Solar System Exploration Missions
More comprehensive and up-to-date information on past, current and future NASA missions can be found at https://www.nasa.gov/missions.
Pioneer 10/ 11
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| Launch |
March 2, 1972 (Pioneer 10) |
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April 6, 1973 (Pioneer 11) |
Pioneer space probes 10 and 11 were the first probes to investigate the Solar System beyond the orbit of Mars. Pioneer 10 passed within about 200,000 km from Jupiter in December 1793. It was the first space probe to do so. After visiting Jupiter, Pioneer 11 was the first probe to encounter Saturn. Both probes are now travelling away from the Solar System and are no longer able to communicate with Earth.
Voyager I/II
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| Launch |
September 5, 1977 (Voyager I) |
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August 20, 1977 (Voyager II) |
The Voyager mission was created to take advantage of a special alignment of the outer planets that would allow all four outer planets to be visited by a single probe. Voyager I Flew by Jupiter in March of 1979 and Saturn in November of 1980, and while at Saturn it passed close to the Moon Titan, which altered its course out of the plane of the Solar System. Voyager 2 passed Jupiter in July 1979 and Saturn passed Saturn in August 1981. It continued its journey and encountered Uranus in January 1986, and Neptune in August 1989. Voyager II is the only probe that has visited the two outermost planets. Both of these probes are still traveling away from the Solar System. In August 2012, Voyager I became the first man-made object to enter interstellar space.
Galileo
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| Launch |
October 18, 1989 |
| Orbital insertion |
December 7, 1995 |
| End of Mission |
September 21, 2003 |
| Duration |
2,845 days: 7 years and 9 months |
The Galileo mission studied Jupiter and its moons. It launched after Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted it into orbit. Before it arrived at Jupiter, it released an atmospheric probe that would descend into the planet. Once at Jupiter, the Galileo probe orbited the planet 34 times, with a trajectory that allowed it to pass moons on several occasions. After several mission extensions, the probe was directed to fly into Jupiter’s atmosphere.
Kaguya (Japan)
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| Launch |
September 14, 2007 |
| Orbital insertion |
October 3, 2007 |
| End of mission |
June 10, 2009 |
| Duration |
1 year 8 months |
SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer), nicknamed Kaguya in Japan, is that country’s second lunar orbiter. Not only did the orbiter contain 13 scientific instruments, but it was accompanied by two other orbiters, Okina and Ouna. These satellites were able to work together to investigate the gravitational field of the Moon using two different methods. Kaguya comes from a Japanese myth of a princess who lives on the Moon.
Chandrayaan-1
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| Launch |
October 22, 2008 |
| Encounter |
November 8, 2008 |
| Ended |
August 28, 2009 |
| Duration |
312 Days |
This probe was India’s first lunar probe. It included an impactor sub-satellite as well as an array of eleven scientific instruments. These instruments were used to create an extremely detailed map of the minerals on the Moon, specifically magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, iron, titanium, radon, uranium, and thorium. This mission not only provided a wealth of new information about the Moon, but also gave India a chance to demonstrate its technological achievements.
LCROSS
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| Launch |
June 18, 2009 |
| Encounter |
October 9, 2009 |
| Duration |
37 days ( time needed to line up a polar orbit properly) |
The LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) mission was designed to see if water exists in the permanently shadowed craters of the Moon. After spending a little over one month lining up its orbit, it sent its upper stage booster rocket to crash into the moon, and it followed shortly after. The mission was a success and the presence of water was confirmed in the Cabeus crater near the Lunar South Pole.
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| Launch |
Thursday, June 18, 2009 |
| Orbital insertion |
June 23, 2009 |
| Duration |
ongoing |
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is the first in a series of U.S. missions to the Moon. LRO’s mission is to create highly detailed maps of the Moon in order to locate future landing sites and resource deposits, and to measure radiation levels. It has released the most detailed map of the Moon ever created, and its mission is ongoing.
Juno
Juno is the most recent probe that has been sent to Jupiter. It is scheduled to arrive in July of 2016. It will study Jupiter’s atmospheric composition and magnetic field. It will hopefully provide clues about the origin of the Jupiter and theories about planetary formation.
GRAIL
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| Launch |
10 Sep 2011 |
| Mission start |
March 7, 2012 |
| Ended |
17 December, 2012 (Decommissioned) |
| Duration of mission |
285 days |
GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) was a pair of nearly identical, refrigerator-sized probes that orbited the Moon in order to understand its gravity. GRAIL A (called Ebb) and GRAIL B (called Flow) orbited in a 50 km (about 31 miles) high, nearly circular path around the Moon, one satellite 200 km (about 124 miles) behind the other. Scientists detected small changes in the Moon’s gravitational field by measuring the distance between the probes extremely accurately (down to the micron level).
Yutu/Chang’e
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| Launch |
1 December 2013 |
| Landed |
14 December 2013 |
| Duration |
ongoing |
Yutu (Jade Rabbit in Chinese) is a Chinese rover that was carried by the Chang’e-3 lander. There hasn’t been an active rover on the Moon since the Soviet Lunokhod in 1973. Its instruments include Ground Penetrating Radar, spectrometers, and cameras. It will roam an area of about 1.2 square miles during its investigation of the lunar surface. Yutu is the pet rabbit of Chang’e, the Chinese Moon goddess.
References
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