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Re:‘Voyager on steroids.’ Mission would probe region beyond ... by jmyeet on Friday July 29, 2022 @08:44AM (#32276151)
While I'm all for more of these space missions, my personal #1 priority is return missions to Uranus and Neptune in the next window for favorable planetary alignment to get there in reasonable time. That's the same window as this (mid-2030s). It would mean such probes wouldn't reach their targets until the mid-2040s.

Time is actually rapidly running out to launch in this window because such a mission can easily take a decade to plan, design and build. Missions to Mars might be a few hundred million but Cassini or Juno style missions are in the billions. Getting such a mission funded is a far more onerous task. It's generally a flagship joint mission for ESA and NASA and then adds all the politics of that (eg using Ariana launch vehicles to mollify Europeans).

We've only been to the ice giants once and it was the Voyager missions. I hope we go again in my lifetime.

Re:‘Voyager on steroids.’ Mission would probe region beyond ... by liotier on Friday July 29, 2022 @09:33AM (#32276642)
> using Ariana launch vehicles to mollify Europeans)

"Ariane". I would rather have you mollify us with proper spelling.

Re:‘Voyager on steroids.’ Mission would probe region beyond ... by SicSemperUranus on Friday July 29, 2022 @09:35AM (#32276681)
"return to Uranus" sounds like a SpaceX kind of mission!