The Planet of Doubt Jupiter and Saturn and on the surface of Uranus itself. At the time "The Planet of Doubt" takes place at the turn of the 22nd century, the limited range of the spaceships ensures that Uranus can only be reached from the American base on Titan when Saturn reaches conjunction with Uranus, an event that occurs once every forty years. The Young expedition explored the planet's south pole in 2060; now Hammond takes his ship, the "Gaea", to the north pole. Finding an ocean at the north pole, Hammond sends the "Gaea" spiraling southeast until they reach land. They find the
1184 Gaea Strackea was named. 1184 Gaea 1184 Gaea, provisional designation , is an Aerian asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 5 September 1926, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named after the goddess of Earth, Gaea (Gaia), from Greek mythology. "Gaea" is a member of the small Aeria family (), named after its parent body 369 Aeria. It orbits the Sun in the central main-belt at a distance of 2.5–2.9 AU once every 4 years and 4 months (1,592 days).