(September 16, 2015 at 4:14 am)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote: Would be much easier to send a probe to one of Jupiter's moons (e.g. Europa) for that purpose, by a big margin. Seems like they're close to one another, because of how far away they are from us and yet are "adjacent", but in fact, they are at 5.20 and 9.58 AU, making Jupiter closer to us (at 4.20 AU) than Saturn is to Jupiter (at 4.38 AU).
(Distances assume the planets are all "in a straight line", of course.)
Well yeah, at least where "easier" is substantially a proxy for "faster", especially considering that it's likely a mission to Saturn is going to involve a gravity assist from Jupiter.
Then again, why do one, when you can do both for (at least) twice the price?
