Uranus hasn’t been poked, prodded or questioned by NASA in over 30 years, and a scientist wants to give it the attention it deserves.
by TeeJay Small | published
Are you a fan of Galaxy Far, Far Away Adventure star wars movies or just a simple traveler admiring modern science from afar, one thing’s for sure: we’re all a little curious about what’s going on in Uranus. NASA had not sent a spacecraft to the distant gas giant in over 30 years when Voyager 2 conducted an inspection of the atmosphere in 1986. Now according to Science.orgIt looks like we are finally ready to explore the vast and unknown niches of Uranus, using orbiters and probes for a comprehensive examination.
Uranus, of course, is the seventh planet from the sun of our solar system and is named after the god of Greek mythology, Zeus’ grandfather. With a surface area of 3.121 billion square miles, it has the fourth largest planetary mass and third largest planetary radius in the Solar System. All of this means that Uranus is truly gigantic and full of weirdness to explore.
Not to mention the 27 moons orbiting the gas ice giant, the distant planet has many interesting scientific discoveries to learn about. Since humans first set foot on the moon in 1969, NASA has been working on even bigger discoveries throughout the solar system, including many amazing discoveries of water and crystals on Mars. That’s what NASA scientist Kathleen E. Mandt aims to replicate with probes into the far surface of Uranus, looking for liquid water or varying degrees of density across the planet’s vast surface.
The investigation will also teach children and future generations about Uranus’ origins, such as when it formed and what processes led to its existence. The probe will also seek to verify how far, if at all, Uranus has moved from its original position. Uranus is so massive that measuring its trajectory requires the hard work of hundreds of scientists around the clock, carefully analyzing the slightest changes in its trajectory.
With Voyager 2 currently serving as the only attempt to explore Uranus, it seemed no one would dare enter it again until Kathleen E. Mandt made her latest proposal to dive into the mysterious world. Mandt’s proposal is being surveyed as part of NASA’s decadal survey, which they conduct every decade to determine technology priorities and the ability of modern science to shift their focus toward the most pressing developments. The scientific community suffered when it got to Uranus, because surveys are very expensive but always an effective form of innovative information gathering.
It’s possible that exploration of Uranus could reveal secrets of the solar system that scientists of the past could only dream of. With the last 30 years resulting in untold advances in science and technology, the future of space exploration could soon mirror Christopher Nolan’s cinematic predictions in 2014. Interstellar. Were NASA to agree to fund the project and boldly investigate places that had never been investigated before, we can be confident that Uranus may one day hold the key to unlocking interstellar space travel to distant galaxies throughout the universe.
