SCOPE: This quantum dot spectrometer can hasten Uranus and Neptune orbital missions
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Among their other deliberations, the 2022 Planetary Science Decadal Survey noted that Uranus and Neptune were far behind their 'peers' when it came to exploration.
"This is the only class of planet in the solar system that hasn’t had a dedicated orbital tour," Robin Canup of the Southwest Research Institute, one of the co-chairs of the steering committee for the survey, told Space News. “Understanding the composition and the properties of either one would revolutionize our understanding of ice giant systems and solar system origins."
The period spanning the 1960s to the 1980s was a very auspicious time for space exploration. It began with the Moon Race, which culminated in the Moon Landing, and ended with the creation of the Space Shuttle and the first space stations.