Mark6, this is an extremely simple and elegant way of plotting out the history of interplanetary space exploration -- I have been wanting to come up with something like this for a long time, but always wound up with too complicated a structure and never came up with anything successful. Very strong work!

Two things that this doesn't capture (and, not coincidentally, two reasons I have never come up with a visualization that worked) are lunar exploration and the difference between spacecraft that are cruising or en route and spacecraft that are at their destinations actively doing science. The rules are different for lunar exploration because cruises are so short and because there were so many missions early on. It would be easier if there were a straightforward boundary between missions that were mostly pre-Apollo engineering tests (and could therefore be ignored) and missions that really returned science. Perhaps there is; I am too ignorant about early lunar exploration to draw that boundary.

A slightly different way of organizing the same chart might be to sort the positions left to right by destination (using the same destination groupings as you already developed), in order of decreasing cruise time. That would keep all those long-lived outer-planets missions constantly to the left, from their inception, and shift the briefer Mars and Venus stuff to the right; it might help visualize the boom-and-bust style of Mars and Venus exploration.

Two things that this doesn't capture (and, not coincidentally, two reasons I have never come up with a visualization that worked) are lunar exploration and the difference between spacecraft that are cruising or en route and spacecraft that are at their destinations actively doing science. T

This is really cool.


I hate to be picky, but Mariner 5, Mariners 6 and 7, and Mariner 4's 1967 operations are missing.

Thanks for your very illuminating chart.



Perhaps you could use cross-hatching to indicate active science operations, although you'll have to decide whether operation of particles and fields instruments during interplanetary flight qualifies.

TTT

It's amazing (and sad) that Cassini is moving into the #3 spot as 3rd oldest operational spacecraft not orbiting earth! Points to a lack of RTG powered missions, I suppose. But Stardust is long in the tooth as well... I feel old.

Ulysses is currently funded through March 2009 in a mission extension approved in November by the committee governing ESA's science program.

Ulysses operations cost ESA about $4 million each per year. NASA and ESA share operations from a control center at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. ESA is responsible for the spacecraft and NASA provides the ground segment, according to a NASA spokesperson.

I can try. This was done with a PHP program; I will have to think how to modify it to do the grouping.

It will get tricky once you get into the Solar probes. Some of the really old ones are still alive but not actively used, like Pioneer 6, which launched in 1965 and radio contact was last established in 2000, and could be established again if the will, money and DSN availability was there. I think the term is "extant" for such probes. Those old probes were spin-axis stabilized, which turned out to be really stable, and dont rely on (much) attitude control maneuvers.

Then there is also the Deep Impact flyby craft (or was it Stardust?), which I heard is being sent to a new target.

On that note, can I link to your site from my interplanetary spaceflight website?

This speaks to why you want to include some measure of the amount of data returned -- even if only symbolically. That is, rather than actually reporting bytes-per-month, you might just have widths for cruise, main mission, extended mission (if that implied reduced data), standby (implying at least SOME contact). But those widths should (in my opinion) be related to how much data the probe sent down.

--Greg

Mark, you could also use formatting (e.g. bold: prime operations (flyby, science orbit) :: (normal): cruise, occasional observations :: italics: standby, hibernation) whilst you collect data stream records. Probably easier to script in php than fiddling with column widths, at least for the time being

You are thinking of Deep Impact AND Stardust. Deep Impact is headed to Comet Hartley 2. It will arrive in October, 2010. It is currently carrying out a mission called "EPOXI." Stardust is headed to Comet Temple I (Deep Impact's first target), and will arrive on February 14, 2011. Here is a flyby animation.

I like the bolding, I think it helps, without needlessly complicating the design.

