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Author
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Topic: Orbiting above: Spacecraft at three planets
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SkyMan1958
Member Posts: 867
From: CA.
Registered: Jan 2011
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posted 07-06-2016 04:33 PM
   
I was just standing in the backyard last night (circa 10:30 p.m.) looking up at the night sky. It was a nice clear night, and I could see Saturn, Mars and Jupiter all lined up on the Ecliptic. It occurred to me as I was looking at all three of them, that there is now at least one functioning spacecraft orbiting each of the three planets. It was a fun, and rather impressive, realization, particularly with the three planets lined up so nicely. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-06-2016 04:51 PM
Nice! Enjoy it while you can... next year, Cassini takes the plunge into Saturn and Juno will follow suit in February 2018. "It'll be the first time since the 1970s that there will be no NASA presence in the outer planets," says Casey Dreier, director of space policy at The Planetary Society. "For the first time in 40 years, the lights will go out in the outer solar system." (Apparently not counting New Horizons, which will be on its way to a rendezvous with a Kuiper belt object.) |
AstronautBrian
Member Posts: 287
From: Louisiana
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 07-06-2016 07:05 PM
I'm glad I've been able to grow up with the Voyagers on up. What I'd love to see next, as far as unmanned exploration, are landers for the Galilean satellites! |
SkyMan1958
Member Posts: 867
From: CA.
Registered: Jan 2011
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posted 07-07-2016 12:10 AM
At this point I believe it can't be seen, but I understand that by the end of the month some people will be able to see Venus near the Sun at sunset (due to hills to my West I won't be able to see it). This would be yet another planet that has a functioning satellite around it, the Japanese, Akatsuki, which is orbiting Venus in a HIGHLY elliptical orbit of from ~ 400 km to ~ 440,000 km. At this point in time there are more planets, five, with functioning orbiting satellites, than planets without satellites, three. What an amazing period in human history we live in. | |
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