In the Year 2012

On Feb 13, 8:10*am, (James Nicoll) wrote:
* * * * Sometime in 2012, we will see a first for exploration of the solar
system: every terrestrial world - plus Vesta - will have at least one
space probe in orbit around it. We've come close to this state of affairs
in the past but the difficulty of reaching Mercury has limited examination
of that world.

* * * * Unfortunately, the outer planets require long lead times for
probes so simultaneous orbiters are less likely, at least until more
nations and organizations get into the space probe business.

I wasn't aware of a space probe to orbit Venus.

Given Jupiter's ever-changing weather, and the missed opportunity with
Levy-Shoemaker, a deliberate attempt to put a long-lived satellite
into a permanent orbit around Jupiter would be a good idea.

To keep it busy doing something else useful in addition to taking the
same observations of Jupiter over and over, it could also be designed
to gather stellar parallax data - something like Hipparcos or its
successor Gaia, but also with some conventional imaging capability to
help resolve any anomalies like that involving the Pleiades with
Hipparcos.

John Savard

On Feb 13, 2:06*pm, Quadibloc wrote:

I wasn't aware of a space probe to orbit Venus.

It's already the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_Express

Given Jupiter's ever-changing weather, and the missed opportunity with
Levy-Shoemaker, a deliberate attempt to put a long-lived satellite
into a permanent orbit around Jupiter would be a good idea.

Well, Juno is supposed to be the next satellite of Jupiter. How long-
lived it will be is anyone's guess, but NASA's probes have a very good
record of lasting far beyond their designed lifespan. If they survive
the launch and planetary arrival, that is.