The author looks at the US space developments since 1962. In the 25 years that have passed since the launch of Mariner 2, a 447-pound, unmanned spacecraft equipped with a half-dozen experiments, US unmanned spacecraft have logged billions of miles performing the initial reconnaissance of the solar system. After Voyager 2's flyby of Neptune in 1989, they will have visited every planet with the exception of Pluto. In the process they have relayed a staggering amount of data with implications in disciplines ranging from planetary geology and climatology to solar physics and cosmology. Future missions include US launches by 1992 of spacecraft to Venus, Mars, Jupiter and the Sun. Also under study are a handful of projects recommended by NASA's Solar System Exploration Committee involving experiments at Saturn, Uranus, Pluto, comets and asteroids. NASA is also currently examining a Mars Sample Return mission, which would use a robotic rover to explore that planet's surface and return soil samples to Earth for further study. Chief responsibility for solar system exploration has been assigned by NASA to the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Mariner 2 and beyond: planetary exploration's first 25 years
Mariner 2 und danach: Die ersten 25 Jahre der Planeten-Erforschung
IEEE Aerospace and Electronics Systems Magazine ; 2 , 8 ; 2-6
1987
5 Seiten
Article (Journal)
English