Neighbourhood Watch: Solar System Exploration during 2009 Resources Emily Lakdawalla The Planetary Society E-mail: [email protected] Summary Key Words As the International Year of Astronomy 2009 opens, there are nearly 20 spacecraft exploring our astronomical backyard, and five more are planned Solar System Missions for launch in the coming year. Once the province of a few superpowers, Solar Public Involvement Engagement System exploration is now being conducted by countries across the world. The Planetary Society1 strongly believes that the world’s public should not only be told about the lessons learned from these missions, but also be invited to ride along for the adventure. Spaceships in every India’s Chandrayaan-15, and 2009 will see So, to advance international cooperation the launches of NASA’s Lunar Reconnais- further, The Planetary Society is supporting corner of the Solar sance Orbiter6 and Lunar Crater Observa- the development of the Global Exploration System, from every tion and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS)7. The Strategy8. Fourteen space agencies (includ- Planetary Society hopes that the Decade will ing ESA, NASA, and the agencies of Italy, corner of the world serve as a framework for cooperation among the UK, France, China, Canada, Australia, the international organisations and nations Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, the There have never been so many planetary conducting lunar missions, and also that it Ukraine and Russia) have signed on to the missions active at once as there are today. will provide a mechanism for scientists and first Global Exploration Strategy document, In 2009, spacecraft will explore the Moon, engineers from developing nations and other published by ESA in 2007. It presents a Mars, Venus, Mercury and Saturn; many countries not directly involved in space mis- broad global consensus and concise ration- others are on their way to explore comets, sions to participate in science programmes ale for human exploration of the Solar Sys- asteroids, the cold worlds of the Kuiper or smaller engineering developments. tem, beginning with our nearest neighbour, belt and beyond. The year will also see the the Moon. We hope that by the end of the launches of three more spacecraft towards Many of the next steps in the exploration of International Lunar Decade, humans will Mars and two towards the Moon. The 23 our neighbourhood in the Solar System are so have returned to the Moon and be looking spacecraft that will be active in 2009 are challenging that they seem daunting without outward, to the asteroids or Mars. named and their activities summarised in the commitment and cooperation of many the following tables. (if not all) of Earth’s space-faring nations. Establishing a permanent presence on the Opportunities for the Clearly, more and more nations are seek- Moon; advancing the scientific study of the ing to participate in the exploration of the mini “solar systems” and moons of Jupiter, public to participate in Solar System, and particularly of our nearest Saturn and beyond; returning scientifically planetary exploration neighbour, the Moon. Japan, China, India, useful samples of rocks from the surface of the United States, Germany, the United Mars; extending the presence of humans Developing expensive and technologically Kingdom and Russia are all now planning beyond Earth orbit to the Moon, asteroids challenging planetary missions requires or operating missions on the Moon, a con- and Mars — all of these will require billions broad support by the taxpayers of space- fluence of effort that inspired the Society to of dollars and the kind of effort that only faring nations, and space agencies are declare the “International Lunar Decade”2, seems to be sustainable when departments increasingly learning that it is not enough beginning with the launch of Japan’s Kaguya of state, not just space agencies, commit to to tell the public about their successes; orbiter3 in 2007. Last year Kaguya was joined working together toward common goals. they must invite the public to, in effect, “ride at the Moon by China’s Chang’e 14 and along” with the voyages of discovery. One Neighbourhood Watch: Solar System Exploration during 2009 CAPjournal, No. 5, January 2009 Page 5 Table 1. Planetary exploration missions active in 2009. Inner Solar System MESSENGER (NASA) Venus Express (ESA) En route to Mercury orbit insertion in Venus Express is currently funded through 2011, MESSENGER will fly by Mercury for at least April 2009. ESA has not yet deter- the third time on September 29. Credit: mined its future after that, but the spacecraft NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied is in good health and could continue return- Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of ing data on Venus’s atmosphere. Credit: Washington. ESA (Image by AOES Medialab). The Moon Kaguya (JAXA) Chang’e 1 (China) Kaguya finished its primary mission in Shortly after the lunar orbit insertion