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ESA’s Juice lifts off on quest to discover secrets of Jupiter’s icy moons

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Re: ESA’s Juice lifts off on quest to discover secrets of Jupiter’s icy moons

#2
Has there ever been a major unmanned project like this that blew up on takeoff/failed in orbit in recent years?

I was listening to the huge list of gear they put on this thing by a project lead and the years of hard work by scientists and it would have been heartbreaking if it failed catastrophically.

https://youtu.be/Ljh2BKdjpmE

Re: ESA’s Juice lifts off on quest to discover secrets of Jupiter’s icy moons

#3
post #2

Has there ever been a major unmanned project like this that blew up on takeoff/failed in orbit in recent years? I was listening to the huge list of gear they put on this thing by a project lead and the years of hard work by scientists and it would have been heartbreaking if it failed catastrophically. https://youtu.be/Ljh2BKdjpmE

Not sure if you count Zuma. Didn't really "blow up", but it did fail to separate from the 2nd stage.

Re: ESA’s Juice lifts off on quest to discover secrets of Jupiter’s icy moons

#4
post #2

Has there ever been a major unmanned project like this that blew up on takeoff/failed in orbit in recent years? I was listening to the huge list of gear they put on this thing by a project lead and the years of hard work by scientists and it would have been heartbreaking if it failed catastrophically. https://youtu.be/Ljh2BKdjpmE

A good summary of NASA's robotic mission failures: https://astronomy.com/news/2020/12/nasas-failures-robotic-sp... mostly early ones as NASA developed a better process and understanding for getting things right the first time.

Re: ESA’s Juice lifts off on quest to discover secrets of Jupiter’s icy moons

#5
I'm looking forward to the results from this one. In particular the idea that is discussed in the article about Ganymede's magnetic field. Jupiter's orbit has a mess of radioactivity and it would be really helpful if Ganymede's magnetic field made it possible to exist on the surface without massive amounts of shielding.

Re: ESA’s Juice lifts off on quest to discover secrets of Jupiter’s icy moons

#6
Wow, 11 years to Jupiter. I wish we had better propulsion systems.

EDIT: This wasn't meant to disrespect the ESA mission. I'm just sad that the outer planets are years away, rather than the hours, days, weeks or months of science fiction.

Re: ESA’s Juice lifts off on quest to discover secrets of Jupiter’s icy moons

#7
post #6

Wow, 11 years to Jupiter. I wish we had better propulsion systems. EDIT: This wasn't meant to disrespect the ESA mission. I'm just sad that the outer planets are years away, rather than the hours, days, weeks or months of science fiction.

Nasa are supposedly working on it but that hasn't meant much since the 60s.

Maybe inequality will breed a billionaire with a hard-on for nuclear propulsion?

Re: ESA’s Juice lifts off on quest to discover secrets of Jupiter’s icy moons

#8
post #7
post #6

Wow, 11 years to Jupiter. I wish we had better propulsion systems. EDIT: This wasn't meant to disrespect the ESA mission. I'm just sad that the outer planets are years away, rather than the hours, days, weeks or months of science fiction.

Nasa are supposedly working on it but that hasn't meant much since the 60s. Maybe inequality will breed a billionaire with a hard-on for nuclear propulsion?

it's a shame nuclear detonations in space are banned (for obvious reasons)

Re: ESA’s Juice lifts off on quest to discover secrets of Jupiter’s icy moons

#9
post #6

Wow, 11 years to Jupiter. I wish we had better propulsion systems. EDIT: This wasn't meant to disrespect the ESA mission. I'm just sad that the outer planets are years away, rather than the hours, days, weeks or months of science fiction.

8 years, not 11.

> Arrival at Jupiter - July 2031

https://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/im...

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