5 Future Robotic Expeditions and What They Could Reveal [Slide Show]
Some are already on their way and some are still in the works, but here is what we may see from unmanned exploration of space in the coming years
5 Future Robotic Expeditions and What They Could Reveal [Slide Show]
- MESSENGER: The Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (MESSENGER) craft took flight five years ago and in 2011 will become the first probe to orbit Mercury. The closest planet to the sun, Mercury is difficult to study from Earth, and before the first of MESSENGER's flybys of the planet, less than half of its surface had even been photographed... NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
- ROSETTA: The European Space Agency launched its Rosetta spacecraft in 2004 on a 10-year journey to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Once there, the probe will drop a harpoon-anchored lander to investigate the comet's nucleus, while lingering nearby in a cometary orbit, studying how the icy body changes as it makes its way around the sun... ESA/AOES Medialab