Just thought I'd list the waypoints the various manmade wanderers will cross in 2008

New Horizons:
3 more centaur orbits (of those that have been named)
Saturn's orbit
midway point between the Sun and Uranus

Messenger:
Over two complete orbits
2 gravitational encounters with Mercury (with photographs!)

Rosetta:
Crossing both Earth and Mars orbits
1st encounter with an asteroid

Dawn:
crosses outside of Mars orbit in preparation for a 2009 encounter

any other craft highlights?

__________________
Keeper of the Jabberwock

Only that little plodder Phoenix. I guess these days mars is so old hat :-)

OK.

Phoenix:
Lands on Mars (fingers, toes and any other digits crossed as hard as possible)

__________________
Keeper of the Jabberwock

Target date, 4 August. Something to look forward to.

__________________
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

Isnt it late May? Traffic probs maybe :-)

I was wondering why they had decided to go with a different decent/landing mechanism than that for the MER vehicles.

Anyone know the risk differentials for the two approaches to landing on mars?

Phoenix is landing with the old Mars 2001 lander hardware that was nearly finished before it was canceled after the twin '99 failures.

At the time that Phoenix was selected, there was only the Pathfinder landing that had proven airbags - MER was still some years off.

Doug

Got it. Was'nt the Polar Lander one of those which went AWOL? Using same decent and landing mechanism?

I'm sure it will be ok - or thats what my doctor always says :-)

The Rosetta-Steins encounter will occur on 5 September.

Cassini, Venus Express and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will all end their primary missions this year.

__________________
Keeper of the Jabberwock

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter - launch in late 2008

Moon Mineralogy Mapper - India - launch in March 2008


Some non-wandering spacecraft of interest.


Orbiting Carbon Observatory - launch in mid 2008

Herschel far-infrared space observatory - ESA - launch in July 2008

Five Planned Shuttle launches.

European Automated Transfer Vehicle aka Jules Verne to Space Station - Feb/March 2008

How can you mention Herschel and not mention Planck? Both are going up on the same rocket.

__________________
Forming opinions as we speak

Lots to look forward to. Bring on the Exams. So long as I've Space Exploration, I can make it!

__________________
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

On 3/12/08 Cassini will perform a close flyby of Enceladus at an altitude of 23 km (14 miles).

Hey, if you are going to talk about the progress of spacecraft in 2008, shouldn't you talk about Progress spacecraft in 2008?

Looks like there are four flights scheduled for 2008. LINK

__________________
At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

Unintentionally very funny.

__________________
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx

You don't know me very well.
Intentionally funny, then I edited it to add some real information.
But don't worry, you're making progress.

__________________
At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

Okay, that one I got.

__________________
Rovers forever! - ToSeek
"Carl Sagan sent a message to ET,
Neil Armstrong walked in the Sea of Tranquility
Steve Squyers built Spirit and Opportunity
Dan Haylen upchucked in zero gravity." -Brent Simon, The Space Camp Song
'Evolution and science are one thing, but you don’t mess with Yoko Ono. Everybody knows that. ' - 386sx