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72-432: The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer ( Juice , formerly JUICE ) is an interplanetary spacecraft on its way to orbit and study three icy moons of Jupiter : Ganymede , Callisto , and Europa . These planetary-mass moons are planned to be studied because they are thought to have significant bodies of liquid water beneath their frozen surfaces, which would make them potentially habitable for extraterrestrial life . Juice

144-447: A delta-v ), in this case an increase, of about 3.8 km/s. Then, after intercepting Mars, it must change its speed by another 2.3 km/s in order to match Mars' orbital speed around the Sun and enter an orbit around it. For comparison, launching a spacecraft into low Earth orbit requires a change in speed of about 9.5 km/s. For many years economical interplanetary travel meant using

216-538: A nuclear reactor or solar cells to generate electricity , which is then used to accelerate a chemically inert propellant to speeds far higher than achieved in a chemical rocket. Such drives produce feeble thrust, and are therefore unsuitable for quick maneuvers or for launching from the surface of a planet. But they are so economical in their use of working mass that they can keep firing continuously for days or weeks, while chemical rockets use up reaction mass so quickly that they can only fire for seconds or minutes. Even

288-595: A satellite or spacecraft , in which the payload and all scientific instruments are held. Bus-derived satellites are less customized than specially-produced satellites, but have specific equipment added to meet customer requirements , for example with specialized sensors or transponders , in order to achieve a specific mission. They are commonly used for geosynchronous satellites, particularly communications satellites , but are most commonly used in spacecraft which occupy low Earth orbit missions. Some satellite bus examples include: A bus typically consists of

360-476: A space-based economy . Aerobraking uses the atmosphere of the target planet to slow down. It was first used on the Apollo program where the returning spacecraft did not enter Earth orbit but instead used a S-shaped vertical descent profile (starting with an initially steep descent, followed by a leveling out, followed by a slight climb, followed by a return to a positive rate of descent continuing to splash-down in

432-557: A 16-meter-long deployable antenna will be used for RIME. Four 3-meter booms carry parts of the RPWI instrument. The other instruments are mounted on the spacecraft body, or for 3GM, within the spacecraft bus . Juice was launched into space on 14 April 2023 from the Guiana Space Centre on an Ariane 5 rocket. This was the final launch of an ESA science mission using the Ariane 5 vehicle, and

504-456: A 2023 survey found that Americans rate basic research as their third-highest priority for NASA, after monitoring Earth-endangering asteroids and understanding climate change. Support for scientific research is about four times higher than for human flight to the Moon or Mars. Besides spinoffs, other practical motivations for interplanetary travel are more speculative. But science fiction writers have

576-500: A Perijove Raising Manoeuvre (PRM) burn at apoapsis will raise the periapsis of Juice's initial 13x243 Jovian radii elongated orbit to match that of Ganymede (15 Rj). The Juice orbiter will perform detailed investigations on Ganymede and evaluate its potential to support life . Investigations of Europa and Callisto will complete a comparative picture of these Galilean moons . The three moons are thought to harbour internal liquid water oceans , and so are central to understanding

648-477: A candidate for the first L-class mission (L1) of the ESA Cosmic Vision Programme, and its selection was announced on 2 May 2012. In April 2012, Juice was recommended over the proposed Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics (ATHENA) X-ray telescope and a gravitational wave observatory ( New Gravitational wave Observatory (NGO)). In July 2015, Airbus Defence and Space was selected as

720-478: A fairly good track record in predicting future technologies—for example geosynchronous communications satellites ( Arthur C. Clarke ) and many aspects of computer technology ( Mack Reynolds ). Many science fiction stories feature detailed descriptions of how people could extract minerals from asteroids and energy from sources including orbital solar panels (unhampered by clouds) and the very strong magnetic field of Jupiter. Some claim that such techniques may be

