Where would you like to send an unmanned space mission?

[impactcrater]

With the Solar System 'tour' nearing completion but with so much more to learn about , where would you like to send an orbiter plus or minus a lander (depending on the physical properties of the body)  ? Will there be a popular choice ?

PS please include only bodies in our solar system and not say Andromeda etc

[recceranger]

Uranus and Neptune with a lander on the latter' moon Triton.

[nameunknown]

For me - Jovian and Saturn moons (Enceladus ""Thunderbirds Mole" + submarine would be a good tech challenge, as would "Titan airship")

[jason.p]

Planet X (Niburu) would be interesting.
 

[michaelmorris]

Out of three posts all have had to be edited by the moderating team. Please remember SGL's code of conduct - NO POLITICS and NO SMUT.

[Dave In Vermont]

I am still thinking of sending a manned mission to Venus - not landing though - and put an aerial observation-post at a temperate-region above the surface in the clouds. From there we could study the true nature of a full-blown runaway greenhouse-effect. Perhaps that would enable my dream-wish for Earth to be realized: The price of oil going up to £1,000,000,000/Liter.

Dave

[Knight of Clear Skies]

A trip to the icy moons would be my priority. Finding life in sub-surface oceans would strongly imply that the universe is full of it. Life in such an environment could be far more common than that on the surface of planets. The most exciting possibility would be finding any form of complex life down there. On Earth complex life only appeared after the atmosphere was 'poisoned' with oxygen, providing an abundant source of energy and making larger bodies viable. But we really don't know what scope it has in very different environments to our own.

My concern is that tunneling down to an ocean is outside our engineering capability, so the first step would be to explore the surfaces especially sites that have been recently fractured.

[Alien 13]

Either a probe/lander on the far side of the Moon or a visit to the Earths core.

Alan

[laudropb]

I agree that the Ice Giants are worth another visit.

[Scott]

There are so many to chose from. Perhaps another comet? I realise there are better heads than mine working on these questions but I have pondered from time to time whether or not it would be possible to make a craft capable of carrying a dozen or so shoebox size "labs" and dropping them off "milkrun" style at various points of interest on its way. Of course transmittions would be an issue so the orbiter would either need to hang around for each drop to collect data or send another to follow collecting data. No doubt there would be many issues to overcome but we've walked on the moon for crying out loud, No doubt a project like this would appease those writing the cheques.

Failing all that, a lander on pluto/charon....you choose

[michaelmorris]

I like the idea of a Titan airship.  I realise that it's a ridiculously technically difficult mission that is never going to happen, not in my children's lifetime at least.

[brantuk]

The gas giants - I'd like to see if a probe can make it through the gas to the surface and get a detailed view of what's there. So Jupiter and Saturn really and any of the outer ones. I can think of many people I'd like to send on a manned mission out of the solar system all together lol

[DRT]

Europa with a lander capable of investigating what is on, inside and under the ice. This one looks like our best chance of discovering life in our solar system so I think that's where we should go.

[Physopto]

Io

To see if Arthur C Clark was right !

[barkis]

Any lander would really need to be a tough little beggar to withstand

the atmosperic pressures on Neptune or Uranus, which are 1000+  times that of Earth  1.014 Atmosphere.

Wouldn't get to land anyway, the violent winds would blow it around the planet for ever, or until

it disintegrated.

[DaveS]

I like the idea of a Titan airship.  I realise that it's a ridiculously technically difficult mission that is never going to happen, not in my children's lifetime at least.

Actually I think a Titan airship is very do-able, and would be my choice too. We've already had a suicide lander, I think some kind of airship would be very similar technically.

[DRT]

Europa with a lander capable of investigating what is on, inside and under the ice. This one looks like our best chance of discovering life in our solar system so I think that's where we should go.

It seems those clever-clogs at NASA beat me to this idea: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4686

But no lander

[daveb]

This is for Dave in Vermont, come to Britain and you will find your dream on the way to becoming true!

[Dave In Vermont]

DRT: This idea may well become reality, which worries me. We would need to take extraordinary precautions to avoid contamination of the environment with any Terran biologicals.

nameunknown & daveb: We'd probably start draining Titan and haul the methane/ethane back here to sell as 'natural gas.'

me: Triton. The surface is a crust of frozen nitrogen. If a human set foot there, they'd disappear like a hot knife through butter, only to be quick-frozen a little ways down.

brantuk: See Triton, above.

Dave

[triton1]

Well I guess I don,t need to mention where.!

[Macavity]

Another Jupiter probe... A bit like the Galileo mission, but with camera this time?

Artists impressions of towering (psychedelic) "cumulo nimbus" clouds are FINE...

But is this really true? Hoping to see something more than photochemical smog.

[impactcrater]

My own preference is for Io...it is a very active moon so there are lots of frequent changes due to vulcanism and the Jovian system is very interesting itself. I wonder if a lander would be possible ?

[Droogie 2001]

Io

To see if Arthur C Clark was right !

I am intrigued, can you say why without spoilers? I am reading 2001 for the first time (seen the film many times)

For me though has to be Enceladus or Europa. The potential for oceans and life is too much to resist.

[DaveS]

You'll have to wait, suffice to say it's not the same as the film.

A Saturn system probe would be very interesting. A system wide orbiter with landings and local orbiters on Enceladus and Titan. so much going on in that system.

[DazC]

Another probe to Saturn would be my choice.

The Cassini probe mission is nearing an end and, although so much valuable data and so many amazing images have been sent back to us on Earth, I think another Saturnian probe would be brilliant. even if we didn't learn any more about Saturn or any of its moons, I would just love to keep seeing new images of my favourite planet and its many moons and its ring system.

D.C