Planetary Grand Tour
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The Planetary Grand Tour was an ambitious plan to send unmanned probes to the outermost planets of the solar system. Conceived by Gary Flandro of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Grand Tour would have exploited the alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, an event that would occur in the late 1970s, and not recur for 176 years. A probe sent to Jupiter could use that planet as a gravitational slingshot to extend its trajectory to Saturn. After repeating the maneuver at Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, the probe would complete its 12-year voyage with a flyby of Pluto.
One of the proposed mission designs had two probes. One would fly by Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. The other would fly by Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto. Alternates with three probes were also considered. The vehicles were to have been designed with multiple redundant systems to ensure reliability over missions lasting up to 12 years.
NASA budget cuts eventually doomed the Grand Tour missions, as well as later proposals for a "mini grand tour". However, most elements of the Grand Tour were added to the Voyager program, which visited all of the four outer planets, and Voyager 2's mission has specifically come to be regarded as the "Grand Tour."
Pluto, no longer regarded as a planet after the 2006 redefinition, is scheduled for exploration by the New Horizons spacecraft set to rendezvous with the dwarf planet and its three moons in 2015.
[edit] References
- See National Geographic, August 1970, for proposed Grand Tour project information.
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