NASA’s Exploration of the Solar System Continues

Never one to be set back simply by not having enough money to operate to its full efficiency, NASA is still making its presence felt in space exploration. In a week where the attention of the populace is focused squarely on a collapsing economy (or a Tina Fey sketch), NASA is in the midst of prepping two exploratory missions to learn more about our solar system. Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena are gearing up for a flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus on October 9. Its mission is to measure molecules in the space environment around Enceladus.

Launched in 1997, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft reached Saturn in 2004 to explore the planet and its moons. The cooperative project between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, the Cassini mission has been considered a huge success.

Now Cassini will be flying within 16 miles of Saturn’s sixth-largest moon, and will be able to identify individual molecules in the moons environment. Because the atoms that surround Enceladus come from interior regions that have changed little since the moon was originally formed, scientists are expecting the moon could hold clues to our solar systems past.

"This encounter will potentially have far-reaching implications for understanding how the solar system was formed and how it evolved," said professor Tamas Gombosi, chair of the University of Michigan Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences.

Yet to launch, but similar in its far reaching scientific aims, is IBEX, the Interstellar Boundary Explorer, which is due for launch on October 19. The two year mission, launching from the Kwajalein Atoll, will be the first mission to image and map the “dynamic interactions” that take place where the solar winds emanating from the sun impact with the outer regions of space.

"The interstellar boundary regions are critical because they shield us from the vast majority of dangerous galactic cosmic rays, which otherwise would penetrate into Earth's orbit and make human spaceflight much more dangerous," said David J. McComas, IBEX principal investigator and senior executive director of the Space Science and Engineering Division at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

This is not the first time that NASA scientists have directed their attention to the outer boundary of our solar system though. Voyager spacecraft 1 and 2 left the inner solar system long ago. Voyager 1 – now the farthest manmade object from Earth – has entered the heliosheath, the termination shock region that exists between our solar system and interstellar space. It is this region that IBEX will be focusing its attention on as well, though through different means that will hopefully reveal new secrets.

Posted by Josh Hill

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Comments

[jer35mx]

But why do they have cameras for photos, do they expect boreal auroras visual effects?. That would be intereting in any case.

[claudio]

Great experiment : Enceladus is the most interesting moon of the solar system. It may have it has a tiny atmosphere that comes and go and may be somewhat breathable and that moon is anyway plenty of water..that in turn means hydrogen....and that means refueling for future deep exploration spacecrafts.

IF Enceladus will prove to have a tiny atmosphere this discovery is even more valuable than the long experiment of Huygens craft landed on Titan...in my simplistic view.

Excellent move.

Regards and good luck.