The Case for Exploring the Planet Uranus (bgr.com) 72
Once every 10 years there's a report released by America's National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Released this year, the report recommends prioritizing a mission to the planet Uranus to map its gravitational and magnetic fields and study how the planet's internal heat moves to the surface.
BGR reports: Despite being the seventh planet in our solar system, there's very little we know about Uranus as a whole. In fact, one of the best images we have of the planet was captured in 1986 by the Voyager 2... Additionally, scientists want to learn more about the various moons that surround the planet. We also know very little about the ring system that surrounds the blue planet. A team led by Mark Hofstadter, a planetary scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab wrote a white paper on their goals....
We currently already have the tech we need to get a spacecraft there that can orbit the planet. Additionally, scientists have found that launching a mission in 2031 would allow us to capitalize on gravity assistance from Jupiter.
The report also recommends studying Enceladus, an icy moon orbiting Saturn which has shown signs it could sustain microbial life.
Thanks to Slashdot reader alaskana98 for submitting the story.
Released this year, the report recommends prioritizing a mission to the planet Uranus to map its gravitational and magnetic fields and study how the planet's internal heat moves to the surface.
BGR reports: Despite being the seventh planet in our solar system, there's very little we know about Uranus as a whole. In fact, one of the best images we have of the planet was captured in 1986 by the Voyager 2... Additionally, scientists want to learn more about the various moons that surround the planet. We also know very little about the ring system that surrounds the blue planet. A team led by Mark Hofstadter, a planetary scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab wrote a white paper on their goals....
We currently already have the tech we need to get a spacecraft there that can orbit the planet. Additionally, scientists have found that launching a mission in 2031 would allow us to capitalize on gravity assistance from Jupiter.
The report also recommends studying Enceladus, an icy moon orbiting Saturn which has shown signs it could sustain microbial life.
Thanks to Slashdot reader alaskana98 for submitting the story.
I'd be happy to explore Uranus (Score:1)
For only $99.95.
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Re: I'd be happy to explore Uranus (Score:2)
Kratos or Eurus
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The Roman equivalent to the Greek Uranus was Caelus, which would make sense because we use the Roman deity names for all the other planets. It's Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune, not Hermes, Aphrodite, Zeus and Poseidon.
But there's no reason to stick to Roman gods. I rather like the name of the Vedic sky god -- Varuna -- which is possibly etymologically related to "Uranus".
Or if you want to go with someone other than a mythological god, why not "Newton"? Right now the only celestial body named a
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You forgot Ares.
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Planet McPlanetface?
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We really need to get a new name for that planet. Any proposals? (I am going to regret this)
Put an end to those jokes once and for all [youtube.com]
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Herpussy
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We really need to get a new name for that planet. Any proposals? (I am going to regret this)
I've heard [youtube.com] that in 2620 Astronomers will rename it "Urectum".
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We really need to get a new name for that planet. Any proposals? (I am going to regret this)
Sphincteria.
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Re: I'd be happy to explore Uranus (Score:2)
But then how will we probe Uranus?
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"Kloaka" sounds like a good planet name.
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Something tells me this is gonna be a really, really miserable comment section to read through....
Re: I'd be happy to explore Uranus (Score:2)
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There's a lotion for that.
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For only $99.95.
It's really rare that we get to explore a planet as large as Uranus. You should be glad there is some interest in it. It's vertical equator, it's many rings, the huge stores of methane and ammonia. Who would have ever thought there was ice in Uranus?
Humans have spent a long time gazing at Uranus but now with the Atmospheric Sciences Spacecraft deploying the Advanced NASA Atmosphere Laboratory we will be able to deeply probe mysteries previously thought unsolvable.
All without silly jokes about bottoms.
Hehe, Uranus (Score:1)
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I am deeply offended that the title includes the words 'the Planet' and doesn't just read "The case for exploring Uranus."
The fact that someone with a stick up their ass prevented a truly fantastic headline makes me wonder where this society is headed.
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Do Japanese joke about Europa (your oppai? boobs, heheh )
Yes, orbiters around every planet (Score:4, Interesting)
This is one of the most exciting prospects I have about the development of the Starship system. Having that kind of cheap and powerful launch capacity means perhaps we can develop some more standardized modern platforms for interplanetary probes and have the lift capability to launch them with plenty of fuel and kick stages to get them into orbit around many of the planet with longer mission lengths and less transit time.
I know a lot more work goes into it than that but how great would it be to have years long orbiter missions around Uranus, Neptune, Titan and anyplace else we find interesting. With NASA now on board with Starship via the HLS program i hope the smarty-pants over at JPL are allowed to start working on spacecraft that can launch on it.
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If you want to let Elon Musk probe Uranus, I won't stand in your way, but I don't suppose Starship will make the slightest difference to the feasibility of missions to the outer planets. You don't use massive rockets to get to the outer planets. What you do is slingshot around some of the other planets on the way.
Re:Yes, orbiters around every planet (Score:4, Informative)
I don't want Elon Musk to do it, I want JPL to do it just buy a launch on Starship.
Why do you think interplanetary probes use such long and winding slignshot manuevers? It's because propellant capacity is the limiting factor for every spacecraft. In order to build the velocity to get to the outer planets you can either do direct transit which requires a lot of fuel or you can slingshot, and NASA would rather take an extra year to get out there and preserve fuel to extend mission length.
The Cassini orbiter mission ended because it ran out of fuel to stay in orbit. It launched on a TitanIV with a capacity of 22T to LEO. If Starship can put 100T to LEO do you think having 4x the weight capacity for kick stages and stationkeeping won't make a huge difference?
