Miranda. My new favourite solar system body?

[vetrox]

So i'm at work and was in a Uranus mood (as i'm quite fond of its rings) and stumbled across one of its moons. Miranda. I just wanted to share with you guys how badass this moon looks! It seems to be quite unique. Titan and europa get so much attention. I feel some of the other moons need a bit of love.

I wish there was another probe nearby to take some high rez surface pictures for me! (and maybe some of uranus too)....why dont we have probes orbiting every planet yet?

Edited February 20, 2014 by vetrox

[K^2]

We need to rename that planet. It's bad enough by itself, but when you start talking about probes and moons in the same context... You're wondering why we don't have more missions to study it? It's because even if NASA can propose it to congress with a straight face, there is no way congress is going to be mature about it. I bet ESA has the same problem.

[vetrox]

We need to rename that planet. It's bad enough by itself, but when you start talking about probes and moons in the same context... You're wondering why we don't have more missions to study it? It's because even if NASA can propose it to congress with a straight face, there is no way congress is going to be mature about it. I bet ESA has the same problem.

Stupid english language making things sound funny and hilarious. Hopefully the ESA is mostly people whos second language is english. Although i doubt anyone has any interest probing uranus. In futurama they changed its name to get rid of all the uranus jokes.

[Kilmeister]

It's sad, but true.

[problemecium]

People are just pronouncing it wrong. Emphasis goes on the first syllable, and the "a" is more like a short "o" sound.

[Kilmeister]

People are just pronouncing it wrong. Emphasis goes on the first syllable, and the "a" is more like a short "o" sound.

We know this, but the US congress is a collection of smart, well educated people, who take it upon themselves to act like 2nd graders whenever possible.

[vetrox]

People are just pronouncing it wrong. Emphasis goes on the first syllable, and the "a" is more like a short "o" sound.

I know but whenever you say it theres always going to be people who think its funny and poop comes out of it. Its not "your anus" its uranus the greek god of [i forget ]

[falofonos]

Oorahnus.

Looks like Miranda had some traumatic encounters in the past.

[Scotius]

Hmmm....Minmus could've looked like this if it would be possible to deform terrain

[Nuke]

just pronounce in uran-us rather than ur-anus and you are fine. i think it was originally pronounced ooran-us or something like that.

[Raven.]

So i'm at work and was in a Uranus mood (as i'm quite fond of its rings) and stumbled across one of its moons. Miranda. I just wanted to share with you guys how badass this moon looks! It seems to be quite unique. Titan and europa get so much attention. I feel some of the other moons need a bit of love.

I wish there was another probe nearby to take some high rez surface pictures for me! (and maybe some of uranus too)....why dont we have probes orbiting every planet yet?

One word: Money. Find a way to fund it, and I'm sure NASA will shoot up the probes.

[peadar1987]

If I saw that in KSP, I'd report it as a bug. Look how glitchy that terrain is!

[3_bit]

I know for a fact we could get a probe with a 4k camera for well under US $500k.

I have read of a design using 3 cubesats, where 2 made up an ion drive and the third, a lander, to land a cubesat on the Moon. Hypothetically, a similar device could be expanded and flown to this Moon.

It would likely need an more extensive solar array or an RTG, as cubesats aren't designed to get much power, even in LEO.

[bsalis]

That moon looks like it had a troubled past.

Isn't this the one that they think was smashed and reformed into its current jigsaw looks?

[K^2]

i think it was originally pronounced ooran-us or something like that.

Indeed. Latin, etc.

[m4rt14n]

Reminds me of that chick show that used to be in HBO....

[lajoswinkler]

just pronounce in uran-us rather than ur-anus and you are fine. i think it was originally pronounced ooran-us or something like that.

It is still pronounced like that, just like nuclear is not nucular, but nuclear.

Before I saw Futurama in early 2000s, I never even knew about the joke, because I've never heard the incorrect pronounciation.

And before anyone starts about "everything is correct" and "the language evolves" crap, I'll just say that few dumb people's errors that spread like wildfire does not account for a note in a dictionary. Few years ago I learned that the dictionaries started adopting "nucular". I wanted to shoot something.

[Nathair]

Few years ago I learned that the dictionaries started adopting "nucular". I wanted to shoot something.

Dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive. They (usually) don't answer the question of correct usage, just of popular usage. So, in the sphere of correct pronunciation, dictionaries are i-rev-uh-lent. If that makes you un-cumf-ter-bull then I can't wait until they start listing there, they're and their as synonyms and we sea yore reaction to that!

[Idobox]

It is still pronounced like that, just like nuclear is not nucular, but nuclear.

Before I saw Futurama in early 2000s, I never even knew about the joke, because I've never heard the incorrect pronounciation.

