SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -A probe is a spacecraft that travels through space to collect science information. Probes do not have astronauts. Probes send data back to Earth for scientists to study. Sputnik 1 was the first probe to go into space.

Detailed explanation-2: -A space probe is an unpiloted, unmanned device sent to explore space and gather scientific information.

Detailed explanation-3: -Most probes are not designed to return to Earth. Some have landed on other planets! Others have flown past the planets and taken pictures of them for scientists to see. There are even some space probes that go into orbit around other planets and study them for a long time.

Detailed explanation-4: -The space shuttle is designed to simply ferry or “shuttle” people, satellites and other cargo between earth and space. It is a reusable spacecraft unlike any other that had come before it. It is a more efficient and economical vehicle as compared to its predecessors: capsules and rockets.

Detailed explanation-5: -A space probe is a robotic spacecraft that travels outside of Earth’s orbit and gathers information about distant planets and outer space. Space probes are designed to operate on their own, gathering data and sending it back to Earth for scientists to analyze. Scientists have sent probes in many directions in space.

Detailed explanation-6: -There are lunar (moon) probes, solar (sun) probes that measure solar radiation, and probes that investigate the terrain on rocky planets or the gases on gaseous planets. Introduce the Cassini space probe. Display the web page NASA: Cassini Solstice Mission-Inside the Spacecraft and explore the diagram together.