Kaila Sinclair

Topic: Ariel

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It is a beneficial idea to send a rover to investigate the moon, Ariel, as nearly everything we know about it was discovered by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986 and no rover has ever been sent there. Ariel was first discovered by William Lasselle in 1851 October 24th and is also one of the 25 moons of Uranus and is the second nearest of the five major moons of Uranus. Ariel is also the 14th largest moon in the solar system.

A rover could help us receive more current information about the moon’s icy surfaces and its’ interconnected valleys and ravines. The moon takes about 60 hours to make a full orbit around Uranus, making it easy to land a spot, and will not have to wait long for the moon to complete its orbit. Ariel also has a diameter of 1,155 kilometres so we will only need approximately four to five months to explore and evaluate the moon.

Furthermore, Ariel offers the opportunity to explore the depths of the ravines that can reach up to 10 kilometres deep, letting us evaluate the chances of living there in the future. This also allows us to create a map of interconnected maze of valleys and crevices that the moon Ariel has.
If we are able to discover more about this moon, we could find many unknown objects and substances in the labyrinth of valleys Ariel has. Therefore, the idea of sending a rover to the moon Ariel is extremely beneficial for the future of humans and our knowledge of the moons of Uranus.