Comment by Animats
2 days ago
Nice. These missions that tell us the basics about objects in the Solar System are more useful than, say, re-visiting the moon or Mars.
Venus and Europa could use some attention. Anything underway?
2 days ago
Nice. These missions that tell us the basics about objects in the Solar System are more useful than, say, re-visiting the moon or Mars.
Venus and Europa could use some attention. Anything underway?
There is also NASA's upcoming mission to Titan, where they plan to fly an octocopter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly_(Titan_space_probe)
I'm really exited about Dragonfly, as Titan is a world not too different from ours: it gas lakes and rivers (made out of hydrocarbons, like methane), dunes and mountains
All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landing there.
I can't imagine aliens being so stupid to claim part of our Solar System. To me this would become a giant bullseye.
Aliens who are from the solar system have the right to claim their planet for themselves, just as we did
Europa could have some Europeans in it ; or extra solar aliens who can only survive in its climate so don’t care about rest of the system
What if hypothetically they had claimed it before us.
3 replies →
Europa clipper launched 2 years ago arrives in 2030. DAVINCI, a Venusian probe, is slated net 2033
BepiColombo, another joint ESA-JAXA mission, will enter orbit around Mercury next month after a longer-than-expected journey. It will be the third spacecraft to visit Mercury.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BepiColombo
Apparently five Venus missions (DAVINCI, VERITAS, Envision, Venus Life Finder, and Venus Orbiter) all in the next five years or so: https://www.space.com/astronomy/venus/these-5-venus-missions...
For Europa, Europa Clipper Mission (already on the way): https://science.nasa.gov/mission/europa-clipper/mission-time...
... and JUICE (already on the way): https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice
There might be others, those are just what I found in a quick search.
Sample return from Venus is practically impossible with our current tech.
I suggest Terraforming Venus with microbes or extremophiles.
And to hell with the "planetary protection" treaty. We need "lebensraum"! Our females want to breed!
Venus needs men!