The Golden Age of Solar System Exploration As Messenger pulled into Mercury orbit last week. I was reminded of Carl Sagan's description of the modern era of solar system exploration as the ``Golden Age of Exploration'' I am taking an introductory astronomy course at a local university and I just finished the first 500 pages of the course text: Chaisson's _Astronomy Today_ (7th Ed) on the solar system. It dawned on me that almost everything I had read in the course text about solar system exploration had been discovered through satellite exploration since the mid-50s and shortly after my birth. Through over 30 planetary missions by many countries, through the United States and Russian lunar explorations of the 1960s and 1970s, by solar missions like Ulysses, SOHO and Solar A and B, and from comet and asteroid missions (such as Deep Impact, Stardust, NEAR, Giotto and Vega), our knowledge of the planets and their moons has exploded in the last 60 years. In the 1910s to 1920s, Mt. Wilson Observatory started a golden age of galactic exploration that revamped our understanding of structure of the universe. Similarly, between 1955 and the present, our understanding of the solar system has been completely revamped. I wonder if people in the Renaissance knew that they were living in special age of exploration, and if they took it for granted. - Clear Skies - Kurt Table: 50 years of satellite exploration of the solar system
From Chaisson, Astronomy Today, Table 4, and The-Moon-Wiki.
Notes: Moon missions are summarized by series and not individual missions per the Moon-wiki source. Only a few Earth missions (concerning the magnetosphere) are listed for brevity. Body Year Satellite Body Star Sun 1990-2009 Ulysses (US) Sun 1995inprg SOHO (ESA, US) Sun 1994inprg GGS Wind (US) Sun 1997inprg ACE (US) Sun 1998 TRACE (US) Sun 2006inprg STEREO A and B (US) Planets Mercury 1974-1975 Mariner 10 (US) Mercury 2008-2011 Messenger (US) in progress Venus 1967 Venera 4 (USSR) Venus 1970 Venera 7 (USSR) Venus 1978-1992 Pioneer Venus (US) Venus 1983 Venera 15 and 16 (USSR) Venus 1990-1994 Magellan (US) Venus 2006 Venus Express (ESA) Earth 1958 Explorers 1 and 3 (US) Earth 1979-1980 Magsat (US) Earth 2000-2005 IMAGE (US) Earth 2000inprg Cluster (ESA, US) Earth 2003-2007 Tan Ce 1 and 2 (ESA, China) Moon 1959 Pioneer 4 (US) Moon 1959-1976 Luna Series (USSR) Moon 1964-1965 Ranger Series (US) Moon 1965-1970 Zond Series (USSR) Moon 1966-1968 Surveyor (US) Moon 1966-1967 Lunar Orbiter Series (US) Moon 1967-1973 Explorer 35 (US) Moon 1968-1972 Apollo Series (US) Moon 1973 Mariner 10 (US) Moon 1990-1992 Galileo (US) Moon 1991-1993 Hiten (Japan) Moon 1994 Clementine (US) Moon 1998-1999 Lunar Prospector (US) Moon 2003-2006 SMART-1 (ESA) Moon 2007-2009 Kaguya (Japan) Moon 2007-2009 Chang'e-1 (China) Moon 2008-2009 Chandrayaan-1 (India, US) Moon 2009 LCROSS (US) Moon 2009inprg Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) (US) Moon 2010inprg Chang'e-2 2010 (China) Mars 1965 Mariner 4 (US) Mars 1969 Mariner 6,7 (US) Mars 1971 Mariner 9 (US) Mars 1976-1982 Viking 1,2 (US) Mars 1997 Mars Pathfinder (US) Mars 2001 Mars Odyssey (US) Mars 1997-2006 Mars Global Surveyor (US) Mars 2003- Mars Express (ESA) Mars 2004- Mars Exploration Rover (US) Mars 2006- Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter (US) Mars 2008 Mars Phoenix (US) Jupiter 1973 Pioneer 10 (US) Jupiter 1974 Pioneer 11 (US) Jupiter 1979 Voyager 1 (US) Jupiter 1995-2003 Galileo (US) Saturn 1979 Pioneer 11 (US) Saturn 1981 Voyager 1 (US) Saturn 1982 Voyager 2 (US) Saturn 2004- Cassini Huygens (US, ESA) Uranus 1986 Voyager 2 (US) Neptune 1989 Voyager 2 (US) Dwarf planets Ceres 2015inprogress Dawn (US) Pluto 2015inprogress New Horizons (US) Comets and Asteroids Halley's Comet 1986 Vega 2 (USSR) Halley's Comet 1986 Giotto (ESA, Japan) Wild 2 Comet 2006 Stardust (US) Tempel 1 Comet 2005 Deep Impact (US) 433 Eros Asteroid 2001 NEAR Shoemaker (US) 25143 Itokawa Asteroid 2005 Hayabusa 2005 (Japan) Vesta Asteroid 2011 Dawn (US) in progress July-2011