792-986: A human crew, such as Mars 96 , Deep Space 2 , and Beagle 2 (the article List of Solar System probes gives a full list). Many astronomers, geologists and biologists believe that exploration of the Solar System provides knowledge that could not be gained by observations from Earth's surface or from orbit around Earth. However, they disagree about whether human-crewed missions justify their cost and risk. Critics of human spaceflight argue that robotic probes are more cost-effective, producing more scientific knowledge per dollar spent; robots do not need costly life-support systems, can be sent on one-way missions, and are becoming more capable as artificial intelligence advances. Others argue that either astronauts or spacefaring scientists, advised by Earth-based scientists, can respond more flexibly and intelligently to new or unexpected features of whatever region they are exploring. Some members of

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864-399: A malfunction could be disastrous. Fission-based thermal rocket concepts produce lower exhaust velocities than the electric and plasma concepts described below, and are therefore less attractive solutions. For applications requiring high thrust-to-weight ratio, such as planetary escape, nuclear thermal is potentially more attractive. Electric propulsion systems use an external source such as

936-710: A mass of 280 kg and includes the JANUS camera system, the MAJIS visible and infrared imaging spectrometer, the UVS ultraviolet imaging spectrograph, RIME radar sounder, GALA laser altimeter, SWI submillimetre wave instrument, J-MAG magnetometer, PEP particle and plasma package, RPWI radio and plasma wave investigation, 3GM radio science package, the PRIDE radio science instrument, and the RADEM radiation monitor. A 10.6-meter deployable boom will hold J-MAG and RPWI,

1008-455: A mothership (providing life support for the crews of smaller spacecraft which hitch a ride on it). Cyclers could also possibly make excellent cargo ships for resupply of a colony. A space elevator is a theoretical structure that would transport material from a planet's surface into orbit. The idea is that, once the expensive job of building the elevator is complete, an indefinite number of loads can be transported into orbit at minimal cost. Even

1080-408: A reduced-g centrifuge providing artificial gravity for crew health to ameliorate the effects of long-term 0g exposure, and the capability to mitigate the space radiation environment. The electric propulsion missions already flown, or currently scheduled, have used solar electric power, limiting their capability to operate far from the Sun, and also limiting their peak acceleration due to the mass of

1152-403: A result, aerobraking is only helpful in cases where the fuel needed to transport the heatshield to the planet is less than the fuel that would be required to brake an unshielded craft by firing its engines. This can be addressed by creating heatshields from material available near the target. Several technologies have been proposed which both save fuel and provide significantly faster travel than

1224-432: A small application of thrust is all that is needed to put it into a circular orbit around Mars. If the manoeuver is timed properly, Mars will be "arriving" under the spacecraft when this happens. The Hohmann transfer applies to any two orbits, not just those with planets involved. For instance it is the most common way to transfer satellites into geostationary orbit , after first being "parked" in low Earth orbit . However,

1296-531: A trip to the Moon is long enough for an electric propulsion system to outrun a chemical rocket – the Apollo missions took 3 days in each direction. NASA's Deep Space One was a very successful test of a prototype ion drive , which fired for a total of 678 days and enabled the probe to run down Comet Borrelly, a feat which would have been impossible for a chemical rocket. Dawn , the first NASA operational (i.e., non-technology demonstration) mission to use an ion drive for its primary propulsion, successfully orbited

1368-495: Is 1.25 Tb. The Juice main engine is a hypergolic bi-propellant ( mono-methyl hydrazine and mixed oxides of nitrogen ) 425 N thruster. A 100 kg multilayer insulation provides thermal control. The spacecraft is 3-axis stabilized using momentum wheels. Radiation shielding is used to protect onboard electronics from the Jovian environment (the required radiation tolerance is 50 kilorad at equipment level). The Juice science payload has

1440-594: Is adaptable to a variety of mission-specific propulsion units of various low-thrust, high specific impulse (I sp ) designs, nuclear ion-electric drive is shown for illustrative purposes. It is intended for integration and checkout at the International Space Station (ISS), and would be suitable for deep-space missions from the ISS to and beyond the Moon, including Earth/Moon L1 , Sun/Earth L2 , near-Earth asteroidal , and Mars orbital destinations. It incorporates

