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Just an idea I thought of. In aid of future colonization of our solar system how cool(yet expensive) would it be to launch a mission that contained 100 robotic probes consisting of a small rover(like the first Pathfinder) and a small orbiter to go on each planet, moon and some asteroids? Using nuclear thermal propulsion(which could be tested without endangering humans) and a ship built in low earth orbit, a mission like this would revolutionize our understanding of the solar system and would also draw large public support(it would have to be an international mission too). It could be our first real survey of our solar system and I can only imagine the scientific discoveries and pictures it would produce. At some point in the future there will be a need to build on all our current explorations, especially in respect to human colonization efforts. The financial and technical challenges would be immense but at some point I can see such a program being needed. I think the development of nanotechnology will help us greatly in regards to such tasks.
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it would be a waste of resources and money
we ( international community of Americans, Russians, Chinese, Europeans... ) only need a few more missions and a few extra projects to be able to get the final bits of info on our Solar system and start moving on to building a Lunar colony and a manned Mars base.
'first steps are not for cheap, think about it...
did China build a great Wall in a day ?' ( Y L R newmars forum member )
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So what you're saying is we know everything there is to know and there's nothing more out there of interest? We have not even scratched the surface of our explorations yet, just look at how long we have been exploring our own planet. I'm just hoping for some more interesting missions like a rover on Titan, a probe of some kind in to Europa at least to find what's on and in these worlds.
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The point is that if we keep nickel and diming ourselfs with these little crap can missions--we won't go anywhere. Let's focus on larger launch systems--then we will have all the time in the world to send permanent satellites to each main body of the solar system. We've spent too much on robotics as it stands.
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I don't think we spend too much on robotics, we don't spend enough on manned space flight or robotics.
It’s going to be a good long time before humans get to some of the farther reaches of the solar system, and even when we do unmanned systems will still be very useful.
What we aught to do is every budget year set aside $2-3 billion for an unmanned probe that will cover the cost of design, construction, launch, and operation through the end of its primary mission. We pick our targets on a rotating basis, starting with the Sun, and then going to Mercury, Venus, the Asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and the Kuiper Belt. Then we cycle round again. Granted when I say target for the outer solar system I include the moons as well. So when we get around to, say Jupiter, the first time we might send something to orbit and probe the planet itself, and as a secondary objective snap pictures of its moons. The second time around we can go directly to study one or more moons, and snap pictures of the planet as a secondary objective. This will get really interesting as we start to get multiple probes in the same system.
Note that I did not include the Earth, Moon or Mars in that list. Earth studies should be handled by NOAA and/or the USGS, but there’s more to the Earth System than just the Earth and the Moon. We can't afford to forget to probe our nearby asteroids and comets, lest they probe us. Near Earth Space, the Moon, and Mars are of such an importance to the future of man I would devote $1-2 billion each for a probe every year.
And yes, that’s a hell of lot of money, $5-9 billion a year (mind you if it were up to me NASA's administrative costs would not be included in the primary budget, (earth based) aeronautics would be handed off to the military, and Manned flight would be guaranteed half of a $20billion budget). And it would be 2-3 years after such a program started before anything was launched. But that funding allows for a multi-faceted mission, perhaps allowing for large Prometheus class mother ships launching daughter-orbiters, rovers and landers, and perhaps even a sample return for good measure, and of course the launchers to get them off the ground. In time these missions can even directly support manned exploration, setting up infrastructure by remote control decades before man ever steps foot. Technologies developed for manned and robotic exploration will support each other, and even compete with each other.
Imagine an unmanned Lunar mission consisting of several construction rovers and a ISRU plant sent to a resource rich corner of the Moon building itself a base and stockpiling vital minerals and fuels completely independent of the manned program. Or that same mission on Gamymede. Or series of Mars sample return missions that test prototypes of the eventual manned lander, deploying a series of small rovers to collect and return samples from several km away, and sucking in its own fuel for its return to earth, a full decade before man steps foot there.
"Yes, I was going to give this astronaut selection my best shot, I was determined when the NASA proctologist looked up my ass, he would see pipes so dazzling he would ask the nurse to get his sunglasses."
---Shuttle Astronaut Mike Mullane
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