Other Solar System Missions

Lab 7 Other Solar System Missions

In the past several weeks you have looked in-depth at many current missions that are going on to explore our solar system. In this lab activity, you will visit past missions some successful others maybe not so much, but from each mission, we can learn something.

There is a tremendous amount of past missions conducted by NASA or other space agencies around the world. I want you to research at least two and in your lab write-up tell me about the missions that you chose and what astronomers and scientists learned from these missions. Do not choose missions that we have already looked at. Be as specific as possible, please. Details matter!

Here is a shortlist of some possible missions but by no means is this a comprehensive list. You can select from this list or find other missions. Also included are some websites that may be helpful in your research. You will notice a lot of missions are named after famous scientists.

One of my favorites is the Kepler space telescope. If you like hunting for extrasolar planets make sure to check it out.

Parker Solar Probe

Genesis

Deep Space 1

Kepler

Galileo

Mars Polar Lander

Mars Pathfinder

Mars Global Surveyor

Pioneer

Voyager

Ulysses

Chandra X-ray telescope