1512-492: Is energetically more favorable than fission, which releases only about 0.1% of the fuel's mass-energy. However, either fission or fusion technologies can in principle achieve velocities far higher than needed for Solar System exploration, and fusion energy still awaits practical demonstration on Earth. One proposal using a fusion rocket was Project Daedalus . Another fairly detailed vehicle system, designed and optimized for crewed Solar System exploration, "Discovery II", based on

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1584-450: Is moving around the Sun at a different speed than the planet to which the spacecraft is travelling (in accordance with Kepler's Third Law ). Because of these facts, a spacecraft desiring to transfer to a planet closer to the Sun must decrease its speed with respect to the Sun by a large amount in order to intercept it, while a spacecraft traveling to a planet farther out from the Sun must increase its speed substantially. Then, if additionally

1656-508: Is possible to put stations or spacecraft on orbits that cycle between different planets, for example a Mars cycler would synchronously cycle between Mars and Earth, with very little propellant usage to maintain the trajectory. Cyclers are conceptually a good idea, because massive radiation shields, life support and other equipment only need to be put onto the cycler trajectory once. A cycler could combine several roles: habitat (for example it could spin to produce an "artificial gravity" effect), or

1728-677: Is the first interplanetary spacecraft to the outer Solar System planets not launched by the United States and the first set to orbit a moon other than Earth's Moon . Launched by the European Space Agency (ESA), from Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana on 14 April 2023, with Airbus Defence and Space as the main contractor, it is expected to reach Jupiter in July 2031 after four gravity assists and eight years of travel. In December 2034,

1800-485: The Hohmann transfer orbit . Hohmann demonstrated that the lowest energy route between any two orbits is an elliptical "orbit" which forms a tangent to the starting and destination orbits. Once the spacecraft arrives, a second application of thrust will re-circularize the orbit at the new location. In the case of planetary transfers this means directing the spacecraft, originally in an orbit almost identical to Earth's, so that

1872-530: The Moon as slingshots in journeys to the outer planets. This maneuver can only change an object's velocity relative to a third, uninvolved object, – possibly the “centre of mass” or the Sun. There is no change in the velocities of the two objects involved in the maneuver relative to each other. The Sun cannot be used in a gravitational slingshot because it is stationary compared to rest of the Solar System, which orbits

1944-495: The Saturn V launch vehicle, but the tests revealed reliability problems, mainly caused by the vibration and heating involved in running the engines at such high thrust levels. Political and environmental considerations make it unlikely such an engine will be used in the foreseeable future, since nuclear thermal rockets would be most useful at or near the Earth's surface and the consequences of

2016-447: The aphelion of the transfer orbit is on the far side of the Sun near the orbit of the other planet. A spacecraft traveling from Earth to Mars via this method will arrive near Mars orbit in approximately 8.5 months, but because the orbital velocity is greater when closer to the center of mass (i.e. the Sun) and slower when farther from the center, the spacecraft will be traveling quite slowly and

2088-444: The delta-V requirements are representative due to the rather short, repetitive orbital configurations of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. When it arrives in the Jovian system in July 2031, Juice will first perform a 400 km (250 mi) Ganymede gravity assist flyby to reduce spacecraft velocity by ~300 m/s (670 mph), followed by ~900 m/s (2,000 mph) Jupiter orbit insertion engine burn ~7.5 hours later. Finally,

2160-480: The gravity of planets and moons to change the speed and direction of a spacecraft without using fuel. In typical example, a spacecraft is sent to a distant planet on a path that is much faster than what the Hohmann transfer would call for. This would typically mean that it would arrive at the planet's orbit and continue past it. However, if there is a planet between the departure point and the target, it can be used to bend