Here's the info for the Voyagers:
Voyager 1:
Jupiter Encounter: January 4 to April 13, 1979
Saturn Encounter: August 23 to December 15, 1980

Voyager 2:
Jupiter Encounter: April 25 to August 5, 1979
Saturn Encounter: June 5 to September 5, 1981
Uranus Encounter: November 4, 1985 to February 25, 1986
Neptune Encounter: June 5 through October 2, 1989

One comment: have you considered using CSS styles to do the formatting? It would make the page code considerably simpler. You'd just have a "td" style defined for each mission type, and one for cruise and one for science (or you could just use <em> for science ops and define it however you want), and then there wouldn't be all those font and color tags mucking up the code.

I do not understand your point. "EPOXI" is the reason why I have Deep Impact highlighted as currently "active". As far as I know, Stardust has been in hibernation since early 2006 -- one of few probes I happen to know that.

I don't have such info for Ulysses, as it didn't have a camera, and cameraless spacecraft just aren't on my radar screen.

--Emily

Solar probes added: is STEREO included ?
STEREO = Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory ( launched in 2006 )

How about something like this but with height representing data?

39) Kosmos 21 / [Zond]

Nation: USSR (23)

Objective(s): lunar flyby

Spacecraft: 3MV-1A (no. 1)

Spacecraft Mass: c. 800 kg

Mission Design and Management: OKB-1

Launch Vehicle: 8K78 (no. G103-18)

Launch Date and Time: 11 November 1963 / 06:23:35 UT

Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 1

Scientific Instruments:
1) radiation detector
2) charged-particle detector
3) magnetometer
4) piezoelectric detector
5) atomic hydrogen detector
6) radio telescope
7) ultraviolet and Roentgen solar radiation experiment
8) technology experiment
9) plasma engines

Results: This was the first of the Soviet Union’s “third-generation” deep space planetary probes of the 3MV series. Like the second generation, Soviet engineers projected four types of the 3MV: the 3MV-1 (for Venus impact), 3MV-2 (for Venus flyby), 3MV-3 (for Mars impact), and 3MV-4 (for Mars flyby). The primary difference over the second generation was vastly improved (and in many cases doubled) orientation system elements. While these four versions were meant to study Mars and Venus, the Soviets conceived of two additional variants of the series, similar but not identical to the 3MV-1 and 3MV-4 versions. These “test variants” were designed to verify key technological systems during simpler missions on flyby missions to the Moon and the near planets. On this particular launch, the first to fly a “test variant,” the third and fourth stages separated abnormally; after the craft reached Earth orbit, ground control lost telemetry from the Blok L upper stage designed to send the vehicle past the Moon. The stage’s main engine turbopump probably exploded upon ignition, destroying the payload. With this mission, the Soviets began the practice of giving Kosmos designations to lunar and planetary probes that remained stranded in Earth orbit.

153) Helios 2

Nation: Federal Republic of Germany and U.S. (2)

Objective(s): solar orbit

Spacecraft: Helios-B

Spacecraft Mass: 370 kg

Mission Design and Management: DFVLR and NASA GSFC

Launch Vehicle: Titan IIIE-Centaur (TC-5 / Titan no. E-5 / Centaur D-1T)

Launch Date and Time: 15 January 1976 / 05:34:00 UT

Launch Site: ETR / launch complex 41

Scientific Instruments:
1) plasma detector
2) two flux gate magnetometers
3) search-coil magnetometer
4) plasma and radio wave experiment
5) cosmic-ray detectors
6) electron detectors
7) zodiacal light photometer
8) micrometeoroid analyzer
9) celestial mechanics experiment
10) Faraday rotation experiment
11) occultation experiment

Results: Helios 2 was the second spacecraft launched to investigate solar processes as part of a cooperative project between the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States in which the former provided the spacecraft and the latter the launch vehicle. Like its twin, the spacecraft was put into heliocentric orbit. In contrast to Helios 1, however, Helios 2 flew three million kilometers closer to the Sun, achieving perihelion on 17 April 1976 at a distance of 0.29 AU (or 43.432 million kilometers). As a result, the spacecraft was exposed to 10 percent more heat than was its predecessor. The spacecraft provided important information on solar plasma, the solar wind, cosmic rays, and cosmic dust, and also performed magnetic field and electrical field experiments.

