5 ms·

Europe's space program heads to Jupiter

52 points by Tomis02 14y ago

Tomis02 14y ago
I'm really excited about this, and proud to be European. There's neither an obvious economic benefit from this mission, nor some military advantage. It's just pure science. Go ESA!
- zafriedman 14y ago
  Honestly, I read this article and I can say I'm just proud to be a human being when I hear of things like this. Go progress!
- nakkiel 14y ago
  Actually, it's often the case with research projects in Europe. That's about all that make me feel European. Go ESA, Go Europe. I'd also like to say that dw.de seems like an awesome source. I live on the other side of the Rhine but somehow never heard of Deutsche Welle. Thanks for that.
- luriel 14y ago
  As a (somewhat proud) European who loves pure science and space, I'm sorry to say I think your points are too accurate, put another way: is a waste of government's money when most EU governments are drowning in debt and really can't afford it. Europe would be much better served by encouraging the kind of entrepreneurial space industry represented by SpaceX than handing more money to the European aerospace/military pork cartel of EADS and friends.
  - yaix 14y ago
    "drowning in debt"? Nothing changed from ten years ago, except for Greece. And everybody knew that, when they entered the Euro, they were not ready and that some major crisis would happen down the road. Now they have to transform their society into a firstworld country, that's hard, but long-term very beneficial. All going well, so far. But I agree that the EU space program should follow the US example of privatizing standard stuff. But in Europe we have the problem that nations are still stupidly putting their national interests over the common European interest. EADS is one result of that sort of behavior. Imagin the European version of SpaceX was for example French: all other large countries, especially the UK and Germany, would want production facilities too. A innovative small company would die soon, crushed by political pressure.
  - Tomis02 14y ago
    I guess we should stop searching for Earth-like planets in our galaxy, it's a waste of money. Same with LHC. Right?
gauravk92 14y ago
Historians will look back at this time as a fundamental shift away from America as the leader of scientific exploration. It's a shame Europe is leading the search at the microscopic (LHC) and macroscopic scales (this), and we're considering reducing funding for NASA when their budget is already puny. Not to make this political, it just sucks.
- planetguy 14y ago
  It's not a zero-sum game, and I think you need to get some perspective. It's great that the ESA is sending a probe to Jupiter's moons, and I'm totally excited about it. On the other hand, NASA currently has: 1. One spacecraft at Saturn (Cassini) 2. One spacecraft en route to Jupiter (Juno) 3. One spacecraft at Mercury (MESSENGER) 4. One spacecraft at Vesta (Dawn) 5. One spacecraft on its way to freaking Pluto (New Horizons) 6. Three missions [I think] still in operation at Mars (Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Opportunity) with a fourth on its way. 7. A few other comet/asteroid missions I've lost track of, plus 8. A bunch of other stuff, with the big highlights being Hubble and Kepler. NASA's "already puny" budget is three times that of the ESA and easily exceeds the rest of the world put together, so one really can't complain too much. That's not to pooh-pooh the ESA, by any means, they're doing some good stuff. But they have a long, long way to go before they catch up with NASA. This will be the first non-American mission to the outer solar system, incidentally. NASA so far have sent eight. (Two Pioneers, two Voyagers, Galileo, Cassini, New Horizons, Juno.) All but Galileo are still in operation.
  - gauravk92 14y ago
    Most definitely true, but do you believe we are currently at the forefront of scientific exploration as we have been for the past few decades? I believe a shift has occurred, we are still the 800 pound gorilla but in 50 years, that may be a different picture. That's what I care about, the fact that our lead is waning and we're not doing much about. If we were truly still leading the way, the supercollider we had plans for that was 3 times as powerful as the LHC would've been funded, in the 70-80's. I can't argue that point effectively though because I have read that project was plagued with issues and most likely wouldn't have been an effective use of funds, but we could've focused on fixing those issues or finding a scaled back project instead of letting it die, and leaving it to the EU.
planetguy 14y ago
Oddly enough, the caption "NASA had plans to send a spacecraft to Jupiter but later dropped them" accompanies a picture of Juno, the not-cancelled NASA spacecraft currently on its way to Jupiter. The "cancelled" mission is actually the EJSM, which last I heard isn't quite cancelled, nor was it ever firmly planned. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EJSM/Laplace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EJSM/Laplace)
cwe 14y ago
... in a decade. Hopefully.
- ramidarigaz 14y ago
  These things take time.
yaix 14y ago
2022? 2030? :-( While I'm really glad they do it and go there, I am not sure if this is the right way. If anything was to go wrong, then the complete mission is lost. And that would be terrible considering the timeframe of 20 years. ESA should follow the SpaceX approach of sending several "mass produced" spacecrafts, or at least follow the Mars mission modell and send two. That was also done in the 70s with Voyager and others.