2232-404: The habitability of icy worlds. The main science objectives for Ganymede, and to a lesser extent for Callisto, are: For Europa, the focus is on the chemistry essential to life, including organic molecules , and on understanding the formation of surface features and the composition of the non-water-ice material. Furthermore, Juice will provide the first subsurface sounding of the moon, including

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2304-412: The spacecraft propulsion article for a discussion of a number of other technologies that could, in the medium to longer term, be the basis of interplanetary missions. Unlike the situation with interstellar travel , the barriers to fast interplanetary travel involve engineering and economics rather than any basic physics. Solar sails rely on the fact that light reflected from a surface exerts pressure on

2376-418: The D He reaction but using hydrogen as reaction mass, has been described by a team from NASA's Glenn Research Center . It achieves characteristic velocities of >300 km/s with an acceleration of ~1.7•10 g , with a ship initial mass of ~1700 metric tons, and payload fraction above 10%. Fusion rockets are considered to be a likely source of interplanetary transport for a planetary civilization . See

2448-479: The Hohmann transfer takes an amount of time similar to ½ of the orbital period of the outer orbit, so in the case of the outer planets this is many years – too long to wait. It is also based on the assumption that the points at both ends are massless, as in the case when transferring between two orbits around Earth for instance. With a planet at the destination end of the transfer, calculations become considerably more difficult. The gravitational slingshot technique uses

2520-620: The Solar System. Currently, the only spacecraft to use a solar sail as the main method of propulsion is IKAROS which was launched by JAXA on May 21, 2010. It has since been successfully deployed, and shown to be producing acceleration as expected. Many ordinary spacecraft and satellites also use solar collectors, temperature-control panels and Sun shades as light sails, to make minor corrections to their attitude and orbit without using fuel. A few have even had small purpose-built solar sails for this use (for example Eurostar E3000 geostationary communications satellites built by EADS Astrium ). It

2592-477: The Solar System. NASA 's Apollo program , however, landed twelve people on the Moon and returned them to Earth . The American Vision for Space Exploration , originally introduced by U.S. President George W. Bush and put into practice through the Constellation program , had as a long-term goal to eventually send human astronauts to Mars. However, on February 1, 2010, President Barack Obama proposed cancelling

2664-664: The Sun. It may be used to send a spaceship or probe into the galaxy because the Sun revolves around the center of the Milky Way. A powered slingshot is the use of a rocket engine at or around closest approach to a body ( periapsis ). The use at this point multiplies up the effect of the delta-v, and gives a bigger effect than at other times. Computers did not exist when Hohmann transfer orbits were first proposed (1925) and were slow, expensive and unreliable when gravitational slingshots were developed (1959). Recent advances in computing have made it possible to exploit many more features of

2736-548: The US component of a joint NASA/ESA program for the exploration of Europa and Ganymede . A NASA multi-center Technology Applications Assessment Team led from the Johnson Spaceflight Center , has as of January 2011 described "Nautilus-X", a concept study for a multi-mission space exploration vehicle useful for missions beyond low Earth orbit (LEO), of up to 24 months duration for a crew of up to six. Although Nautilus-X

2808-475: The US. Japan also contributed several components for SWI, RPWI, GALA, PEP, JANUS and J-MAG instruments, and will facilitate testing. Interplanetary spacecraft A number of techniques have been developed to make interplanetary flights more economical. Advances in computing and theoretical science have already improved some techniques, while new proposals may lead to improvements in speed, fuel economy, and safety. Travel techniques must take into consideration

2880-496: The dwarf planet Ceres , arriving in March 2015. Remotely controlled landers such as Viking , Pathfinder and the two Mars Exploration Rovers have landed on the surface of Mars and several Venera and Vega spacecraft have landed on the surface of Venus, with the latter deploying balloons to the planet's atmosphere. The Huygens probe successfully landed on Saturn's moon, Titan . No crewed missions have been sent to any planet of

