[meteorite-list] Spotlight: An Exploration Extravaganza

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:25:41 2004
Message-ID: <200305192234.PAA26474_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/solar_system/features/2004roundup.cfm

Spotlight: An Exploration Extravaganza
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
May 19, 2003

Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
are ramping up for an era of unprecedented space exploration. The Lab is
poised to launch and direct a fleet of space probes that will, among many
other things, crash into the heart of a distant comet, snatch particles of
the solar wind, rove across Mars to search for evidence of liquid water, and
descend through the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan to explore what
reminds many scientists of an early Earth.

"The world will have a front-row seat to one of the most exciting periods of
solar system exploration in history," says Dr. Charles Elachi, JPL
director. "Never before have so many exciting and challenging missions to
study so many different parts of the solar system and beyond converged
within such a short time frame. It's an exciting time for NASA, JPL, the
nation and the world."

This summer's launch of two identical rovers to Mars within days of each
other will have everyone seeing double on the red planet. In January of
2004, the two Mars Exploration Rovers will attempt to land on opposite sides
of the planet and explore diverse, though equally intriguing sites for
evidence of past and present liquid water - an ingredient thought vital to
any life processes.

Among the advancing JPL fleet is the Space Infrared Telescope Facility,
slated to launch at the end of this summer. This new space observatory will
pierce the thick dust that blankets much of the universe and then provide
spectacular views of some of the earliest galaxies and stars in cosmic
history. The telescope's super-sensitive infrared vision will also look
around nearby stars for swirling debris discs that may represent planetary
systems in the making.

The veteran Galileo mission will come to a grand finale this fall when
engineers deliberately plunge the spacecraft into Jupiter's vaporizing
atmosphere in September. They're doing this to avoid any possibility of
future contamination of Jupiter's scientifically interesting moon Europa.

In January of 2004, the Stardust space probe will encounter comet Wild 2 and
snatch comet dust from this celestial wanderer for return to Earth in 2006.
Scientists hope to learn more about the early history of our solar system
from this cometary sample return.

Then in July of 2004, after a seven-year journey across the solar system,
the Cassini spacecraft will be the first space probe to orbit the ringed
planet Saturn. Just six months later, Cassini's Huygens probe will descend
through the rich atmosphere of Saturn's biggest moon, Titan, a world with
possible oceans of liquid methane and some conditions similar to primordial
Earth.

The Genesis spacecraft is currently soaring beyond Earth's orbit, collecting
particles of the solar wind. Such pristine samples from our Sun should help
scientists understand more about its chemistry and how the material it
ejects may affect us here on Earth. These solar samples will return to Earth
in September 2004 with a dramatic mid-air scoop of the spacecraft's sample
return capsule by helicopters over the Utah Test and Training Range. This is
NASA's first sample return mission since the Apollo Moon landings wrapped in
the early seventies.

Don't miss the extraterrestrial fireworks show on July 4, 2005, when the
Deep Impact spacecraft will send a small probe to literally crash into the
heart of Comet Tempel 1. The main spacecraft will observe this cosmic
collision from a distance, then analyze the ejected material.

In their series of encounters, JPL's robotic space probes may lead us to a
string of scientific discoveries, some of which may forever change our views
of the universe and our place in it.
Received on Mon 19 May 2003 06:34:20 PM PDT