March OPAG presentations available |
March OPAG presentations available |
Apr 8 2008, 09:37 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 715 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/march_08_meeting/agenda.html
LOTS of interesting material here. Some highlights that interested me: Cassini extended-extended mission (XXM) could last 7 years and end with a series of very close (10,000's km) polar orbits through the D ring gap to enable close in gravity and magnetometer mapping a la Juno Argo proposal would be a New Horizon's class fly by of a Trojan, Saturn, Neptune/Triton, and one or more KBOs for ~$800M (but requires radioactive power source, so would seem to be out of contention for next New Frontiers) Joint Jupiter mission design. NASA supplied Europa orbiter now required to conduct Jupiter system science including up to 4 Io flybys. To fit within the $2.1B cap (with 33% margin), Europa orbit would be reduced to 60 days and several instruments from the Flagship proposal would be dropped including the narrow angle camera) Titan mission. Aerocapture no longer allowed, so craft would enter Saturn orbit first. Potentially allows new Enceladus observations. (Editorial note: Presentation was long on concepts, short on specifics. If this is an indication of the maturity of the mission concept, this does not bode well. I hope that this is only the style of presentation chosen by the presenter). Nature of ESA in situ probe(s) to be decided. ESA Cosmic Vision outer planet mission. ESA is considering three missions for the next cosmic vision mission: an outer planets joint mission with NASA (Jupiter or Titan/Saturn), XEUS (X-ray observatory), or LISA (gravity wave observatory). Down select to two of the three end of '09, final single mission selected in 2011. Radioisotope power. Lots of technical update, but a gem in the backup, the ASRG (Sterling engine) mission concepts being studied in more detail than I've seen elsewhere: Moon polar rover (2 concepts) Titan boat(!) Io observer Trojan lander Comet lander Comet coma rendezvou sample return Mars lander drill ("a tour through Martian history") Venus balloons (2) -------------------- |
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Apr 14 2008, 04:22 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 715 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
This week's Aviation Week as an article about the two outer planet Flagship proposals. The description of the Titan mission suggests that the orbiter would not orbit Titan, only Saturn. The OPAG presentation clearly says that the orbiter would orbit Titan after Saturn system studies. So, Aviation Week may be wrong, or this could be a new plan to fit within the budget and mass cap. (I hope the article is wrong!)
Here is the description from AW: Titan/Saturn System Mission (TSSM) would image the lakes, streams and other extraordinary terrain of Saturn’s enigmatic moon, which is covered in organics—the building blocks of early life. The mission would center on a “Montgolfier” hot air balloon that would float for perhaps two years at low altitude in Titan’s methane atmosphere. The imaging balloon would also carry two or three surface probes with two-day lifetimes that could be dropped on areas of special interest. One probe, the methane lake boat, or submarine, would explore one of the most bizarre surfaces in the solar system. A companion TSSM orbiter would orbit Saturn and focus on Enceladus -------------------- |
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Apr 14 2008, 07:50 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 613 Joined: 23-February 07 From: Occasionally in Columbia, MD Member No.: 1764 |
This week's Aviation Week as an article about the two outer planet Flagship proposals. The description of the Titan mission suggests that the orbiter would not orbit Titan, only Saturn. The OPAG presentation clearly says that the orbiter would orbit Titan after Saturn system studies. So, Aviation Week may be wrong, or this could be a new plan to fit within the budget and mass cap. (I hope the article is wrong!) Here is the description from AW:.....A companion TSSM orbiter would orbit Saturn and focus on Enceladus[/i] I think AW has garbled this (maybe got mixed up with what *had* been proposed for TANDEM last year, and what is being planned in the Joint NASA-ESA TSSM study) TSSM would eventually enter orbit around Titan. Still being worked how long it would orbit Saturn (and encounter Enceladus) before it does so. |
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