections and if you want, I have a shed for you to use as a monitoring station

You want to vie with Parks, now? :P

[damienpaul]

yes, yes I do...I would love to have a space watch-meteorological station in my shed

[Spacemad]

Originally posted by Spacemad@Dec 8 2004, 08:19 PM

When thinking about exploring the outer Solar System I have often thought about the possibility of landing a probe on a comet, once it has passed around the Sun & was on its way back to the outer reaches. We could send a probe to rendezvous with it at the point of closest approximation to Earth´s orbit , it would then land, anchor itself & as the comet ( or asteroid) would transport it, free of charge, to the outer most extensions, it would transmit back info, not only of the comet´s composition but also of the conditions of these outer reaches & then as the comet returned to the innermost reaches of the Solar System the probe would relay info about the changes that take place on its host.

All that would be necessary would be a nuclear power generator to keep the scientific instruments from freezing & to maintain an info contact with Earth while it´s many years away.

Bit of a pipe dream perhaps! :unsure:

John L
It's called Rosetta, and the ESA has already launched it. It will have an orbiter (Rosetta) and a lander (I forget its name) that will anchor itself to the comet and do an onsite study. The comet picked doesn't get out much farther than Jupiter, though, but this will prove your idea is feasible.

When I wrote here about my idea of a probe landing on a comet I was mentioning an idea I had had many, many years ago. At that time I knew nothing about Rosetta - it probably wasn´t even on the drawing boards at that time!

I have been following Rosetta for the last couple of years & will continue to follow it´s progress as I have also done with another comet chaser lauched recently - Deep Impact. This probe will go to a meeting with the comet Temple 1 where it will lauch an impactor, which, hopefully, will blast a crater the size of a football stadium on July 4th this year. The probe will then study the debris/ejecta from a safe distance & relay its findings back to Earth.

I always follow any probe lauched from Earth to investigate our Solar System - like everyone else, I´ve been following very closely the Mission to Saturn of the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft & , more recently, the landing of Huygens on Titan.

True to my name (SpaceMad) I follow all missions as they study the Universe - now with email alerts, UT, NASA & ESA I never miss a thing!!! :P