Lunch Hour Lectures - Spring 2011 - Episode 10: Landing on a planet at 600 miles per hour Unmanned robotic missions are essential for understanding the planets within our solar system. Current missions comprise of gentle landings combined with rovers to explore the local region. Due to the expense of such missions, and their sometimes unsuitability as scientific outposts, UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory is developing Planetary Penetrators, which aim to land on planets at very high speed, penetrating the planet and implanting equipment just below the surface. Vintage Podcasts - Lunch Hour Lectures

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9/27/2023

The SMILE mission: A novel way to explore solar-terrestrial interactions G. Branduardi-Raymont (MSSL/UCL, UK), C. Wang (NSSC/CAS, China) and the SMILE collaboration The coupling between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere-ionosphere system, and the geospace dynamics that result, comprise some of the key questions in space plasma physics. In situ measurements by a fleet of solar wind and magnetospheric missions, current and planned, can provide the most detailed observations of the Sun-Earth connections. However, we are still unable to quantify the global effects of the drivers of such connections, and to monitor their evolution with time. This information is the key missing link for developing a comprehensive understanding of how the Sun gives rise to and controls the Earth's plasma environment and space weather. SMILE (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) is a novel self-standing mission dedicated to observing the solar wind - magnetosphere coupling via simul

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5/29/2020