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What makes you think cost is the barrier? Universal education and poverty elimination would almost certainly be an economic gain for a country.
In practice poverty elimination programs measure success by the number of people who acquire disposable income.
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For example https://datalab.usaspending.go... [usaspending.gov] depending on what you count its on the order of 500B to 2T on social programs.
NASA deep space is about $9B / year and that includes the very expensive and controversial Orion program. The planetary science budget is $3B https://www.nasa.gov/sites/def... [nasa.gov]
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What do you think drives an economy? Consumers. More consumers with more disposable income drives more demand which drives more business and so on.
You know, economics and not edgy teenager shit.
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People who want government to run like a business -- which for the most part it really shouldn't -- don't understand how businesses actually operate. But one thing that governments should copy from businesses is separating capital from operating expenses.
Getting a master's degree in software engineering costs about the same as taking a trip around the world on a cruise ship, but they're not at all the same thing from a personal finance management standpoint.
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How much do you think it would cost to eradicate poverty and provide free universal education?
Did you read the previous Slashdot article about the billionaires and giant corporations not paying any tax? The relative cost of the space program is trivial compared to the education and welfare sector spending, but there's more than enough for both if we cut some of the loop holes.
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Infinite wealth. Not for the education but for "eradicating" poverty.
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It not a zero sum game. I also want a larger welfare state, universal healthcare, childcare and education. America is perfectly wealthy enough to do both. Unless you can make an actual economic case that cutting the HLS contract is going to make a dent in the federal budget or that money will fund those programs then you are just making a moral call.
The space program is not to blame for the lack of those things, it's political will pure and simple.
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It's the terrible cost of graft and corruption, combined with the escalating cost of anything "universal" as the program expands. You should be looking at Medicare and Medicaid and using those as models to estimate how much it would really cost to provide universal anything. The United States already burns enormous amounts of cash on public medical care.
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I also want other people to pay for a larger welfare state, universal healthcare, childcare and education.
There, fixed it for you.
Re: Yes, orbiters around every planet (Score:2)
Yup, universal. Everybody pays, everybody gets. We checked with the experts, turns out taxation is not in fact theft.
Re:Yes, orbiters around every planet (Score:4, Informative)
Not all of the scientists at JPL come from rich families. Dan Alderson could never have gone to CalTech if he hadn't won a scholership in high school, and that just got him a Bachlor's Degree, but with that, he wrote the software that's guided everything we've sent past Mars. How many privileged rich kids can put that on their resume?
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Also, NASA, National Labs etc offer a lot of programs for low income students to get involved in real engineering and science work. Many of the outreach programs are very good and very effective. The excitement of the science encourages students to get interested in science and engineering fields.
Also how many students have been inspired by pictures from Hubble, the Mars landers, etc. Even if they they don't go into these fields, they may have sparked the interest.
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Re: Yes, orbiters around every planet (Score:2)
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I prefer to hear this sentiment delivered in poem form. For example, " A rat done bit my sister Nell...."
Uranus as a whole (Score:3)
The title people (Score:2)
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Read on for the rationale, quote: there's very little we know about Uranus as a whole.
Prefixing "Uranus" with "The Planet"... (Score:2)
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I am sad that we always have such serious topics. Just once we should have a story we can make fun of!
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No, not even on April fools day. The editors make less than minimum wage, and due to malnutrition they do not have the strength to stand up to the corporate lawyers.
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Memers going to have a field day (Score:2)
Lmao (Score:1)
Lol
The case for renaming your anus (Score:2)
Can we call it something else?
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Done [youtube.com].
Enceladus is the bigger point (Score:3)
Our solar system contains one (Earth) of eight planets clearly in the habital zone. We have over 200 moons near enough to a giant planet that they could theoretically sustain life.
We know that life exists near undersea volcanoes, living off the energy and chemicals the volcanoes bring to the bottom of the ocean.
We know that Enceladus has geysers that break through the ice crust of the moon. The ice is known to be contaminated with methane and ammonia. That means it has liquid water underneath the ice crust, probably heated by volcanoes powered by a molten core kept warm from tidal forces.
The biggest question in the universe is the Fermi Paradox - is there life out there?
If we can confirm that there is life inside an ice moon, that means:
1) With two separate examples, we can conclude that Life is common and forms wherever the conditions are right.
2) Given the huge number of giant exoplanets we have detected, and the huge number of moons our own gas giants have, that life is almost certainly common throughout the universe.
This is far more important than learning about Uranus. I still want to learn more about the planet, if only for all the new Uranus jokes, but Enceladus is the main topic we need to explore.
Apple (Score:1)
Numerous humorous submissions (Score:2)
The powers that be intentionally picked the least funny submission. Wow.
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Dude they want to probe Uranus. Sorry but that never gets old.
Time (Score:2)
Considering the time a mission plan could be put together, funding obtained, the spacecraft(s) being built it may take decades before we're ever able to see anything up close. While I think it would be great for mankind, I just think that we need focus on a low cost "get it done" model. A lot of what we have learned over the past 40 years was triggered by Voyager I and II, The Mariner program etc. I think given the distances and monies involved we should focus on Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Someone is a fan of heavy metal (Score:2)
Nanowar of Steel did a videoclip on it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Futurama reference (Score:1)
That's what he said.. (Score:2)
I'm always telling my girlfriend this, but she won't listen.
priorities (Score:2)