Le celebrazioni inizieranno nella seconda metà del 2011. Per l’occasione la Nasa sta organizzando quello che è stato definito 'The Year of the Solar System', ossia 'Un anno di sistema solare'. La ragione della commemorazione è che un ciclo annuale terrestre corrisponde a 23 mesi dell’anno marziano, durante i quali si stanno mettendo a punto numerosi lanci spaziali, voli planetari ed esplorazioni orbitali.

L’agenzia spaziale americana, dunque, sta triplicando la consueta mole di missioni che, periodicamente, si svolgono nello spazio. I prossimi due anni sono stati definiti da Jim Green, direttore del Dipartimento di Scienza Planetaria della Nasa, come una nuova era per le esplorazioni spaziali.

Il programma avrà inizio da ottobre 2011 con il lancio del satellite EPOXI che approderà su di una cometa. Novembre sarà la volta della missione soprannominata dagli astrobiologi O/OREOS, finalizzata a testare la resistenza e la durata della vita nello spazio.

O/OREOS è l’acronimo di Organism/ORganic Exposure to Orbital Stresses ed in pratica si tratta di una ‘scatola’ spaziale che ospiterà un gruppo di molecole e di microbi. Questi saranno esposti alle radiazioni solari e cosmiche al fine di analizzare i risultati e le eventuali modifiche da essi subìti. L’idea ha preso spunto dal ritrovamento, da parte di alcuni scienziati, di molecole organiche nello spazio interstellare. Obiettivo della Nasa è quello di scoprire qualcosa di più sulla loro sopravvivenza.

O/OREOS sarà provvisto di una piccola vela solare che gli permetterà di ruotare attorno all’orbita terrestre. Questa vela, il cui nome è Nano Sail-D, rifletterà verso la Terra alcuni raggi solari che daranno vita al primo bagliore solare riflesso da una vela situata nello spazio. Questo sistema ha già avuto esiti positivi quando permise a LCROSS, il Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, di rilevare la presenza di acqua sul suolo lunare.

Infine, anche Venere sarà protagonista quando una navicella spaziale approderà sul suo suolo. Mentre su Giove giungerà una sonda a energia solare. In programma anche alcune missioni che provvederanno a tracciare una mappa lunare. Così Green in merito al progetto: “La storia ricorderà il periodo tra ottobre 2010 e agosto 2012 come l’epoca d’oro dell’esplorazione planetaria”.

Federica Vitale

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// initial checks if ((element.href == null) || (element.href.length < 1)) continue; if (avg_ls_does_url_contain(element.href, gAvgHostName)) continue; // don't mark anything but http:// if (element.href.indexOf("mailto") == 0) continue; if (element.parentNode) { var parentDiv = avg_ls_get_parent_div(element); if ((parentDiv.tagName == "DIV") && ((parentDiv.className == "ii gt") || // mail message body (parentDiv.className == "mv") || // top sponsored links (parentDiv.className == "vb") || // right sponsored links (parentDiv.className == "im") || // inside quotes (parentDiv.className == "gmail_quote") // quote )) // right ads { // parse for any ads var newHref = avg_ls_parse_ads(element.href); // add the image avg_ls_check_url(doc, element, newHref); } } } // recursively process all frames if (processFrames && doc.frames && (doc.frames.length > 0)) { for (var j = 0; j < doc.frames.length; j++) { // 'editable' frame it's probably a reply if (doc.frames[j].frameElement.className && (doc.frames[j].frameElement.className.indexOf("editable") != -1)) { continue; 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} function avg_ls_process_links(doc, processFrames) { if (avg_ls_valid_gmail_search(doc.location.href)) { // process the gmail links stopGmail = false; avg_ls_monitor_gmail(doc, processFrames); } } function avg_ls_reload(e) { avg_ls_process_links(document, true); } function avg_ls_onload(e) { if (timeoutId) { clearTimeout(timeoutId); timeoutId = null; } var doc = document; // set the event handler for the data element to listen for load/reloads var data_element = doc.getElementById("avglsdata"); if (data_element) { // save data element for use in later iframes gAvgDataElement = data_element; // rowexit event used to notify javascript of a page data load avg_ls_remove_event(data_element, "rowexit", avg_ls_reload); avg_ls_add_event(data_element, "rowexit", avg_ls_reload); // process links for the document avg_ls_process_links(doc, true); } } function avg_ls_get_anchors(doc) { return doc.getElementsByTagName("a"); } function avg_ls_call_func(doc, name, param1, param2, param3, param4, param5) { var avg_ls_data = null; 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