Thursday, January 02, 2014

Russia Wants to do a Mission to Ganymede

 
Russia has allocated 1.5 million dollars for the development of a technical proposal to land a probe on the surface of  Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon.

Ganymede would be an excellent choice.  It is the largest moon in the solar system, 8% larger than Mercury but has only 45% of Mercury's  mass.

The Russian mission will be called Laplas-P1, would consist of two spacecraft launched by separate heavy lift  launch vehicles. The trip to Jupiter would take upwards of nine years. 

 In all likelihood a prototype would not be available until 2017, with a launch date of 2023 the arrival could not take place any earlier that 2030.

For more check out the IO9 article HERE




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