NASA Missions
The Moon
APOLLO(1963 – 1972)
Goal: To put a man on the Moon
Apollo 8 and 10: Orbited Moon
Apollo 11 – 17 (except 13):Landed on Moon and returned
LEM
Command Module
The Outer Planets
Voyager 1 and 2
Goal: To study the OuterPlanets; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune
(1977 – present)
The Voyagers are now the most distant human-made objects.
Voyager 2 examined Jupiter and Saturn and then became the only spacecraft ever to visit Uranus and Neptune.
Jupiter
Galileo
Goal: To photograph and study Jupiter and its Moons, and follow-up on some of the discoveries of Voyager
1989 - 2003
Jupiter and Io
Io
Europa
Tvashtar New Horizons pic 2007
volcano
aurora
Asteroid Ida and satellite
Galileo took over 14000 pictures of Jupiter, its Moons, asteroids, the Earth and Moon
Saturn
Cassini1997 - present
Goal: To photograph and study Saturn and its Moons
Saturn and Mimas
Huygens
Cassini carried the ESA lander Huygens, which landed on the moon Titan in January, 2005
Mars
Mars Rovers
(2003 – present)
Spirit and Opportunity
Goal: To search for proof of water and signs of life
The Rovers landed on Mars in 2003 and have found proof that water once existed on Mars.
They have taken over 60000 pictures, roamed the planet, bored holes into rock and discovered what it is made of
CuriosityHuge Mars rover (weighs over a ton) launched 11/26/2011Arrived August 2012
Asteroids
Dawn (Sept. 2007 - )
Will orbit the two largest objects in the asteroid belt, Ceres and Vesta. It went into orbit around Vesta in 2011. Dawn has an “Ion Engine” which uses electromagnetism and Xenon gas to create plasma. It has accelerated the ship to 78,000 mph. It carries a camera and spectrometer.
Vesta 2011
MercuryMercury
Messenger
MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging
Launched: summer of 2004, started orbiting Mercury in 2011
Goal: To map Mercury
Comets
Comet Missions
Stardust (1999 – present): In 2004, flew through the debris of Comet Wild 2, collecting samples. It returned those to Earth in January, 2006. Those samples included the amino acid glycene, which is a building block of proteins.
Deep Impact (launched January, 2005): smashed a 820 lb. mass into comet Tempel 1 July, 2006, to observe the impact, crater, and analyze the ejecta.
Pluto
New Horizons
Launched Jan. 2006. Will arrive at Pluto in 2015. First spacecraft ever sent to Pluto, it will continue on to study Kuiper Belt objects through 2020.
Space Observatories
SOHO the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
Carries 12 different scientific instruments, including spectroscopes, an ultraviolet camera and a oscillation detector.
Chandra
Chandra X-Ray Observatory
Looks at the Universe in X-rays
SN 1987a
Chandra
Hubble Space Telescope
Launched in 1990. Has a huge optical telescope, a wide field camera, an infrared spectrometer and a
spectrograph
Hubble’s replacement:
James Webb Space Telescope
Expected launch 2018. Big optical telescope with strong infrared capabilities
Fermi Gamma ray Large Area Space Telescope
Launched in 2008. Studying gamma rays with a precision never before seen over a wide viewing area, also allowing the detection of “gamma ray bursts”.
WISE / NEOWISE Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
Launched in 2009. Took pictures of the whole sky in four different
bandwidths of infrared. It has identified hundreds of undiscovered
asteroids and comets, which could pose a threat to Earth. Put in
hibernation in 2011, reactivated in 2013 to look for NEOs.
WISE’s First Asteroid1/22/10
Kepler Searching a small area of the sky for planets
Launched March 2009. Continuously looking at 150,000 sun-likestars for changes in the amount of light, which would indicate planets.
International Space Station(2000 – present)The goal is to have a manned presence in space
Space Shuttle
Designed to save money as a reusable launch vehicle into space
Constellation & AresBack to the Moon 2020?
Ares carries cargoConstellation carriespeople to join up withAres
