xkcd #3310: Rejected Space Mission Profiles
Title text:
Although NASA agreed that Voyager 2 ‘seemed lonely’ they decided against launching a companion orbiter mission after further measurements indicated that the spacecraft actually preferred the peace and quiet.
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3310/
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Let’s not even talk about probing Uranus.
I’m sure there’s gotta be some kind of solid nugget in Jupiter’s core. I mean a rover would never make it that deep intact, but still.
Profile #2 looks like the ending of Portal 2.
need a voyager 2 orbiter orbiter so the orbiter doesn’t get lonely when voyager 2 ignores it
Also a crewed Pluto flyby orbiter.
Perhaps Voyager 3 as 2 happened already.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYNIsgDrIRE
Although you might need to slingshot of Jupiter and Saturn at the right time.
It amazes me how our greatest minds were able to work this out with the technology and understanding they had.
The funniest thing about a crewed mission to Pluto, in my opinion, is that it would take something like a decade to get there. Having a living human past Pluto’s orbit would be a huge achievement. Getting them back alive? More than doubly so.
I have a few suggestions for candidate
prisonersastronauts for this mission.*
billionairesastronauts
Such an intersting planet as well
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/y0xceg/the_clearest_image_of_pluto_captured_by_the_new/
It’s a dwarf planet. You can tell because of the beard and axe!
Well I just googled it and Morty’s a sack of shit.
Semi-bragging here but they taught my 3-year-old the planets in daycare. He was able to name all nine, including Pluto.
Well, ten, I guess, since he always repeats Saturn. But Saturn’s always been a chill planet that doesn’t give us any shit. I’m cool with having two of them.
I don’t care, Pluto deserves to be a Planet. Classification be dammed.
Maybe if we find some water on it, we can get the Orange one to visit and name the water.
On the other hand, do you think that Pluto gives a shit?
lol, if Pluto was sentient. I like it.
I just signed an order it’s a great order everyone loves it it was a disgrace when they made Pluto not a planet everyone hated it a disgrace. So now everyone loves it a great planet it’s beautiful everyone loves it it’s called Planet of America it’sa great name for a great planet. It’s a big planet too everyone says a great name for a big planet Planet of America. Much bigger than any other planet in the world, it’s huge a huge planet Planet of America.
Don’t know why you got downvoted over this. I love Pluto, too. I don’t think it’s a planet, but I’m not going to get fighty over it. For most of us, it’s a semantics issues. I don’t think I’ve actually encountered someone arguing that Pluto has, in fact, cleared it’s orbit despite evidence to the contrary. Most of us don’t care about that. Cosmologists do, though. They get to make the terms for the progress of science, which is important, but it really doesn’t make sense to me to engage in any kind of personal conflict over academic hair splitting.
Is there a reason the Pluto flyby would keep going out into space instead of attempting to return? (other than time considerations)
Not really. A gravity assist can be used to turn around the craft.
However, the craft needs to be slow (Pluto gravity is low) to turn around via assisted (via ion engine for eg) gravity assist. Moreover, it’s near impossible to find a path that enables gravity assist to and from Pluto. Just one lineup of planets is rare, let alone 2 back to back
It would be really difficult to design a spacecraft to go to Pluto and then return. You’d have to carry enough fuel to come to a stop at Pluto, then reverse back to Earth, then come to a stop at Earth. The extra fuel adds up quick because the more you carry, the more you need. A ship that could carry enough fuel for a round trip would be incredibly large and would have to be constructed in orbit rather than on the surface of the Earth.
You could reduce fuel requirements somewhat by going slower, but it already takes so long to get to Pluto that you’d soon be limited by human life expectancy.
So, a lot of the turnaround stuff for things like noon missions is done by using the gravity well of the planet and swinging back.
Apparently, the amount of nutrients and fuel required for even one person to be in space for a decade (assuming they’d live that long) and go that far would be enough to make the ship massive. At least double it if it you want to make it back.
To change the delta v of that fatty to turn around at Pluto would be an extra level of insanity. Also, there’d be like, zero boost there and that leg of the trip would be horrendous.
Wouldn’t you “fall” back towards the sun eventually?
To get to Pluto in a reasonable amount of time you have to be going faster than the escape velocity of the Sun. The Sun’s gravity is decreasing faster than your velocity
Someone wrote a paper about sample return mission to Pluto
https://www.scribd.com/document/92881455/MITEE-Nuclear-Engine-for-Mission-Pluto
Given the long flight time, would the sample need to be shielded against radiation in order to keep it true to what you would find on pluto?
I want to run the remote control of the Jupiter rover. It would be just like running my old traxxas stampede rock climbing next to a farm pond
