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A town in the Austrian Alps might not seem like the most conducive place to come up with daring space missions. But, for the last 40 years, students and professors have been gathering to do just that in Alpbach, just north of the Lichtenstein\/Austrian border. One outcome of the Alpbach Summer School this year was an idea for a combined Neptune \/ Triton explorer mission to take advantage of existing technology developed for the JUICE missions. Before we get into the technical details of the mission, though, let\u2019s dive into why scientists should care about the Neptunian system in the first place.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The last time we visited Neptune was with Voyager 2 back in 1989, and it was launched 12 years before that in 1977. Technology has advanced significantly since then, and the limited amount of data Voyager collected at Neptune provided exciting insights into the planet. For example, its magnetosphere is tilted by 47 degrees. Also, Neptune\u2019s interior remains opaque, with our best guess being that it differs from the other gas giants. However, a lack of data makes further speculation difficult.<\/p>\n Triton, Neptune\u2019s moon, is also interesting in its own right. It has a retrograde orbit, which implies that it is a captured Trans-Neptunian Object rather than a moon that formed from some violent event on Neptune itself. It shows a significant amount of geological activity and shot a series of dark plumes into space during Voyager\u2019s flyby, whose composition remains unknown.<\/p>\n \n