Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Images of the Day: A First Look at 'Trident'...

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

Earlier today, I stumbled upon these images online showing the current design and flight trajectory of the Trident spacecraft...which would launch to Neptune's moon Triton no earlier than October of 2025 and arrive at the icy world in September of 2038. Based on the preliminary look above, Trident would fittingly be a hybrid of the New Horizons and Voyager robotic probes now heading out of our solar system.

All I can say is, I'm even more stoked for this project now! Please select it as one of the two newest Discovery-class missions next year, NASA! The space agency will supposedly make its announcement in April or May of 2021. Let's cross our fingers that another exciting flyby to the outer planets and beyond will be made official next spring... Happy Tuesday!

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

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