AVIATR - Titan Airplane Mission Concept, Proposed unmanned aerial exploration of Titan |
AVIATR - Titan Airplane Mission Concept, Proposed unmanned aerial exploration of Titan |
Apr 16 2010, 12:20 AM
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
The AVIATR mission concept is an unmanned aerial vehicle that would fly over Titan’s surface. It’s nominal one year mission would enable detailed high-resolution images of Titan’s diverse landscapes for better comparison to Earth’s geological processes. Selected regions could be imaged at resolutions near 30 cm/pixel, equivalent to current HiRise imaging of Mars. In addition, atmospheric sampling would allow a profile of Titan’s thick lower atmosphere and how it relates to Earth’s atmospheric processes and weather systems.
Further details of the AVIATR mission concept were presented at the Lunar and Planetary Sciences Conference 2010 and at Titan Through Time 2010. See: Barnes et al. LPSC 41 (2010) Abstract 2551. “AVIATR: Aerial Vehicle for In-situ and Airborne Titan Reconnaissance.” Freely available here: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2010/pdf/2551.pdf And also: http://www.info.uidaho.edu/documents/2010%...18467&doc=1 -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Dec 23 2011, 11:25 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 131 Joined: 30-August 06 From: Moscow, Idaho Member No.: 1086 |
The AVIATR team has published a paper about the mission concept in Experimental Astronomy that's just come out online. You can download it here if you're interested.
- Jason |
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Dec 24 2011, 06:02 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 715 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
Jason - Has your team every looked into including a small relay orbiter with the mission? At an estimated cost of ~$700M, you would seem to have ~$300M for a satellite for a New Frontiers mission. Given that the JET orbiter was a Discovery proposal ($425M) and assuming some common costs, $300M doesn't seem too far off. I presume a relay orbiter would increase data return by a couple of orders of magnitude.
Of course, we need to get Titan added to the list of New Frontiers targets... -------------------- |
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