And before anyone starts about "everything is correct" and "the language evolves" crap, I'll just say that few dumb people's errors that spread like wildfire does not account for a note in a dictionary. Few years ago I learned that the dictionaries started adopting "nucular". I wanted to shoot something.

Personally, I used to think the 'nucular' thing was just a Simpsons joke, and I have still to hear it pronounced by someone real.

Also the pronunciation of planet names is crap in most languages anyway, differing significantly from the Latin source. A language can change and adapt. Still not a reason to accept nucular, youranus, ur kewl or whatever horror people can imagine.

[peadar1987]

Hmm... Well if we're going down the route of "the only correct pronunciation is the Latin one", surely Jupiter should have a soft "j" at the beginning?

[DaveofDefeat]

Kinda reminds me of the mass effect 2 easter egg, the one where you can probe Uranus

.

[Nathair]

if we're going down the route of "the only correct pronunciation is the Latin one"

I think this route is more of a "between two perfectly reasonable pronunciations the one which more closely derives from the word's Latin (actually latinised Greek) origin might be preferable, all else being equal." Of course in the case of Uranus all else is not equal and avoiding the tiresome sniggers is reason enough, all by itself, to go down the anglicisation of the latinisation of the Greek "Ouranos" route. Shame really, such a pretty planet...

[lajoswinkler]

Dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive. They (usually) don't answer the question of correct usage, just of popular usage. So, in the sphere of correct pronunciation, dictionaries are i-rev-uh-lent. If that makes you un-cumf-ter-bull then I can't wait until they start listing there, they're and their as synonyms and we sea yore reaction to that!

I might bomb something, honestly!

Personally, I used to think the 'nucular' thing was just a Simpsons joke, and I have still to hear it pronounced by someone real.

Sadly, it's not a joke. Many dumbass politicians use it, such as Sarah Palin and George W. Bush (on numerous occasions).

There are more examples, but they're scattered all over Youtube.

Makes you cringe to hear "nucular" coming from a person who has access to launch codes.

[Idobox]

Just to be clear, I'm not saying we should pronounce them in perfect Latin. But since we already don't pronounce them the 'Right' way, there's no reason to go ballistic on small variations, unless they sound stupid (very subjective, obviously) or contradict the orthography.

In French, my native language, we pronounce it /y.ÊÂa.nys/ , /y/ being the sound in 'food', which is also quite different from the Greek. And 12 year old kids laugh about the orbit of Uranus because we have the words bite (dick) and anus. And nobody older than 15 cares.

On a side note, English is the only language I'm aware of where reading a word you don't know, the pronunciation is often not obvious, or even has several possibilities. It's exhausting, especially when you learned English English in school, watch American series and move to the Irish countryside.

We have the opposite problem, where several words are written differently, but sound exactly the same. For example es and est mean are or is, ais, ait and aient mean have or has, hais, hait and haient mean hate(s), et is and, haie is hedge, and all are pronounced the same.

[Armchair Rocket Scientist]

I know for a fact we could get a probe with a 4k camera for well under US $500k.

I have read of a design using 3 cubesats, where 2 made up an ion drive and the third, a lander, to land a cubesat on the Moon. Hypothetically, a similar device could be expanded and flown to this Moon.

It would likely need an more extensive solar array or an RTG, as cubesats aren't designed to get much power, even in LEO.

There are a lot of problems with sending a cubesat to Uranus.

1: The only reason Juno is bothering to use solar panels out at Jupiter is because there's a shortage of Plutionium-238. Otherwise, they'd use RTGs. Now consider the fact that there's less than 10% as much sunlight at Uranus as at Jupiter. Basically, you need RTGs.

2: Instrumentation designed to work on a cubesat in LEO for 1 year won't necessarily work in interplanetary space for 20+ years.

3: You're gonna need a lot of power. At launch, the Voyager probes generated 470 W, Cassini 880, and New Horizons 228. I'm guessing a large part part of that is because you need a big antenna to transmit a useful amount of data all the way to Earth. If you're using an ion drive, that requires even more power.

4: Uranus takes a lot of dV to reach. A hohmann transfer might be doable with a small probe like New Horizons, but the journey to Uranus would take 17 years. Most likely any mission would involve at the very least a gravity assist from Jupiter, and possibly flybys of Earth and Venus as well, similar to Cassini. To reduce the transit time to something practical like 10 years, the probe would need to take a trajectory which caused it to encounter Uranus at very high speeds. This means a big orbital insertion burn, and not much time to do it. Ion engines would likely not be suitable for such a mission. Therefore, you need relatively large tanks of monopropellant.

All told, it would probably be difficult to go much smaller than New Horizons for a Uranus mission; a probe of that size could probably be launched on an Atlas, Ariane 5, Proton, or similar vehicle. However, by the time we're actually ready for a mission like that, F9H and Angara 7 will almost certainly be operational.