Vote for the most successful exploratory unmanned mission ever!

[badgerchap]

OK, so I'm running another poll, mainly because I enjoy doing it!

I would like you to vote, out of the following, for the unmanned space mission which you feel has sent back the most important and / or interesting data, or the one which you feel has accomplished the most in its time in space.

I am NOT including dedicated space telescopes ( Hubble, Spitzer, STEREO, SDO etc) because I feel they deserve to be in a league of their own and so, hopefully, will share a poll of their own one day! Also, communications type satellites are discounted, as I believe this is another subject all together.

So, here are the choices:

1. VOYAGERS I and II

Voyager 1 is the most distant man made object from earth. The two probes sent back some of the most eye-opening images from the outer solar system, and helped to further concrete Kepler's laws and Newtonian Mechanics.

2. CASSINI - HUYGENS

Huygens sent back images and data from one of the most bizarre terrestrial worlds in the solar system and Cassini, operating years past its sell by date, is still sending wonderful images of one of the most dynamic planetary systems known.

3. STARDUST

Stardust completed one of the most difficult missions of all time, by liasing with a comet, taking a sample of the tail dust and returning to earth complete with sample. An astonishing feat of technology and precision.

4. WILKINSON MICROWAVE ANISOTROPY PROBE

WMAP redefined our knowledge of the CMB and helped us to produce the new Standard Model of Cosmology.

5. VENERA

The Venera probes were the first to enter the atmosphere of an alien planet, the first to make a soft landing, and the first to send pack pictures directly from the surface. Plus, we had to have the Russians in here somewhere!

6. SPUTNIK 1

Not the most useful of satellites, but it was the first man made one! Also, it ignited the space race, and without it, many governments might not have been spurred on so dramatically to develop their space programmes with quite so much urgency.

7. MARS EXPLORATION ROVERS A & B (Spirit & Opportunity)

These two little dune buggies have sent back the most detailed data and images of another world ever. Thanks to them, we now know more about Mars than any other non-earth body in the solar system.

8. PIONEER

Pioneer 10 was the first man made object to leave the known solar system (although it has not yet passed the heliopause). Showed us that space really is the next frontier, and probably the last.

9. LUNA 2

In 1959, Luna 2 became the first mn made object to come into contact with another celestial body. This showed, above all, that it was possible to do so.

10. GALILEO

Galileo returned incredibly detailed data regarding Jupiter and its moons, among which was information that opens up the possibility of finding life on Europa. Really hope this one doesn't get the most votes, as Galileo (the fleshy one) won my last poll!

So there we go, all done. I am ready to be ridiculed and harassed for not including Viking, Eplorer 1..... so many more, but it had to be 10 and 10 only. Please vote, this is a source of great entertainment for me!

[Guest]

My favourite unmanned spacecraft are the Voyagers, but I voted for Spirit and Opportunity because of the amazing pictures they have sent back which make it look like we have sent a photographer to Mars, and because of what I really hope rovers like that will discover during my lifetime - evidence of current or past life.

[Jove]

I voted for Spirit and Opportunity for their sheer longevity... close second was Pioneer, mainly because of the Pioneer anomaly.

Sweet Spirit Rover cartoon.

[brantuk]

I wanted to vote for the Beagle - it was hilarious - especially when all the excuses started coming out lol

[badgerchap]

Awww... poor Pillinger. He looked like a man whose wife had left him for another woman!