Mission to Uranus and Neptune!

[Streetwind]

It would be really great if we could be mature enough to not have giggle fits each time we hear the name of the planet.

The stupid puns are probably the greatest obstacle for funding a mission to the ice giants at this point. It's ridiculous and it's childish.

Not to mention that the name isn't even supposed to be pronounced that way That's just the product of English-speakers reading the word without knowing the linguistic origins, and after enough people got it wrong, they started agreeing with each other that the wrong was somehow right now. But it isn't.

[rtxoff]

Damn it KSP forum, now every time i read something about Uranus i see something else. That really was not necessary.

[Thomassino]

I think there won't be dual mission (two orbiters) because you know... NASA budget

Even when I agree Uranus being next target for flagship mission, I still consider Titan as better target, especially its hydrocarbon lakes.

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I think there won't be dual mission (two orbiters) because you know... NASA budget

Even when I agree Uranus being next target for flagship mission, I still consider Titan as better target, especially its hydrocarbon lakes.

[PB666]

http://s16.postimg.org/tyvipu0s5/fig.png

The Uranus Orbital Insertion (UOI) is done by aerobraking, slowing from 22 km/s at entry interface (~500 km altitude) to Mach 1 at about 60 km altitude (0.1 bar pressure) in about 1 minute.

http://s16.postimg.org/5kx8i73p1/fig_2.png

No wonder they are talking about high dV. The hohmann transfer in those diagram would be suitable for intercepting kuiper belt objects. If You were less concerned about time or you had a better electric based drive you could markedly slow the craft down. Uranus does not have a high orbital velocity, so the dV you need is largely the radial velocity given in the transfer. This is wasteful in the beginning part of the transfer also.

I know of this great desire to explore these 2 planets, but with several high ISP deep space engines in the planning wouln't it be smarter to wait a decade a see what new technologies develope. A 16 year transit time is a long time to get to you target to find out you atm breaking scheme underestimated the scale height of the atm by 100 km.

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You think I dont know all that? But at the end of the day.. if you need to compare.. a titan mission to the atmosphere and methane lakes sounds better. With higher chances to find something important.

Or a floating ballon with dynamic bouyancy in jupiter, measuring all gases, magnetic fields, lower layers, with great pictures of its atmosphere.. Which worth and inspire much more than a high resolution uranus picture. And the mission will happen earlier because is much closer.

If you call something as 0.00001 bar an atmosphere, then we can call "planets" to a lot of asteroids, but not by that they will be equally interesting than an actual atmosphere/planet.

Pluto had his month of attention, but a big majority of the world population never heard of the mission or they dint care.

About inspiring younger minds.. that is a job for a manned mission, there is nothing compare to that.

But you all are always dodging the main point.. as I said.. yeah, a uranus and neptune mission are important and I will love to see it.. But if we need to choose, one or the other.. what you will choose?

What mission has the most value in science, public media, can be completed in a average short term and with more chances to realize a big discovery?

Technology always increase, we would develope new techniques to achieve high deltaV, so we should left long distance missions to later.

Uranus. Closer, less energy in the transfer, less time, more insolence, your RTGs will be younger on arrival and will be able to survey with more spectrographic channels longer.

NASA is under funded by 3 fold, we should not have to chose. Come 2017 there may not be a budget for one. The problem is not the difficulty of the missions or output, the problem is the mindset of the disfunctional and mindlessly conservative government we have. Imagine Ted Cruz as your next president and adjust.