NASA Uranus, Neptune Mission Concepts Launched

By Denise See, Christian Post Contributor Friday, June 23, 2017

There are plenty of things to explore in the vast unknown called space, and NASA has just completed a study for a future mission to Uranus and Neptune.

The last time NASA was able to get close to Uranus and Neptune was approximately 30 years ago using Voyager 2. Now, according to a post on the agency's website, a study led and sponsored by NASA has been concluded and opened the door to future missions to the "ice giant" planets. The European Space Agency also contributed.

The study consisted of the mission's specifics, particularly concerning the equipment, flight-paths, technologies and spacecraft that could be utilized. Of course, there will also be more studies in the series.

The future missions to Uranus and Neptune will be part of the Planetary Science Decadal Survey, a report that NASA publishes every 10 years. The Decadal Survey will renew in the 2022 to 2032 season, which means NASA has only five years left to decide on its priorities.

"This study argues the importance of exploring at least one of these planets and its entire environment, which includes surprisingly dynamic icy moons, rings, and bizarre magnetic fields," Mark Hofstadter of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.

"We do not know how these planets formed and why they and their moons look the way they do. There are fundamental clues as to how our solar system formed and evolved that can only be found by a detailed study of one, or preferably both, of these planets," NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center co-chair Amy Simon explained.

Prior to the potential future mission to Uranus and Neptune, NASA will be deploying another unmanned rover to Mars in 2020. Concept art for the vehicle was previously unveiled. A separate concept for a manned rover developed by Shanon and Marc Parker was also previewed. The vehicle is only for visuals and will not be launched into space.