Saturn and Jupiter Again? C'mon, Let's Go to Uranus
Space.com has an article about how NASA and the ESA are meeting to decide whether shell out the dough for a "flagship" mission either to Saturn or Jupiter. For one thing there is already a hugely successful mission currently at Saturn. It called Cassini, maybe some of you have heard of it? As for Jupiter, although the Galileo mission was admittedly flawed it still returned good science.
Now Uranus on the other hand, has only been visited once, if you call a flyby at 80,000 km a visit. And that mission with Voyager 2 didn't do justice to what is arguably the most unique planet and moon system in our solar system. The planet is tilted 90 degrees on it's axis, how sweet is that. Instead of spending more money retreading the familiar paths, let's blaze a new trail all the way out to mysterious Uranus and see what this planet is really all about.
Now Uranus on the other hand, has only been visited once, if you call a flyby at 80,000 km a visit. And that mission with Voyager 2 didn't do justice to what is arguably the most unique planet and moon system in our solar system. The planet is tilted 90 degrees on it's axis, how sweet is that. Instead of spending more money retreading the familiar paths, let's blaze a new trail all the way out to mysterious Uranus and see what this planet is really all about.
