| Space Exploration |
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Ever since the sixties, man has been sending space probes out into the solar system on a voyage of discovery. For every new discovery, comes answers and yet more questions. For every new planet we get a closer look at, we are more and more surprised by what we find.
      We have sent probes out to look at our inner rocky planets, to observe the sun, to fly past our gas giants and to land on the surfaces of planets and distant moons.             Every mission is essential in its return of science, including the performance of the different deployment, insertion and instrument systems.
For a good animation and example of one of these missions watch the video below.
Today is a very exciting time, with the barrage of robotic explorers, embarked on an all out assault around the solar system.
Deep Space Network.
The deep space network is a series of radio antennae, strategically placed around the globe to maintain 24 hour communications to our robotic explorers. These “dishes” occupy stations where there are several different antennae to perform specific communications with the different craft. There are three stations in the world. The Canberra Deep Space Tracking Station at Tidbinbilla (now known as CDSCC) was opened in 1965 and is the only NASA tracking station in Australia still in operation. The other two are the Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex located in Spain and the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in the United States. To learn more about the Deep Space network click here.
Deep Space Probes It may surprise many to know just how many probes have been launched. They number in the hundreds! Currently, there are around 41 deep space missions in progress right now! That doesn’t include the hundreds of satellites currently in low earth orbit. Some are drifting on the edges of our solar system, with all but their radio’s turned off. Others are furiously driving on the surface or digging for samples on alien soil. We even have surveyor satellites orbiting other planets, mapping the surface in high resolution, while gleaning all kinds of reconnaissance data for future missions, landings or colonization. The links below show the very long lists of spacecraft sent into orbit around or to land on other bodies of the solar system. These lists are used with permission and full credit and thanks goes to Wm. Robert Johnston M.S. (Physics), B.A. (Astronomy) for their compilation. Robert is a doctoral student in physics at the University of Texas (UT) at Dallas (in Richardson). His work is in space physics and the study of the space environment, encompassing realms from the ionosphere to the magnetosphere to interplanetary space. Robert’s list is updated from time to time and is available here. For more on Robert and his work, click this link Current Missions New Horizons to Pluto, launched January 19 2006, is due to rendezvous with the icy planet July 14 2015. Mars Science Laboratory (Nicknamed Curiosity) scheduled for launch in 2011 |
