Neptune Essay, Research Paper

Andrea Rhodes

P.1 11/5/01

NEPTUNE

I have been selected as one of five people to go on a mission to Neptune; we are to attempt to gather rock samples from two moons, Triton and the very irregular shaped moon Proteus. We also must gather samples from, the rings of Neptune and we need to gather readings on the three major storms on Neptune (the small dark spot, the great dark spot and scooter.

It’s December 30, 2007 and we took off today. With new technology we should reach Triton on August 2, 2008. Take off was fairly rough but once we got out of the atmosphere it was smooth and beautiful. We were given enough rations to last nearly four years. The next nineteen months we will be preparing all the necessary items for the arrival at Triton, and making sure navigation is precise.

It’s August 3, 2008 and we’ve started gathering the rocks from Triton our long journey is nearing the half waypoint. In our travel to Triton we experience some navigation trouble due to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. We had to do some reconfiguring but we managed to make it here on schedule in a few days we should be heading towards Proteus to gather rock and other samples from there.

Its now November 15, 2008 and we are orbiting Neptune it’s the one of the greatest sites I’ve ever seen. With its diameter of 49528kms and a mass of1.02×10^26kg,its absolutely enormous its practically unfathomable. I have seen the three storms and they are immense in size, the great dark spot is near the same diameter as the earth. The most stunning part of Neptune is its rings. There are five distinct rings and one of the rings is twisted.

Today November 20, 2008 we launched three probes to descend in to the great dark spot to gather information. We are planning to send down three more 2 for the small great spot and one in scooter. After we have gathered information and observations, we will gather some ring samples we got permission for. Due to the fact that little is know about the composition of Neptune’s rings NASA like us to do research on the various rings.

Its now December30, 2008. One year ago we started this voyage and now we will start our trip home. After this long journey we have learned that Triton gets its pink color from a slowly evaporating layer of nitrogen ice, that Proteus’s shape is due to impact cratering, the composition of Neptune’s rings and that the three storms are like huge hurricanes the small dark spot rotates clock wise the large dark sport rotates counter clockwise and scooter has strong east ward winds.

1. http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/welcome/neptune

2. http://www.seds.org/billa/tnp/neptune.html

3. Webster’s illustrated encyclopedic dictionary published by Tormont publications Inc. 1990. pg 1138.