sciencetech-blog

comments

Sometimes it's easy to forget just how much of a presence humanity has in the solar system today.

Aside from the multitude of satellites in orbit around our own planet there are dozens of active and defunct spacecraft currently located all over the place.

And in this fantastic graphic created by Outer Places they've shown where almost all the active spacecraft in the solar system are, what they're doing and what their status is.

Scroll down for the full graphic

Outer Places has created a graphic that showcases the various active spacecraft currently in the solar system. This ranges from Nasa's Messenger spacecraft, the first ever to orbit Mercury, out to Voyager 1, which is now the first and only manmade object ever to reach interstellar space

The journey begins at Mercury where Nasa's Messenger, currently the closest spacecraft to the sun, is in orbit.

The Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging (Messenger) probe arrived in August 2011 and is the first ever to orbit Mercury.

Since its arrival it has been returning unprecedented images and data about the solar system's innermost planet.

Japan's Akatsuki spacecraft, meanwhile, failed in an attempt to orbit Venus in 2010 - but it might be able to try again in 2015.

Moving further out to the second planet from the sun, Venus, we find Esa's Venus Express.

This spacecraft entered orbit on 11 April 2006 and has since been performing extensive studies of the Venusian atmosphere.

A few days ago Esa announced it would attempt a daring plunge into the planet's hostile atmosphere in June in a last-gasp attempt at further science as the spacecraft runs out of fuel – and it's likely Venus Express will not survive the ordeal.

The busiest planet by some distance is Mars, which has been the subject of dozens of missions from various countries all over the world, starting with the Soviet Union back in the 1960s. Today there are three spacecraft in orbit, with two more joining later this year, and two active rovers on the surface: Opportunity and Curiosity

Next on the scale we have five spacecraft that are currently observing the sun: Stereo A and B, Ace, Soho and Wind.

Together, these spacecraft provide us not only with an opportunity to study the sun, but also with an early warning system that helps protect satellites when a solar flare erupts.

At Earth the graphic doesn't detail the hundreds of satellites in our around our planet – there are simply too many – but instead focuses on ISEE-3.

This is a defunct Nasa satellite that will be making its way past Earth next week – and amateur rocketeers are gearing up to try and take control of the spacecraft as it swings by in June.

At the moon, meanwhile, there are three orbiters: the twin Artemis P1 and P2 probes, which are measuring the effect of solar wind on the surface, and also the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which amongst various tasks is studying future landing sites for manned missions.

Not shown is China's Chang'e 3 lander, which landed on the surface in December 2013 and deployed a rover named Yutu that unfortunately experienced a malfunction and is currently lying dormant on the surface.

Mars is the busiest of the lot as various countries around the world clamour to understand more about the barren red planet that may hold clues about out future – or even our beginnings as we search for life on its surface.

In orbit are Nasa's hugely surrcessful Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, in tandem with Esa's equally impressive Mars Express mission.

All have provided us with stunning imagery of the surface of Mars, and some have even caught glimpses of rovers we have sent to the surface such as Curiosity.

September of this year will see two new arrivals – India's first mission to the red planet, Mangalayan, which is notable for being 'built on a shoestring budget.'

The other is Nasa's Maven mission, an advanced vehicle that will study the Martian atmosphere in great detail.

Moving out still, in the asteroid belt we find the Dawn spacecraft, which will become the first probe to visit the potentially water-harbouring dwarf planet Ceres in February 2015.

Arguably the most successful spacecraft humanity has ever sent into the unknown is Cassini. It arrived at the Saturnian system in 2004 and has since provided us with unprecedented data and images about this fascinating place. In 2017, however, the Cassini mission will end with the spacecraft being sent to its destruction in Saturn, with no additional mission to Saturn yet in the works

Towards Jupiter, meanwhile, Esa's Rosetta spacecraft is just weeks away from rendezvousing with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and will enter orbit later this year – the first spacecraft ever to do so.

Jupiter is currently devoid of any human presence but will be greeted by Nasa's solar-powered Juno in July 2016, the furthest a spacecraft will ever have operated on solar power alone.

Around Saturn is found one of the most successful spacecraft to date - Cassini - which has furthered our understanding of Saturn arguably more so than any probe around any planet.

Cassini has studied Saturn's fascinating moons, including sending the probe Huygens to the surface of Titan in 2005, and has revealed many secrets of the Saturnian system.

The next spacecraft of note is New Horizons - on 14 July 2015 it will become the first manmade object ever to visit the icy world Pluto.

And, finally, the last two active spacecraft are Nasa's Voyager 1 and 2 probes - both of these are on their way out of the solar system, although only the former is so far technically in interstellar space.