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Setting Priorities In Deep Space
Cameron Park - Nov. 15, 2000 This second mission could be the delayed Pluto-Kuiper mission -- which, if launched then, could not use a Jupiter gravity assist, and would have to rely instead on gravity assists from the inner planets combined with a solar-powered ion engine module (or perhaps a solar sail, if NASA was willing to substantially increase development funding for it). The total cost of the mission would considerably increase, and it could not be depended on to arrive at Pluto before 2020 (as against 2012 for the earlier plan). Alternately, the second OP mission might be another high-priority NASA science mission: the "Comet Nucleus Sample Return", in which a spacecraft very similar to the cancelled Deep Space-4 mission would use a solar-powered ion engine module (also known as "Solar Electric Propulsion", or SEP) to rendezvous with a comet nucleus, land on its surface or dispatch a small separate lander to do so, drill up several samples of its icy surface material, and return these intact to Earth. There are two other possible candidates for the second OP mission -- a Europa lander and a Titan lander -- but the general feeling is that these, to be planned at all properly, must wait for data from the Europa Orbiter and the Cassini-Huygens Saturn mission, so their selection would be very unlikely. NASA's stated plan is now to launch an Outer Planets mission about once every three years -- but several SSES member pointed out that, given the cost of most OP missions and the cut in funding, one mission every four or five years is much more realistic. The general reaction of SSES members to this seismic shift in NASA's plans was, as I say, highly indignant -- and in the second part of this report, I'll discuss both their scientific reasons for this, their recommendations as to possible ways to rectify the problem, and NASA's apparent early reaction to those recommendations.
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Voyages To Outer Sol
Cameron Park - Nov. 15, 2000 |
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