Scientists create a simulation if a spaceship penetrates the ice planets Uranus and Neptune

SPACE — The planets Uranus and Neptune are two icy planets covered in a cold atmosphere. Most of its atmosphere consists of hydrogen and helium.

Both planets are very mysterious. Both are planets that have not been directly explored by human-made spacecraft.

The unexplored nature of these two planets is not without reason. In addition to their remote locations, both Uranus and Neptune have dense surfaces, making it difficult for scientists to explore them.

However, exploring both planets is not impossible. It is inevitable to send space probes hurtling through its atmosphere in an effort to get a better picture of the planet’s composition.

To get a better idea of ​​what it would take to send a spacecraft through the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune, an international research team recently simulated a mission to explore Uranus and Neptune. The simulation was carried out in the University of Oxford’s hypersonic plasma tunnel.

The team achieved a simulated speed of 11.8 miles per second. The video shows a simulated probe being hit by gases found in the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune.

“The tunnel is capable of measuring convection and radiation heat fluxes, and critically provides the flow velocities required to replicate the entry of ice giants (Uranus and Neptune-ed), with traces of methane,” explained ESA aerothermodynamics engineer Louis Walpot in a statement in August.

Even though the speeds were very high, they still did not reach the speed necessary for the probe to reach very long distances. The ride would require an inertial speed of at least 15.5 miles per second, according to the researchers.

“The challenge is that any probe will be exposed to high pressure and temperature. “It therefore requires a high-performance thermal protection system to withstand atmospheric entry for a useful period of time,” said Walpot in his latest statement, reported by Futurism.

To design such a system, scientists would need to adapt testing facilities in Europe to reproduce the atmospheric composition of both planets.

Main priority
Now, Uranus and Neptune have been included in priority missions for research. Earlier this year, NASA astrophysicist Kathleen Mandt asked the space agency to develop an exploratory probe to probe “the mysteries of the Uranus system.”

The 2023-2032 Planetary Science Decadal Survey, a publication produced by the US National Research Council selected NASA’s proposed Uranus Orbiter and Probe mission as a top priority. The survey did identify key questions for future planetary exploration efforts,

Unfortunately, developing a spacecraft that can survive plunging into the icy atmosphere of these two planets is not easy. The development of the vehicle also requires extensive support and funding.