page_title: Trident (spacecraft)
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Trident (spacecraft) / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: PIA23874: Trident: Exploring the Mysteries of Triton https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA23874 A new mission competing for selection under NASA's Discovery Program would explore Neptune's largest moon, Triton, which is potentially an ocean world with liquid water under its icy crust. Trident aims to answer the questions outlined in the graphic illustration above. The questions fall under Trident's three main goals. The first goal is to explore the factors that lead to a solar system body having the necessary ingredients — including water — to be habitable. A second goal is to explore vast, unseen lands. Most of what we know of the moon came from Voyager 2 data. But we've only seen 40% of the moon's surface; Trident would map most of the remainder. Trident's third major goal: to understand how Triton's surface keeps renewing itself. The surface is remarkably young, geologically speaking (possibly only 10 million years old in a 4.6-billion-year-old solar system) and has almost no visible craters. The Trident team is one of four developing concept studies for new missions. Up to two will be selected by summer 2021 to become a full-fledged mission and will launch later in the decade.
context_page_description: Trident is a space mission concept to the outer planets proposed in 2019 to NASA's Discovery Program. The concept includes flybys of Jupiter and Neptune with a focus on Neptune's largest moon Triton.
  In 2020, Trident was selected along with three other Discovery proposals for further study, with one or two expected to be selected to fly. Up to two will be selected by summer 2021 to become a full-fledged mission and will launch later in the decade. The proposed launch date in October 2025 would take advantage of a once-in-a-13-year window, when Earth is properly aligned with Jupiter. The spacecraft would use the gravitational pull of Jupiter as a slingshot straight to Triton for an extended 13-day encounter in 2038.
context_section_description: Trident takes advantage of an efficient gravity assist alignment of Jupiter and Neptune (that occurs once every 13 years) to capitalize on a narrow observational window that enables assessment of changes in Triton's plume activity and surface characteristics since the previous encounter of Neptune-Triton by Voyager 2 in 1989. 
  With the advances of high-resolution imaging and a unique orbital configuration of Triton in 2038, Trident would be able to obtain a near-complete map of the Neptune's moon during its sole flyby. Trident would pass through Triton's thin atmosphere, within 500 km (310 mi) of the surface, sampling its ionosphere with a plasma spectrometer and perform magnetic induction measurements to assess the potential existence of an internal ocean. The principal investigator is Louise Prockter, director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, Texas.
  The launch vehicle proposed for Trident is the Atlas V 401, if it is not replaced with the Vulcan.
caption: Neptune Moon Triton - Proposed Trident Mission (16 June 2020)
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