Thursday, October 16, 2025

What Could've Been with 'Trident'...

An infographic showing the design of the Trident spacecraft and its science instruments.
L.M. Prockter et al. LPI / JPL / SwRI

Just thought I'd point out that Trident, an Outer Planet flyby mission that was under consideration by NASA five years ago, would've launched sometime this month (between October 10th and October 30th, to be exact) had NASA selected it as one of its next Discovery-class spacecraft back in 2021. Trident ended up losing to two Venus missions, DAVINCI and VERITAS, that will either be cancelled for budgetary reasons by Trump or not launch till later next decade.

Had Trident not launched this month, it could've lifted off in October of next year for an arrival at Neptune and its enigmatic moon Triton in September of 2038. Would've, could've, should've.

An infographic showing the would-be flight trajectory of the Trident spacecraft to Neptune's moon Triton...and beyond.
L.M. Prockter et al. LPI / JPL / SwRI

Neptune and Triton will have to wait a bit longer for the next human-made robotic explorer to visit them.

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