Uranus Orbiter, The other proposed ice-giant mission |
Uranus Orbiter, The other proposed ice-giant mission |
Nov 11 2005, 05:13 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 509 Joined: 2-July 05 From: Calgary, Alberta Member No.: 426 |
Since the Neptune Orbiter thread has started to veer into talking about a Uranus orbiter as well, it seemed like a good idea to start a topic for Uranus.
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Guest_BruceMoomaw_* |
Nov 26 2005, 09:23 PM
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Guests |
The best way to orbit -- or land on -- either Pluto or Triton seems to be Angus McRonald's suggestion for a big, heat-resistant ballute dragged behind the spacecraft on a cable to serve as an aerobrake in their extremely faint atmospheres. His preliminary studies show this to be quite workable. There was a little bit of discussion on it at COMPLEX, but as they said it will require quite a bit of technological work as compared to simple heat-shield aerocapture, which is almost ready to go right now. McRonald himself has become a victim of Ames Research Center's rather unselective layoffs, but some groups at Knoxville and Purdue U. are studying the question further.
As for a Neptune orbital tour, the plan already worked up for Tom Spilker's JPL design team involves a lot of orbital flexibility, but no actual switch from retrograde to prograde orbit at any point in the tour. (By the way, a lightweight but scientifically useful Triton lander that does most of its braking by ballute is seriously considered for addition to the Neptune Orbiter mission, if NASA hits the really big money.) |
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