52 points by Tomis02 14y ago

I'm really excited about this, and proud to be European. There's neither an obvious economic benefit from this mission, nor some military advantage. It's just pure science. Go ESA!

zafriedman 14y ago
Honestly, I read this article and I can say I'm just proud to be a human being when I hear of things like this. Go progress!
nakkiel 14y ago
Actually, it's often the case with research projects in Europe. That's about all that make me feel European. Go ESA, Go Europe. I'd also like to say that dw.de seems like an awesome source. I live on the other side of the Rhine but somehow never heard of Deutsche Welle. Thanks for that.
luriel 14y ago
As a (somewhat proud) European who loves pure science and space, I'm sorry to say I think your points are too accurate, put another way: is a waste of government's money when most EU governments are drowning in debt and really can't afford it. Europe would be much better served by encouraging the kind of entrepreneurial space industry represented by SpaceX than handing more money to the European aerospace/military pork cartel of EADS and friends.
- yaix 14y ago
  "drowning in debt"? Nothing changed from ten years ago, except for Greece. And everybody knew that, when they entered the Euro, they were not ready and that some major crisis would happen down the road. Now they have to transform their society into a firstworld country, that's hard, but long-term very beneficial. All going well, so far. But I agree that the EU space program should follow the US example of privatizing standard stuff. But in Europe we have the problem that nations are still stupidly putting their national interests over the common European interest. EADS is one result of that sort of behavior. Imagin the European version of SpaceX was for example French: all other large countries, especially the UK and Germany, would want production facilities too. A innovative small company would die soon, crushed by political pressure.
- Tomis02 14y ago
  I guess we should stop searching for Earth-like planets in our galaxy, it's a waste of money. Same with LHC. Right?

gauravk92 14y ago

Historians will look back at this time as a fundamental shift away from America as the leader of scientific exploration. It's a shame Europe is leading the search at the microscopic (LHC) and macroscopic scales (this), and we're considering reducing funding for NASA when their budget is already puny. Not to make this political, it just sucks.

planetguy 14y ago
It's not a zero-sum game, and I think you need to get some perspective. It's great that the ESA is sending a probe to Jupiter's moons, and I'm totally excited about it. On the other hand, NASA currently has: 1. One spacecraft at Saturn (Cassini) 2. One spacecraft en route to Jupiter (Juno) 3. One spacecraft at Mercury (MESSENGER) 4. One spacecraft at Vesta (Dawn) 5. One spacecraft on its way to freaking Pluto (New Horizons) 6. Three missions [I think] still in operation at Mars (Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Opportunity) with a fourth on its way. 7. A few other comet/asteroid missions I've lost track of, plus 8. A bunch of other stuff, with the big highlights being Hubble and Kepler. NASA's "already puny" budget is three times that of the ESA and easily exceeds the rest of the world put together, so one really can't complain too much. That's not to pooh-pooh the ESA, by any means, they're doing some good stuff. But they have a long, long way to go before they catch up with NASA. This will be the first non-American mission to the outer solar system, incidentally. NASA so far have sent eight. (Two Pioneers, two Voyagers, Galileo, Cassini, New Horizons, Juno.) All but Galileo are still in operation.
- gauravk92 14y ago
  Most definitely true, but do you believe we are currently at the forefront of scientific exploration as we have been for the past few decades? I believe a shift has occurred, we are still the 800 pound gorilla but in 50 years, that may be a different picture. That's what I care about, the fact that our lead is waning and we're not doing much about. If we were truly still leading the way, the supercollider we had plans for that was 3 times as powerful as the LHC would've been funded, in the 70-80's. I can't argue that point effectively though because I have read that project was plagued with issues and most likely wouldn't have been an effective use of funds, but we could've focused on fixing those issues or finding a scaled back project instead of letting it die, and leaving it to the EU.

planetguy 14y ago

Oddly enough, the caption "NASA had plans to send a spacecraft to Jupiter but later dropped them" accompanies a picture of Juno, the not-cancelled NASA spacecraft currently on its way to Jupiter. The "cancelled" mission is actually the EJSM, which last I heard isn't quite cancelled, nor was it ever firmly planned. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EJSM/Laplace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EJSM/Laplace)

cwe 14y ago

... in a decade. Hopefully.

ramidarigaz 14y ago
These things take time.

yaix 14y ago

2022? 2030? :-( While I'm really glad they do it and go there, I am not sure if this is the right way. If anything was to go wrong, then the complete mission is lost. And that would be terrible considering the timeframe of 20 years. ESA should follow the SpaceX approach of sending several "mass produced" spacecrafts, or at least follow the Mars mission modell and send two. That was also done in the 70s with Voyager and others.