Space Probes

Deep Space Probes 1

Have you ever considered life on other planets, or maybe galaxies that we have

never heard of? Thanks to space probes these dreams may become a reality sooner than u think. In the past years there have been many space probes launched and even more discoveries made by them. These probes are helping people to better understand our solar system and everything it. They are also helping to make many new discoveries.

What exactly is a space probe? A space probe is an unmanned space vehicle that is designed to explore our solar system and everything in it by using very high-tech instruments. Some common instruments that you will find on a spacecraft include magnetometers, radiometers, cameras that are sensitive to infrared and ultraviolet light, and tools that can detect micrometers, cosmic rays, solar winds, and gamma rays. Space probes study structures in our solar system for various reasons. They use onboard computers to send data back to Earth. In order for these space probes to actually reach space, they must be launched with enough energy to escape the gravitational pull of the Earth. Space probes are not designed to return back to Earth.

In the past years, many space probes have been launched for many different reasons. They have visited all of the planets in our solar system besides Pluto. The earliest space probes to be launched in the United States were the Mariner Series. They investigated Mercury, Venus, and Mars. The Mariner II flew within 35,400 km of the surface of Venus. (1) It sent information back to Earth about Venus's atmosphere, rotation period, and information on its magnetic field. Mariner 10 has been the only space probe to reach Mercury so far. Another space probe, Helios I came within

(1)Amazing Spacecraft

2

47 million km of the sun. (1) The Luna II and III space probes landed on the surface of the moon and took the first photos of the far side of the moon in 1959. Another space probe called the Pathfinder was launched on December 4, 1996 and made a successful landing on Mars in July of 1997. Other space probes to reach Mars include the Mars Pathfinder and the Mars Global Surveyor. A few other past space probes include the Voyager II, which is the only space probe to reach Uranus, The Venera VII, which was the first space probe to return data another planet's surface in 1970, the Venera III which reached Venus, The Venera 13,I which transmitted the first color pictures of Venus's surface, the Pioneer Venus space probe that mapped out much of the surface of Venus, Galileo, which returned data on Venus, and Mathiled, which returned data about a minor planet. The space probes that explored Jupiter include the Pioneer 10, Pioneer Saturn, Voyager I and II, Ulysses, and Galileo. The Pioneer 10 was the first human made object to leave our solar system.

Did you know that our moon is made up of thousands of chemical compositions, isotope ratios, and minerals that we can use? If it weren't for the Apollo missions these discoveries might not have been made, as for tons of other discoveries made by other space probes too. Discoveries have been made about planets, asteroids, moons, and even other galaxies. The Mariner II discovered that Venus had a small magnetic field of its own. Out of all the planets Mars has been visited by space probes that most. The Mars Global Surveyor discovered that Mars also has its own magnetic field. New pictures taken from the Mars Express have shown that Mars has volcanic and glacial activity.

(1)www.Interplanetarylife.com

3

Planets that are millions of miles away have also been visited by space probes. The Galileo space probe discovered that there may be an ocean beneath Europa's crust, which is one of Jupiter's many moons. Galileo also discovered that Europa has an ionosphere. One of the most important discoveries about Europa is that life may exist because the moon is covered with an icy surface. Europa also has carbon-bearing molecules. Geological activity in the interior of Ganymero , another moon of Jupiter, has also been discovered. The Galileo spacecraft also discovered oxygen that is present at the surface of Jupiter's moon Callisto. Some other discoveries have been made by the Hubble Space telescope, which found oxygen in the atmosphere of Europa; the Voyager series, which discovered twenty two moons all together, including three moons of Saturn in 1980, and ten moons of Uranus; the Spitzer Space Telescope which found evidence of organic molecules in a distant galaxy; the Cassini, which proved that Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus undergo erosion made by wind or rain; and the Huygens probe, which discovered that Titan was frozen.

Probes are sent out into deep space on all types of missions. Some of them are sent to study planet's atmospheres and some are just sent out to see how far they can travel. Scientists have sent space probes out on past missions, present missions, and they are even planning future missions. The Huygens space probe mission was to analyze chemical and physical parts of Titan's environment. It sent back information