Neptune and Uranus?

 Watery Worlds!

Missions to these two cold giants is not planned for the near future and the Hubble Telescope is to spend it last few years taking regular observations?

Recently it has been discovered that these two giant worlds are made of water, but as to their structure this is still not known! Much of this knowledge is coming from the Juno probe that is orbiting Jupiter and revealing its internal structure, which may act in a similar way for all four giants?

Uranus is covered in cloud and looks like the cue ball on a snooker table, there is really nothing to see accept that it lies on its side meaning only one pole is lit and the other remains dark. The strange thing about the belts and Moons of this world is that they are hard to see because of unknown dark materials?

Meanwhile Neptune is blue with wispy high clouds and a black spot that moves and changes or may be replaces by another every so many years? Neptune has one of the largest Moons in the Solar system that of Triton, which many now believe may be a captured Pluto type world?

Triton is believed to be active with volcanism and other mysterious features discovered by Voyager in our only fly past! One thinks with so many wonderful things to discover that money should be put aside to build probes to visit and study the Moons and rings if nothing else, I think we will be surprised by what we discover there too?

Uranus and Neptunian Discoveries?

139 Plutonian objects and regular space telescope Observations!

The Ort cloud has revealed a group of six hundred objects beyond Neptune of which 139 may be Pluto sized planets and amongst them may be that elusive dark planet nine that astronomy is gathering pace to discover?

The distances of these objects are now estimated to be up to eight times the distance of Earth from the Sun, Pluto to the fringes of the Ort cloud and it is not clear if it was New Horizons that has gathered this data or a Space telescope observations that have tracked unidentified objects only to discover that there are many more planets in our Solar system than ever thought?

The latest Space telescope is to be used on a regular basis for more observations of both the cold gas giants Uranus and Neptune, which are now revealing perhaps more of their secrets and that they are not inactive far our worlds than we have thought for over forty-seven years?

Wither another New Horizons probe is sent to Pluto is hard to know, but eventually something will be sent maybe from the Martian colony when it is established in the next fifty years or so? 

Meanwhile NASA has revealed that the proposed Gateway Lunar station is now not required for the Artemis programme but a smaller station will provide emergency backup!

New Horizons beyond Ultima Thule!

What is the next target and when?

The problem now with this probe is speed and commands and it is not clear what is the real size of the next object? I think like Pluto we may be presently surprised that this region of our outer Solar System might be more active than we think!

One wonders if there is a back up mission planned for Pluto along with possibly visiting the outer gas giants of Ouranus and Neptune with its interesting Moon Triton? The recent BBC the planets was a bit disappointing because so much was not taken into consideration!

Brian Cox seems to be fixated with the date 4.5 billion years and the much speculation of what is now becoming a bore? We just do not know what occurred in times past in the creation of the planets and also what is happening?

Interstellar Travel. Part-One.

Our nearest Neighbour.

Much of space science is currently being employed into the idea of sending a Laser powered sail spacecraft on a thirty year trip to our nearest neighbouring star, which is four light-years away. With our current technology it would take us two hundred years plus to get there and back.

At this time the only manned Space ship is the International Space Station, which is three-hundred miles up making a 45-minute circle of the Earth. The Russian Progress robotic and U.S. Dragon supply vessels are the only way of getting up and down, since the retirement of the ageing former Space Shuttles.

The next objective in to get a manned mission to Mars by 2035 or establish a southern-hemisphere Moon base, as a first step by 2028?

Prof. Stephen Hawking's is very keen to encourage the Solar sail project, but some believe it would be wise to test it out first within the known confines of the solar system? making a four hour journey to Pluto, instead of the ten years it took the New Horizon probe. 

It also remains unclear what is beyond Pluto in the Kuiper belt, which the second phase of the New Horizons will arrive at in 2019. One of the six believed moon type objects has already been spotted and a new planet Niku is on a 110 degrees plane between Neptune and Pluto. Meanwhile this small world is blue and is travelling backwards to the normal pattern of all the other planets rotation around the Sun.

The problems with Interstellar travel is the possibility of another rocky domain well beyond the Kuiper Belt that would be like a mine field to exit the Solar system, there is also believed to be another planet known as X9 somewhere out there with a very large gravity field?