BlueSky planetary scientists ….
@helen-e-mc.bsky.social and I are having a debate over brekky.
Helen, a planetary scientist, says Uranus is a more interesting planet to send the probe to.
Me, not a planetary scientist, say Neptune is the better Ice Giant to go to.
Who do you side with?!
@helen-e-mc.bsky.social and I are having a debate over brekky.
Helen, a planetary scientist, says Uranus is a more interesting planet to send the probe to.
Me, not a planetary scientist, say Neptune is the better Ice Giant to go to.
Who do you side with?!
Comments
The comedy writes itself!
- U & N: equally interesting
- U: better satellite system
- U: better ring system
- U: quicker and cheaper to reach
… so I have to go with Uranus.
(not twisting your words or anything lolz)
But the time to go there without having just a fly by is the problem....
We'll also want to do Neptune, of course. Were it up to me I'd launch two similar spacecraft at more or less the same time. We'll get data from Uranus before we get it from Neptune anyway.
And i *know* Neptune isnt really that shade of blue but I kind of want it to be 😄
So Uranus for me...
Also you want Uranus arrival close to equinox, enabling observations of the N & S hemispheres of the satellites in sunlight. Equinox is in 2050, making a launch in the 2030s necessary.
Though Neptune has neat dark spots I’d like to know more about and Triton…