dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (08/30/84)
NASA's Solar System Exploration Committee has proposed a very useable line of spacecraft to explore the inner planets. More on the Planetary Observers -- in a moment. August 23 Planetary Observers If there's one word to describe NASA's strategy with regard to spacecraft, that word is usability. Most past missions to the planets were unique, unrelated efforts -- with each spacecraft custom-built. Now NASA's Solar System Exploration Committee, or SSEC, has proposed two new lines of spacecraft -- one for the exploration of the inner solar system -- and the other for journeys beyond Mars, to the outer realm of the sun's family. The Planetary Observers are the proposed inner planet spacecraft. They are to be developed from already-existing satellites designed for Earth orbit. Weather and communications satellites now orbiting Earth can be adapted to study Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Earth's moon. With the addition of scientific instruments, these craft can explore the inner solar system at relatively low cost. The Planetary Observers would come from a kind of production line, made by a contractor who knows the complete history of ground and flight testing for the series. The first Planetary Observer is the Mars Geoscience Climatology Orbiter, scheduled for a 1990 launch. In the course of the MGCO mission, a single Planetary Observer will orbit the red planet for a full Martian year. After the MGCO, another Planetary Observer might go to the moon for the proposed Lunar Geoscience Orbiter mission. Still later, Planetary Observers might carry out the Venus Atmospheric Probe mission, the Earth-Approaching Asteroid Rendezvous mission, and so on for at least half a dozen inner solar system missions proposed by NASA's committee on solar system exploration. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1983, 1984 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin