Probes Anna and Hanna Euclid Middle School Period 6 Space Odyssey

What is a Probe? A space probe is a scientific space exploration mission in which a robotic spacecraft leaves the gravity well of Earth and enters space

Probe Missions Future Missions: ~Aquarius Launch: 2010 ~GRAIL Launch: 2011 ~Juno Launch: August 2011 ~Mars Science Laboratory Launch: 2011 Current Missions: ~Space Technology 8 ~Moon Mineralogy Mapper ~ Jason 2 Past Missions: ~Explorer 1-5 Launch: 1958 ~Pioneer 3-4 Launch: ~Rangers to the moon Launch: ~Mariner 1-2 Launch: 1962 Rangers to the Moon

Historical Developments The first space mission, Sputnik 1 was an artificial satellite put into Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October On 3 November 1957, the Soviets orbited Sputnik 2, the first to carry a living animal into space – a dog. The United States achieved its first successful space probe launch with the orbit of Explorer 1 on 31 January Explorer 1 weighed less than 14 kilograms compared to 83.6 kg and kg for Sputniks 1 and 2 respectively. Nonetheless, Explorer 1 detected a narrow band of radiation surrounding the Earth, named the Van Allen belts after the scientist whose equipment detected it.

Probe Facts The space probe Galileo traveled for over six years before it reached Jupiter in December 1995 Most probes are not designed to return to Earth

Pictures Magellan space probe Juno Space probe

Works Cited _____. Holt Science and Technology Astronomy. London: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, “Space Probes.” Wikipedia. Internet: February “ Space Probes.” Google. Internet: February 2009.