2952-417: The electric power source. Nuclear-electric or plasma engines, operating for long periods at low thrust and powered by fission reactors, can reach speeds much greater than chemically powered vehicles. Fusion rockets , powered by nuclear fusion reactions, would "burn" such light element fuels as deuterium, tritium, or He. Because fusion yields about 1% of the mass of the nuclear fuel as released energy, it

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3024-670: The energy cost close to zero. Space elevators have also sometimes been referred to as " beanstalks ", "space bridges", "space lifts", "space ladders" and "orbital towers". A terrestrial space elevator is beyond our current technology, although a lunar space elevator could theoretically be built using existing materials. A skyhook is a theoretical class of orbiting tether propulsion intended to lift payloads to high altitudes and speeds. Proposals for skyhooks include designs that employ tethers spinning at hypersonic speed for catching high speed payloads or high altitude aircraft and placing them in orbit. In addition, it has been suggested that

3096-456: The first determination of the minimal thickness of the icy crust over the most recently volcanically-active regions. More distant spatially resolved observations will also be carried out for several minor irregular satellites and the volcanically active moon Io . On 21 February 2013, after a competition, 11 science instruments were selected by ESA, which were developed by science and engineering teams from all over Europe, with participation from

3168-405: The five planets known to the ancients: The first being Venus ( Venera 7 , 1970), Mars ( Mariner 9 , 1971), Jupiter ( Galileo , 1995), Saturn ( Cassini/Huygens , 2004), and most recently Mercury ( MESSENGER , March 2011), and have returned data about these bodies and their natural satellites . The NEAR Shoemaker mission in 2000 orbited the large near-Earth asteroid 433 Eros , and

3240-440: The general public mainly value space activities for whatever tangible benefits they may deliver to themselves or to the human race as a whole. So far the only benefits of this type have been "spin-off" technologies which were developed for space missions and then were found to be at least as useful in other activities. However, public support, at least in the US, remains higher for basic scientific research than for human space flight;

3312-568: The gravity fields of astronomical bodies and thus calculate even lower-cost trajectories . Paths have been calculated which link the Lagrange points of the various planets into the so-called Interplanetary Transport Network . Such "fuzzy orbits" use significantly less energy than Hohmann transfers but are much, much slower. They aren't practical for human crewed missions because they generally take years or decades, but may be useful for high-volume transport of low-value commodities if humanity develops

3384-488: The human species from being exterminated by several possible events (see Human extinction ). One of these possible events is an asteroid impact like the one which may have resulted in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event . Although various Spaceguard projects monitor the Solar System for objects that might come dangerously close to Earth, current asteroid deflection strategies are crude and untested. To make

3456-476: The imperative to make spacecraft lighter. All rocket concepts are limited by the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation , which sets the characteristic velocity available as a function of exhaust velocity and mass ratio, of initial ( M 0 , including fuel) to final ( M 1 , fuel depleted) mass. The main consequence is that mission velocities of more than a few times the velocity of the rocket motor exhaust (with respect to

3528-485: The large main-belt asteroids 1 Ceres and 4 Vesta . A more ambitious, nuclear-powered version was intended for a Jupiter mission without human crew, the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO), originally planned for launch sometime in the next decade. Due to a shift in priorities at NASA that favored human crewed space missions, the project lost funding in 2005. A similar mission is currently under discussion as

3600-627: The launch a success. Following the launch, there will be multiple planned gravity assists to put Juice on a trajectory to Jupiter: Juice will pass through the asteroid belt twice. A flyby of the asteroid 223 Rosa was proposed to occur in October 2029, but was abandoned to save fuel for the primary Jovian mission. Gravity assists include: The main characteristics of the Jupiter reference tour are summarised below (source: Table 5-2 of ESA/SRE(2014)1). This scenario assumed an early June 2022 launch, however,

3672-412: The main challenges in interplanetary travel is producing the very large velocity changes necessary to travel from one body to another in the Solar System. Due to the Sun's gravitational pull, a spacecraft moving farther from the Sun will slow down, while a spacecraft moving closer will speed up. Also, since any two planets are at different distances from the Sun, the planet from which the spacecraft starts

