The mission would involve developing a new kind of spacecraft known as Trident.
It would fly to Triton and take photographs of the icy object, while also studying its atmosphere and chemical makeup for signs of an underground ocean.
[...]
Little is known about Triton, and the only images we have of the moon were captured by the Voyager 2 probe in 1989.
During that flyby, space boffins spotted geysers on Triton that spewed out nitrogen gas. Nasa earmarked it for further research.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 25 2019, @03:23PM (4 children)
Maybe it would be easier to
exploitexplore Europa beforeexplodingexploring Triton?Or is Europa made more difficult a target due to Jupiter? Radiation? Navigation difficulty? Other?
Is the greater distance to Triton irrelevant?
Do we know more about Europa already? If so, doesn't that make mission planning (somewhat) easier?
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 1) by kanisae on Monday March 25 2019, @03:26PM (3 children)
The radiation environment at Europa is intense due to the proximity of Jupiter and the ice is thought to be quite thick. Callisto is in some ways a far better choice for life due to its low radiation environment.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 25 2019, @03:51PM
If a mission is going to travel out further than Jupiter, what about Enceladus which is a moon of Saturn. It seems to be thermally active beneath the ice.
If a mission can go further out than Neptune, what about Miranda which is a moon of Uranus. (forget the adolescent joke about Uranus, it is properly pronounced more like urine-us)
I am probably most intrigued by Enceladus.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday March 25 2019, @05:56PM (1 child)
The miles-thick icy shell(s) should protect life close to Jupiter. But it still makes it a pain to send spacecraft there.
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(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 25 2019, @06:15PM
Miles thick makes it difficult to penetrate too.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.