Rosetta and New Horizons set for Gravity Assists

Hi,

On sunday (25-2-07) next ESA's Rosetta probe gets a gravity assist during it's fly-by of Mars on the long journey to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014.

The following wednesday (28-2-07) NASA's New Horizons probe will get a gravity assist at Jupiter enroute to Pluto in 2015. This will be the eighth probe to pass near Jupiter. A little teaser: can you name them ? (try figuring out this yourself - if you can't you can always look at Wiki).


Their will be some scientific return from both probes during their fly-bys as they calibrate their instruments.

John

Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Cassini, Ulysses (I think), Galileo, New Horizons...

...oh, and hardly the Discovery from 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Hi,

Yes, Seanie thats it. Always useful info for a quiz! Ulysses used Jupiter's Gravity to swing it out of the plane of the ecliptic, something that would have very expensive in energy terms.

John

I thought you were going to say there were a few more! Hey, is there a prize? A free subscription to Orbit or something?