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3744-686: The observed planets of the Solar System from Mercury to Neptune , with the New Horizons probe having flown by the dwarf planet Pluto and the Dawn spacecraft currently orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres . The most distant spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 have left the Solar System as of 8 December 2018 while Pioneer 10 , Pioneer 11 , and New Horizons are on course to leave it. In general, planetary orbiters and landers return much more detailed and comprehensive information than fly-by missions. Space probes have been placed into orbit around all

3816-426: The ocean) through Earth's atmosphere to reduce its speed until the parachute system could be deployed enabling a safe landing. Aerobraking does not require a thick atmosphere – for example most Mars landers use the technique, and Mars' atmosphere is only about 1% as thick as Earth's. Aerobraking converts the spacecraft's kinetic energy into heat, so it requires a heatshield to prevent the craft from burning up. As

3888-423: The only way to provide rising standards of living without being stopped by pollution or by depletion of Earth's resources (for example peak oil ). There are also non-scientific motives for human spaceflight, such as adventure or the belief that humans have a spiritually fated destiny in space. Finally, establishing completely self-sufficient colonies in other parts of the Solar System could, if feasible, prevent

3960-461: The path toward the target, and in many cases the overall travel time is greatly reduced. A prime example of this are the two crafts of the Voyager program , which used slingshot effects to change trajectories several times in the outer Solar System. It is difficult to use this method for journeys in the inner part of the Solar System, although it is possible to use other nearby planets such as Venus or even

4032-425: The payload, and therefore even more fuel is needed to put both the spacecraft and the fuel required for its interplanetary journey into orbit. Thus, several techniques have been devised to reduce the fuel requirements of interplanetary travel. As an example of the velocity changes involved, a spacecraft travelling from low Earth orbit to Mars using a simple trajectory must first undergo a change in speed (also known as

4104-529: The prime contractor to design and build the probe, to be assembled in Toulouse , France . By 2023, the mission was estimated to cost ESA 1.5 billion euros ($ 1.6 billion). The main spacecraft design drivers are related to the large distance to the Sun, the use of solar power , and Jupiter's harsh radiation environment. The orbit insertions at Jupiter and Ganymede and the large number of flyby manoeuvres (more than 25 gravity assists , and two Europa flybys) require

4176-628: The program in Fiscal Year 2011. An earlier project which received some significant planning by NASA included a crewed fly-by of Venus in the Manned Venus Flyby mission, but was cancelled when the Apollo Applications Program was terminated due to NASA budget cuts in the late 1960s. The costs and risk of interplanetary travel receive a lot of publicity—spectacular examples include the malfunctions or complete failures of probes without

4248-408: The reactive chemicals in a traditional rocket engine . Due to the low molecular mass and hence high thermal velocity of hydrogen these engines are at least twice as fuel efficient as chemical engines, even after including the weight of the reactor. The US Atomic Energy Commission and NASA tested a few designs from 1959 to 1968. The NASA designs were conceived as replacements for the upper stages of

4320-459: The rotating skyhook is "not engineeringly feasible using presently available materials". The SpaceX Starship is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, making use of the SpaceX reusable technology that was developed during 2011–2018 for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles. Spacecraft bus A satellite bus (or spacecraft bus ) is the main body and structural component of

4392-425: The simplest designs avoid the vicious circle of rocket launches from the surface, wherein the fuel needed to travel the last 10% of the distance into orbit must be lifted all the way from the surface, requiring even more fuel, and so on. More sophisticated space elevator designs reduce the energy cost per trip by using counterweights , and the most ambitious schemes aim to balance loads going up and down and thus make

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4464-417: The spacecraft to carry about 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) of chemical propellant. The total delta-V capability of the spacecraft is about 2,700 m/s (6,000 mph). Juice has a fixed 2.5 meter diameter high-gain antenna and a steerable medium-gain antenna, both X- and K-band will be used. Downlink rates of 2 Gb/day are possible with ground-based Deep Space Antennas. On-board data storage capability

