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Re:NASA's Europa Clipper: Miles Down, Instruments Deploying by ANewFormation on Saturday November 30, 2024 @03:59AM (#42280471)
The largest probe ever launched afaik is Voyager 1, and it was less than a ton. Even 'massive' things like the James Webb telescope only weighs 7 tons.

Starship is aiming for being able to launch 200+ tons. So stuff like this on a dedicated mission would have vastly more delta-v available but also be kind of silly. There's no reason we couldn't scale things up and just launch hundreds of probes at once all through the Solar System. Alternatively instead of launching probes we could look to start launching modular observation stations that could one day even house humans, or perhaps even grander ideas.

Launching one off probes, rovers, and satellites is really something I think we should be aiming to move beyond, let alone on the ridiculous time intervals we operate on at present.

We shouldn't still be making basic, yet revolutionary, discoveries on the Moon, more than half a century after we set foot on it.

Re:NASA's Europa Clipper: Miles Down, Instruments Deploying by baq on Saturday November 30, 2024 @08:15AM (#42281434)
Comms is the reason. DSN dish time is not a particularly abundant resource even today.
Re:NASA's Europa Clipper: Miles Down, Instruments Deploying by rbanffy on Saturday November 30, 2024 @08:27AM (#42281501)
The far side of the moon is prime real estate for radiotelescopes. You can create a sizable expansion of the DSN by sharing dish time with the antennas you can build from local materials.
Re:NASA's Europa Clipper: Miles Down, Instruments Deploying by philistine on Saturday November 30, 2024 @12:30PM (#42282805)
Well I fully assume that the DSN itself will move to space, courtesy of Starship's large tonnage to orbit.
Re:NASA's Europa Clipper: Miles Down, Instruments Deploying by Melatonic on Saturday November 30, 2024 @02:54PM (#42283615)
I've been thinking for years we should built a space network of probe and satellite like objects - imagine if we landed a small relay on every asteroid passing anywhere near earth - could be highly useful for communication and possibly also give us a GPS like location assist for additional spacecraft