Five Dream Trips to the Outer Solar System

In 50 years, space scientists have sent spacecraft to investigate only nine occasions for the solar system The outer planets. There are two good reasons for this. It is very expensive and requires a lot of patience.

The distances to the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune are so great that the travel time in most cases is at least ten years. However, the results may be worth the wait, because the outer solar system hides great mysteries that we can solve only by getting close to the distant planets.

The presence of water must be checked at the dwarf level

Trip Objectives: In 2015, the Dawn probe reached the dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn’s images indicate an underground ocean from which water seeps to the surface. The European Space Agency now wants to take samples from the crater, which will show if there is indeed water and possibly even life there.

Challenges: Mars can use its gravity to propel the probe toward the target, but it needs to go home with its own fuel, extending the travel time.

distance: distance: 294 million km

Travel time and cost: Launched in 2029 and back home in the first half of the 1940s. The cost will be the equivalent of about SEK 38 billion.

China wants to land on Jupiter’s moon

Trip Objectives: China’s Gan Di probe will fly past several of Jupiter’s moons and examine their surface and structure. The probe will likely be placed in orbit around Callisto and the probe will be dropped. The moon is made up of rocks and ice left over from the formation of Jupiter, so you can find plenty of information on Callisto about the largest planet in the solar system.

Challenges: Callisto was chosen because it lies outside Jupiter’s strong radiation belt. However, there is not much experience with moon landings so far in the solar system.

distance: distance: 628 million km

Travel time and cost: Launched in 2029. Placed in orbit around Jupiter in 2035. Cost unknown.

Saturn’s moon could harbor life

Trip Objectives: In 2005, the Cassini satellite discovered salt-water geysers on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The water contains large amounts of organic matter in addition to silicates and hydrogen, indicating the presence of ocean-floor volcanism located under the moon’s ice cap. NASA’s Enceladus orbiter will analyze water from geysers and land on the moon to search for life.

Challenges: The satellite is the first spacecraft to be placed in Earth orbit.

distance: distance: 1.27 billion km

Travel time and cost: Dispatch in the late thirties. Landing in the early fifties of the last century. The trip will cost the equivalent of about 50 billion Swedish kronor.

The Planet of the Homeless is a unique messenger

Trip Objectives: The ice planet Chiron is the so-called centaur, which formed in the Kuiper Belt at the far end of the Solar System. Later, it was pushed into the area between the orbits of Uranus and Saturn. American scientists dream of exploring the planet, because it could teach us more about the distant and inaccessible Kuiper Belt.

Challenges: Financing is difficult. NASA has currently halted the expedition.

distance: distance: The farthest part of Chiron’s orbit is 2.7 billion km in space and the closest is 1.2 billion km.

Travel time and cost: The probe could be dispatched in the late 1920s and will arrive in the 1930s. The cost is equivalent to nearly eight billion crowns.

Ice giant hides endless mysteries

Trip Objectives: Uranus It is the most mysterious planet in the solar system. NASA’s Uranus probe will discover how planet formed in the solar system, how it was flipped, why the magnetic field is so chaotic and how the surface is so cold. During its time in orbit, the satellite will drop a measuring probe into the atmosphere.

Challenges: The probe needs to use Jupiter’s gravity during flight. Therefore, it must be built quickly, ready in the early 2030s, when Jupiter is in an ideal position relative to the Earth.

distance: distance: 2.7 billion km

Travel time and cost: It was launched in 2031 and put into orbit in 2043. The cost would be the equivalent of about SEK 43 billion.