Is It Time To Go Back to Uranus and Neptune? Revisiting Ice Giants of the Solar System

We’ve only seen Uranus and Neptune one time up close. There are now some mission ideas in the works that might take us back.

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I look forward to all the future missions that NASA is going to be sending out in the Solar System. Here, check this out. You can use NASA’s website to show you all the future missions. Here’s everything planned for the future, here’s everything going to Mars.

Now, let’s look and see what missions are planned for the outer planets of the Solar System, especially Uranus and Neptune. Oh, that’s so sad… there’s nothing.

It’s been decades since humanity had an up close look at Uranus and Neptune. For Uranus, it was Voyager 2, which swept through the system in 1986. We got just a few tantalizing photographs of the ice giant planet and it’s moons. What’s that? What’s going on there? What are those strange features? Sorry, insufficient data.

And then Voyager 2 did the same, zipping past Neptune in 1989. Check that out, and that, and this. What’s going here on Triton? Wouldn’t you like to know more? Well, too bad! You can’t it’s done, that’s all you get.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we’ve studied all these other worlds. I’m glad we’ve had orbiters at Mercury, Venus, everything at Mars, Jupiter, and especially Saturn. We’ve seen Ceres and Vesta, and the Moon up close. We even got a flyby of Pluto and Charon.

It’s time to go back to Uranus and Neptune, this time to stay.

And I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Scientists at NASA recently published a report called the Ice Giant Mission Study, and it’s all about various missions that could be sent to explore Uranus, Neptune and their fascinating moons.

The team of scientists who worked on the study considered a range of potential missions to the ice giants, and in the end settled on four potential missions; three that could go to Uranus, and one headed for Neptune. Each of them would cost roughly $2 billion.

Uranus is closer, easier to get to, and the obvious first destination of a targeted mission. For Uranus, NASA considered three probes.

The first idea is a flyby mission, which will sweep past Uranus gathering as much science as it can. This is what Voyager 2 did, and more recently what NASA’s New Horizons did at Pluto. In addition, it would have a separate probe, like the Cassini and Galileo missions, that would detach and go into the atmosphere to sample the composition below the cloudtops. The mission would be heavy and require an Atlas V rocket with the same configuration that sent Curiosity to Mars. The flight time would take 10 years.

The main science goal of this mission would be to study the composition of Uranus. It would make some other measurements of the system as it passed through, but it would just be a glimpse. Better than Voyager, but nothing like Cassini’s decade plus observations of Saturn.

I like where this is going, but I’m going to hold out for something better.

The next idea is an orbiter. Now we’re talking! It would have all the same instruments as the flyby and the detachable probe. But because it would be an orbiter, it would require much more propellant. It would have triple the launch mass of the flyby mission, which means a heavier Atlas V rocket. And a slightly longer flight time; 12 years instead of 10 for the flyby.

Because it would remain at Uranus for at least 3 years, it would be able to do an extensive analysis of the planet and its rings and moons. But because of the atmospheric probe, it wouldn’t have enough mass for more instruments. It would have more time at Uranus, but not a much better set of tools to study it with.

Okay, let’s keep going. The next idea is an orbiter, but without the detachable probe. Instead, it’ll have the full suite of 15 scientific instruments, to study Uranus from every angle. We’re talking visible, doppler, infrared, ultraviolet, thermal, dust, and a fancy wide angle camera to give us those sweet planetary pictures we like to see.

Study Uranus? Yes please. But while we’re at it, let’s also sent a spacecraft to Neptune.

As part of the Ice Giants Study, the researchers looked at what kind of missions would be possible. In this case, they settled on a single recommended mission. A huge orbiter with an additional atmospheric probe. This mission would be almost twice as massive as the heaviest Uranus mission, so it would need a Delta IV Heavy rocket to even get out to Neptune.

[splitsecondscience]

I think we should call the mission the "Herschel" Space probe, in honor of William Herschel, who discovered Uranus in 1784

[RespectYourViews]

Serious suggestion for neptune probe name: Neptune Environments Mission Orbiter or NEMO.

[filipprochazka]

As for the names:
Herschell for the Uranus orbiter, named for the astronomer to be the first documented person to discern it was a planet and not a star, and also discovered Uranus' moons Titania and Oberon. Alternatively, if all the three probes intended for Uranus were flown (we should be so lucky x) ), they could be named Elliot, Dunham and Mink, named for James L. Elliot, Edward W. Dunham, and Jessica Mink, the discoverers of Uranus' rings.
As for the Neptune orbiter, I think Galle would be a good name for the orbiter - named after Johann Galle, the first astronomer to observe Neptune - and d'Arrest for the atmospheric probe - named after Heinrich d'Arrest, who assisted Galle in the first observation of Neptune.

[AvyScottandFlower]

3:47 ''- Study Uranus?
- Yes, please! ''

Joke mission status: accomplished_

[Tehom]

8:40 "ideas for the names of probes to Uranus and Neptune" I think at least one should be named to honor former NASA Director of Space Power and Nuclear Systems and Manager of the Space Nuclear Propulsion Office Harold B. Finger. Therefore I propose that the first probe to visit Uranus be called "Dr. Finger".

(FWIW, no, he actually has a Master's Degree)

[cidshroom]

Mission names "Godly Trident" and "Astroglide"

[Tabaraka]

Mind blowing. No one will stop progress. And thank you for all this useful information that keeps us updated

[daltonduncan]

No more flybys. If you are going to the Ice Giants there should be another Cassini and Magellan. I look forward to a Mission to Uranus with an orbiter called the Klingon orbiter with a lander probe called "The Suppository".

[rgraph]

"Names of probes to Uranus": "The Doctors finger of Doom

[moalzaben]

Names of probes for Uranus (( Herschel )) for Neptune (( La Verrier ))

[michrain]

I wish I could live forever just to be witness of all the scientific knowledge and insight we will gain in the future. Science is the only thing that has ever inspired a fear of missing out in my life. Just imagine what we will have discovered a hundred years from now...

[jpzirngibl]

Send two Cassini style probes together as one. They would separate at Uranus. The second would use a Uranus slingshot to Neptune. They are on the same side of the solar system right now. Let's go!

[eannamcnamara]

For a uranus mission a name related to Shakespeare could be interesting as its moons are named after Shakespearian characters.

[daltonduncan]

The obvious name for the Neptune mission is the Poseiden, and a probe would be the the Trident. Would be nice if the Trident was either a submarine or a drone able to fly in the thick atmosphere. Make the parachute that slows the probe into a double layered balloon that inflates with a gas that keeps the probe bouyant in the atmosphere.

[Renne]

The Uranus mission: Herschel
The Neptune mission: Galle & Le Verrier for a Triton probe.

[spacevspitch]

Some folks recommended naming the Uranus probe "Herschel" after its discoverer. I further recommend referring to its orbital insertion burn as a "Herschel Squirt". "Go for Herschel Squirt...Herschel Squirt successful. We are now orbiting Uranus." And the crowd goes wild!

[MrMomo]

Why do we not already have off-the-shelf Imperial Probe Droids, which we launch to all parts if the Solar System on a monthly basis?

[rolandrobledo]

How about "Galene" and "Tiamat" for mission names?

[vovin]

I'd call the Uranus probe Enegma. Hopefully lets us figure out why Uranus it's on its side ;-)

[donaldtrump]

Seeing Uranus up close would get _my_ probe excited.