Nasa: Nasa and Deep Space Probes Essay

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Title: Robotic Explorers of Deep Space Probe
Darren Hankins
California State University East Bay
July 21, 2013
PHYS 1800 Astronomy

Abstract
In the last 30 year the exploration of the solar system is vastly changed from the previous thousand years of human exploration and observation of the known and unknown universe. My report will briefly look at unmanned robotic exploration vehicles from the mid-1970s to current day exploration of Mars curiosity rover and deep space probes that are exploring the planet's and the outer edge of our solar system. Will robotic explore the out planet and deep space on the near future.

Brief history of Exploration by Robot (design pass vehicle) Robotic exploration of the planet and deep Space was born from the 1970s and the birth of the integrated circuit which allowed miniaturization of hardware necessary for long space voyages. We also have to take a look at the advancement of solar cells, high gain antennas and ion drives powered by radioactive source (nuclear propulsion). We add this to the introduction of high-speed mainframe computers were that allowed advanced modeling techniques. These were the needed enhancements used by NASA and the Russian space agency to launch planetary probes deeper and deeper into the solar system. We also must take a look at the birth of artificial intelligence software that allows spacecraft’s make basic decisions without having instructions sent by mission control. List of Deep Space Spacecraft’s (Wikipedia, 2010) * Mariner 10: First probe to Mercury. * Venera 7: Probe from the Soviet Union was the first man-made spacecraft to impact on another planet (Venus). * Mariner 9: November 13, 1971, Mariner 9 became the first space probe to maintain orbit around another planet. * Mars 3: First soft landing on Mars (between 1960 and 1973). * Sojourner: First rover to land successfully on the surface of mars. * Spirit and Opportunity: Rover to the surface of mars 2003, 2004. * ICE: First close observations of a comet, Comet Giacobini-Zinner, in 1985 as a prelude to studies of Halley's Comet. * Vega Russian/French spacecraft: 1985 they dropped landers and balloons (first weather balloons) at Venus before deployed on another planet their rendezvous with Halley's Comet. * Sakigake: Japanese probe, it made ultraviolet wavelength observations of the comet. * Giotto: The first space probe to penetrate a comet's coma and take close-up images of its nucleus. * NEAR Shoemaker: First probe to asteroid with landing * Hayabusa: First sample return probe from asteroid. * Pioneer 10: First probe Jupiter. * Pioneer 11: First probe to flyby two planets and first probe to Saturn. * Voyager 1: Is a 733-kilogram probe launched September 5, 1977. It is currently still operational, making it the longest-lasting mission of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It visited Jupiter and Saturn and was the first probe to provide detailed images of the moons of these planets. Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth, traveling away from both the Earth and the Sun at a relatively faster speed than any other probe. As of July 23, 2010, Voyager 1 is over 17 tetrameters (15.7 light-hours, or 10.5 billion miles) from the Sun. * Voyager 2: was the first probe to complete the Planetary Grand Tour of the gas giants, and the first probe to visit Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 2 is the farthest human-made object from Earth, second only to Voyager 1 at a distance of 101.2 AU as of July 11 2013. * Huygens: The combined Cassini–Huygens spacecraft was launched from Earth on October 15, 1997. Huygens separated from the Cassini orbiter on December 25, 2004, and landed on Titan on January 14, 2005 near the Xanadu region. * New Horizon: In 2006, NASA dispatched an ambassador to the planetary frontier. The
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