166) Vega 1

Nation: USSR (102)

Objective(s): Venus atmospheric entry and landing, Halley’s Comet flyby

Spacecraft: 5VK (no. 901)

Spacecraft Mass: c. 4,920 kg

Mission Design and Management: NPO Lavochkin

Launch Vehicle: 8K82K + Blok DM (Proton-K no. 329-01 / Blok DM no. 11L)

Launch Date and Time: 15 December 1984 / 09:16:24 UT

Launch Site: NIIP-5 / launch site 200L

Scientific Instruments:
Lander:
1) Malakhit mass spectrometer
2) Sigma-3 gas chromatograph
3) VM-4 hygrometer
4) GS-15-SCV gamma-ray spectrometer
5) UV spectrometer
6) BDRP-AM25 x-ray fluorescence spectrometer and drill
7) ISAV nephelometer/scatterometer
8) temperature and pressure sensors
9) IFP aerosol analyzer
Balloon:
1) temperature and pressure sensors
2) vertical wind anemometer
3) nephelometer
4) light level/lighting detector
Bus:
1) imaging system
2) infrared spectrometer
3) ultraviolet, visible, infrared imaging spectrometer
4) shield penetration detector
5) dust detectors
6) dust mass spectrometer
7) neutral gas mass spectrometer
8) APV-V plasma energy analyzer
9) energetic-particle analyzer
10) magnetometer
11) wave and plasma analyzers

Results: The twin-spacecraft Vega project was perhaps the most ambitious deep space Soviet mission to date. The mission had three major goals: to place advanced lander modules on the surface of Venus, to deploy balloons (two each) in the Venusian atmosphere, and, by using Venusian gravity, to fly the remaining buses past the Comet Halley. The entire mission was a cooperative effort among the Soviet Union (who provided the spacecraft and launch vehicle) and Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Poland, Czechoslovakia, France, and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). Although the landers were similar to ones used before for exploring Venus, the balloon gondolas were completely new French-made vehicles that carried American-French nephelometers to measure aerosol distribution in the atmosphere. The cometary flyby probes, which contained a 120-kilogram scientific package for investigations, were protected against high-velocity impacts from dust particles. After a successful flight to Venus, Vega 1 released its 1,500-kilogram descent module on 9 June 1985, two days before atmospheric entry. At 61 kilometers altitude, as the lander descended, it released the first helium-inflated plastic balloon with a hanging gondola underneath it. Mass was around 20.8 kilograms. As the balloon drifted through the Venusian atmosphere (controlled partly by ballast), it transmitted important data on the atmosphere back to a network of tracking antennas on Earth. Balloon 1 survived for 46.5 hours, eventually terminating operations because of battery failure. The lander set down safely on the ground at 03:02:54 UT on 11 June 1985 at 7.2° north latitude and 177.8° longitude, on the night side of Venus in the Mermaid Plain north of Aphrodite, and transmitted from the surface for 56 minutes. Having deployed before it reached the surface, the soil sample drill failed to complete its soil analysis, but the mass spectrometer returned important data.

The Vega 1 bus flew by Venus at a range of 39,000 kilometers and then headed for its encounter with Halley. After a course correction on 10 February 1986, the spacecraft began its formal studies of the comet on 4 March, when it was 14 million kilometers from its target. During the 3-hour encounter on 6 March 1986, the spacecraft approached to within 8,889 kilometers (at 07:20:06 UT) of Halley. Vega 1 took more than 500 pictures via different filters as it flew through the gas cloud around the coma. Although the spacecraft was battered by dust, none of the instruments were disabled during the encounter. Vega 1 collected a wealth of information on Halley, including data on its nucleus, its dust production rate, its chemical composition, and its rotational rate. After subsequent imaging sessions on 7 and 8 March 1986, Vega 1 headed out to deep space.