of October 2008, but will continue mapping Chang’e 1, Chinese officials announced that the gravity field of the Moon and capturing the fuel margin should permit them to dou- high resolution stereo images until May ble the length of its science mission to two 2009. Later in the summer, it will impact years. Credit: CNSA. the Moon. Credit: JAXA. Chandrayaan-1 (India) Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA) Launched in October 2008, Chandrayaan- Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is expected 1’s lunar mapping mission will continue to launch in spring 2009 and will spend the through 2009. Credit: ISRO. rest of the year mapping the Moon; its cam- eras will be the first since Apollo’s to be able to spot human-made artefacts on the Moon. Credit: NASA. LCROSS (NASA) Launching with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, LCROSS will impact the lunar about two months later, possibly in May. The event will be watched by Earth-based astronomers, including a worldwide ama- teur community. Credit: NASA. Mars 2001 Mars Odyssey (NASA) Mars Express (ESA) Although long past the end of its primary In orbit since 2003, Mars Express’s mission mission, 2001 Mars Odyssey shows no will likely be extended again to continue its signs of faltering and will likely still be mapping of the surface and subsurface of mapping Mars and serving as a com- Mars, as well as the surface of Mars’s moon munications relay for the Mars Exploration Phobos. Credit: ESA. Rovers. Credit: NASA/JPL. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA) Mars Exploration Rovers (NASA) Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s primary Although both Spirit and Opportunity are mission ended in November 2008, and is showing signs of their advanced age, there now in its Extended Science Phase. Once is no reason to expect that they will not sur- the Mars Science Laboratory arrives it will vive well into 2009, when spring and summer serve as the primary Mars telecommuni- in Mars’s southern hemisphere should bring cation satellite. Credit: JPL/NASA. them warmer temperatures and more solar power than they enjoyed in 2008. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell University/Maas Digital. Phobos-Grunt (Russia) Yinghuo-1 (China) Phobos-Grunt is currently scheduled to China’s first mission beyond Earth orbit launch toward Mars in October 2009 will hitch a ride to Mars with the Phobos- to collect samples from Mars’s moon Grunt spacecraft, launching in October Phobos and return them to Earth. Credit: 2009. Credit: CNSA. Paolo Ulivi. Neighbourhood Watch: Solar System Exploration during 2009 CAPjournal, No. 5, January 2009 Page 6 Neighbourhood Watch: Solar System Exploration during 2009 CAPjournal, No. 5, January 2009 Page 7 Table 1. Planetary exploration missions active in 2009 (Cont.). Saturn Cassini-Huygens (NASA/ESA/ASI) Throughout 2009 the Cassini orbiter will be in its first extended mission, continuing studies of Saturn, its rings and its moons; highlights will be three exceptionally close flybys of the geyser moon Enceladus, and witnessing the arrival of Saturn’s equinox in August. Credit: NASA/JPL. Deep Space / Cruise Dawn (NASA) Deep Impact (NASA) In February 2009, Dawn will fly by Mars, As part of the EPOXI extended mission, the which will supply a gravity assist to boost Deep Impact spacecraft has completed its the ion-powered spacecraft onward to its observations of extrasolar planets. It is now planned 2011 arrival at the asteroid Vesta. travelling towards a 2010 rendezvous with Credit: McREL. Jupiter-family comet 103P/Hartley 2. Credit: NASA/JPL/UMD. Credit: NASA/JPL/UMD. Hayabusa (JAXA) International Cometary Explorer (ICE) Although seriously injured during its dra- (NASA) matic touchdown on asteroid Itokawa in After an eight-year hiatus, NASA re-estab- 2005, Hayabusa in its attempt to return its lished contact with ICE in 2008, which flew sample capsule (which may or may not through the tail of comet Giacobini-Zinner in contain a sample) to Earth in 2010. Credit: 1985. Still in good condition with most of its LiVE Company Ltd. instruments functioning, ICE is on course for a return visit to Earth in 2014, when it may be sent onward to explore another comet. Credit: NASA. New Horizons (NASA) Rosetta (ESA) New Horizons will spend most of 2009 ESA’s flagship mission to a comet will fly hibernating while it travels 533.7 million by Earth for the third time on November kilometres (3.57 astronomical units) on 13, en route to its planned arrival at comet its way to Pluto. It will not reach Pluto until Churyumov-Gerasimenko in May 2014. 2015. Credit: Johns Hopkins University Credit: ESA/C. Carreau. Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI). Stardust (NASA) Voyager 1 and 2 (NASA) Throughout 2009, Stardust will be cruising The two long-lived spacecraft will hopefully toward a February 2011 encounter with still be returning data from the interstellar Tempel 1. Credit: NASA/JPL. medium beyond the Solar System.