Previous Year Question
Which of the following pairs is/are correctly matched?
Spacecrafts | Purposes | |
1. | Cassini-Huygens | Orbiting Venus and transmitting data to the Earth |
2. | Messenger | Mapping and investigating Mercury |
3. | Voyager 1 and 2 | Exploring the outer solar system |
Select the correct answer using the codes given below.
Only 1
2 and 3
1 and 3
All of these
Correct Answer: B
Detailed Solution
Pair 1 is not correctly matched.
The target of the Cassini-Huygens mission was not Venus but Saturn and its satellite system.
The Cassini spacecraft studied Saturn, its rings and its moons.
The Huygens probe landed on the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in January 2005.
The Cassini mission ended on 15 September 2017 with a controlled entry into Saturn’s atmosphere.
Pair 2 is correctly matched.
MESSENGER stands for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging.
It was the first spacecraft to enter orbit around Mercury.
It mapped Mercury’s surface and studied its composition, geology, magnetic field and extremely thin exosphere.
Its mission ended in 2015 with a controlled impact on Mercury’s surface.
Pair 3 is correctly matched.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977 to explore the outer solar system.
Voyager 1 studied Jupiter and Saturn.
Voyager 2 studied Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and remains the only spacecraft to have flown past Uranus and Neptune.
After completing their planetary exploration, both spacecraft began studying interstellar space under the Voyager Interstellar Mission.