4536-467: The spacecraft will enter orbit around Ganymede for its close-up science mission. Its period of operations will overlap with NASA 's Europa Clipper mission, which was launched in October 2024. The mission started as a reformulation of the Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter proposal, which was to be ESA 's component of the cancelled Europa Jupiter System Mission – Laplace (EJSM-Laplace). It became

4608-477: The spacecraft wishes to enter into orbit around the destination planet (instead of just flying by it), it must match the planet's orbital speed around the Sun, usually requiring another large velocity change. Simply doing this by brute force – accelerating in the shortest route to the destination and then matching the planet's speed – would require an extremely large amount of fuel. And the fuel required for producing these velocity changes has to be launched along with

4680-470: The surface. The radiation pressure is small and decreases by the square of the distance from the Sun, but unlike rockets, solar sails require no fuel. Although the thrust is small, it continues as long as the Sun shines and the sail is deployed. The original concept relied only on radiation from the Sun – for example in Arthur C. Clarke 's 1965 story " Sunjammer ". More recent light sail designs propose to boost

4752-505: The task more difficult, carbonaceous chondrites are rather sooty and therefore very hard to detect. Although carbonaceous chondrites are thought to be rare, some are very large and the suspected " dinosaur-killer " may have been a carbonaceous chondrite. Some scientists, including members of the Space Studies Institute , argue that the vast majority of mankind eventually will live in space and will benefit from doing so. One of

4824-524: The thrust by aiming ground-based lasers or masers at the sail. Ground-based lasers or masers can also help a light-sail spacecraft to decelerate : the sail splits into an outer and inner section, the outer section is pushed forward and its shape is changed mechanically to focus reflected radiation on the inner portion, and the radiation focused on the inner section acts as a brake. Although most articles about light sails focus on interstellar travel , there have been several proposals for their use within

4896-507: The traditional methodology of using Hohmann transfers . Some are still just theoretical, but over time, several of the theoretical approaches have been tested on spaceflight missions. For example, the Deep Space 1 mission was a successful test of an ion drive . These improved technologies typically focus on one or more of: Besides making travel faster or cost less, such improvements could also allow greater design "safety margins" by reducing

4968-415: The vehicle) rapidly become impractical, as the dry mass (mass of payload and rocket without fuel) falls to below 10% of the entire rocket's wet mass (mass of rocket with fuel). In a nuclear thermal rocket or solar thermal rocket a working fluid, usually hydrogen , is heated to a high temperature, and then expands through a rocket nozzle to create thrust . The energy replaces the chemical energy of

5040-768: The velocity changes necessary to travel from one body to another in the Solar System. For orbital flights, an additional adjustment must be made to match the orbital speed of the destination body. Other developments are designed to improve rocket launching and propulsion, as well as the use of non-traditional sources of energy. Using extraterrestrial resources for energy, oxygen, and water would reduce costs and improve life support systems. Any crewed interplanetary flight must include certain design requirements. Life support systems must be capable of supporting human lives for extended periods of time. Preventative measures are needed to reduce exposure to radiation and ensure optimum reliability. Remotely guided space probes have flown by all of

5112-420: Was even successfully landed there, though it had not been designed with this maneuver in mind. The Japanese ion-drive spacecraft Hayabusa in 2005 also orbited the small near-Earth asteroid 25143 Itokawa , landing on it briefly and returning grains of its surface material to Earth. Another ion-drive mission, Dawn , has orbited the large asteroid Vesta (July 2011 – September 2012) and later moved on to

5184-462: Was the second to last launch of the rocket overall. The launch was originally scheduled for 13 April 2023, but due to poor weather the launch was postponed. The next day a second launch attempt succeeded, with liftoff occurring at 12:14:36 UTC. After the spacecraft separated from the rocket, it established a successful radio signal connection with the ground at 13:04 UTC. Juice's solar arrays were deployed about half an hour later, prompting ESA to deem

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