All Questions
Tagged with probe solar-system
10 questions
14
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1
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How likely is it that the Voyager spacecrafts haven't yet been damaged by micrometeoroids?
Both Voyagers have been traveling at over $60,000$ km/h for well over four decades and still seem to function properly, taking into account the slowly dropping power and warmth available from their ...
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29
votes
6
answers
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Why are probes that tend to explore outer system always launched to go outwards instead of straight upwards or downwards?
Let's take a look at the trajectory of variety probe missions.
New Horizons and Ultima Thule will be 4.1 billion miles away when it visits the Kuiper Belt object. This chart shows the path of New ...
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-2
votes
2
answers
90
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Space Travel Advanced Recon [closed]
Could a network of probes be sent ahead of a mother ship to form a grid to lay a path for travel inside the solar system?
After what certain speed anything larger then a stationary pebble could be ...
- 1
2
votes
2
answers
142
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What science could be performed by an extra-solar probe?
An earlier question asked whether there were any planned missions outside the solar system, which made me think of this question. What would the scientific benefits be in sending a probe outside the ...
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2
votes
2
answers
1k
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Why not use Halley's Comet as a probe?
Halley's Comet comes around every 75 years. From what I can gather on Wikipedia the comet is not spinning that fast, has a large elliptical orbit, and has been recorded since 240 BC returning on a ...
- 131
8
votes
1
answer
319
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Navigation within solar system
I know star trackers are used in most cases for attitude determination of space craft traveling within the solar system.
But what methods are currently used for coordinate determination, i.e. the ...
33
votes
1
answer
1k
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How do we know that Voyager's data is correct?
I was wondering for some time how we know that the scientific data received by the Voyager spacecrafts are correct?
Specifically, I'm wondering about the recent "tsunami-wave" (frequency of ionized ...
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5
votes
2
answers
2k
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How do we measure the atmospheres of Solar system planets?
How much is it possible to measure from Earth and how accurately without sending probes to the planets? I am curious about how atmospheric boundary (altitude), atmospheric pressure, scale height were ...
- 153
11
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3
answers
1k
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Why is it so hard to figure out if Voyager 1 has left the solar system?
I recently noticed the comic above, and wondered what, exactly, makes it so hard to tell whether Voyager 1 has left the solar system. I can think of three reasons:
Scientists can't agree on where the ...
user12
13
votes
1
answer
1k
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Does cosmic dust pose a problem for long-term satellites, telescopes and probes?
We have many long-term satellite observatories and probes in outer space way above the Earth's magnetosphere, and some of them progressively cruising out of our Solar system. Off the top of my head, ...
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