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#1 2003-01-30 17:10:32
- nirgal
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- Registered: 2002-05-14
- Posts: 157
Re: NASA Set to Unveil 'Jupiter Tour' Mission - More good news
When NASA rolls out its FY 2004 budget on Monday a large new planetary exploration mission will be revealed. The Bush Adminstration has signed off on a multi-billion-dollar-class mission dubbed "Jupiter Tour' - a mission which embodies a radical departure from the past four decades of planetary exploration.
Jupiter Tour would utilize a sophisticated spacecraft capable of multiple jumps from an orbit around one jovian moon to an orbit around another. Such a capability will allow close, detailed, and long-term studies to be made of many of the members of Jupiter's retinue of 40 (or more) moons.
The mission is slated for the 2009/2010 time frame and is expected to last more than a decade. Jupiter Tour will use an advanced nuclear-powered propulsion system developed under the umbrella of the newly-focused "Prometheus" program.
The cost of the program is projected to be at least $3 billion through Fiscal Year 2008.
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#2 2003-01-30 20:02:17
- Josh Cryer
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- Registered: 2001-09-29
- Posts: 3,830
Re: NASA Set to Unveil 'Jupiter Tour' Mission - More good news
There's your answer folks. 
Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
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The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.
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#3 2003-01-30 23:06:03
- Shaun Barrett
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- From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
- Registered: 2001-12-28
- Posts: 2,843
Re: NASA Set to Unveil 'Jupiter Tour' Mission - More good news
Yep! It's starting to look suspiciously like all this stuff about nuclear propulsion might end up as nothing more than nuclear-electric engines for more capable unmanned probes.
Anyway, it seems our hopes for Nuclear Thermal Rockets and humans-to-Mars in 10 years or so, might have been premature. (Hope I'm proved wrong on Feb. 5th)
And why waste so much time and money on another grand tour of the Jupiter system so soon after Galileo? All right, Europa is a very interesting place, but until we can penetrate the ice (a very debatable prospect if the ice is at the maximum end of thickness estimates), all we'll get are more pictures of the surface and maybe a spectral analysis of the reddy-brown patches.
It's good science, I realise, but if it's not due until 2008 or 2010, and is seen as a kind of proving flight, where does that leave us as regards human Mars exploration?
Sounds like quite a few of us may be senile before we see a boot print on Mars! (My wife's asking questions about my mental faculties already! .. Actually, now I come to think of it, she started asking questions soon after the wedding!! )
:;):
The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down. - Rita Rudner
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#4 2003-01-31 05:08:32
- nirgal
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- Registered: 2002-05-14
- Posts: 157
Re: NASA Set to Unveil 'Jupiter Tour' Mission - More good news
I think this is very good news. If the funding gets approved this will be a fantastic mission. If you're disappointed because there will be no manned mission to Mars in 2010 or an NTR development program maybe you should come back to reality.
You knew mainstream media hyped this LA Times interview and its only their fault and not O'Keefe's that expectations were so (unrealisticly) high.
I'm glad with what we've got: A multi-billion dollar effort to develop nuclear propulsion and power generation systems.
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#5 2003-01-31 07:19:37
- TJohn
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- Registered: 2002-08-06
- Posts: 149
Re: NASA Set to Unveil 'Jupiter Tour' Mission - More good news
Since NASA is doing a "Jupiter Tour", it would be nice if they could use Plus Ultra Technologies plan for a Europa mission.
Here's the link to their homepage: http://www.newworlds.com/nucpro.html
One day...we will get to Mars and the rest of the galaxy!! Hopefully it will be by Nuclear power!!!
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#6 2003-01-31 18:41:48
- Shaun Barrett
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- From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
- Registered: 2001-12-28
- Posts: 2,843
Re: NASA Set to Unveil 'Jupiter Tour' Mission - More good news
Thanks, TJohn!
That whole Plus Ultra Technologies site is a real shot-in-the-arm for us space cadets! It's really incredible how much our exploration capabilities will be enhanced by nuclear propulsion. Placing a long-lived nuke ramjet in the Jovian atmosphere is a spectacular plan!
And I was particularly encouraged by the Martian Hopper idea - even without humans, it would still return an awful lot of great science!
But I still want to see a colony on Mars and large-scale nuclear thermal propulsion seems to be the best way of doing that.
I feel like a kid in a toy store ... I want it all !!!
The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down. - Rita Rudner
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#7 2003-02-22 18:00:23
- ajcentauri
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- From: phoenix
- Registered: 2003-02-22
- Posts: 1
Re: NASA Set to Unveil 'Jupiter Tour' Mission - More good news
I don't think it is a "Jupiter Tour" for all the moons. It is the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO). It will focus on Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa. It will be designed to accomplish Nasa's previous scientific goals for Europa while also applying them to the others.
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#8 2003-02-28 07:36:10
- TJohn
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- Registered: 2002-08-06
- Posts: 149
Re: NASA Set to Unveil 'Jupiter Tour' Mission - More good news
How fast will the Prometheus travel? Is it like an ion engine that steadily builds speed over time?
One day...we will get to Mars and the rest of the galaxy!! Hopefully it will be by Nuclear power!!!
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