Mercury Landers |
Mercury Landers |
Aug 15 2005, 03:36 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 212 Joined: 19-July 05 Member No.: 442 |
While the likelyhood of a Mercury Lander mission is very low, I was wondering if any planning/studies have been done on such a project?
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Nov 26 2005, 06:14 PM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 903 Joined: 30-January 05 Member No.: 162 |
Just throwing out some ideas, may be helpful in the long run.
The amazing trajectory Messenger is taking to Mercury would be reversible, wouldn't it? I'm thinking an orbiter/lander could be sent to Mercury (granted this part is going to be heavy) to study the planet, and the lander could collect some surface samples and put them into orbit around Mercury. A retreiver craft could be sent to collect the samples and then return to earth via a reversed version of the Messenger flight plan. The key to making this work is that you set it up so that as much of the delta v as possible is provided by gravity assists from Earth, Venus, and Mercury for all the spacecraft involved in the mission. Also, To expand on some of the ideas posted in this thread, could a kevlar net orbiting Mercury (tethered to a shielded orbiter) 'snag' debris from a plume generated from an impactor craft? This might be a 'cheap and dirty' way of retrieving materials from the surface of Mercury as part of mission to return them to earth. |
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Nov 26 2005, 06:30 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
QUOTE (tasp @ Nov 26 2005, 07:14 PM) Just throwing out some ideas, may be helpful in the long run. The amazing trajectory Messenger is taking to Mercury would be reversible, wouldn't it? I'm thinking an orbiter/lander could be sent to Mercury (granted this part is going to be heavy) to study the planet, and the lander could collect some surface samples and put them into orbit around Mercury. A retreiver craft could be sent to collect the samples and then return to earth via a reversed version of the Messenger flight plan. The key to making this work is that you set it up so that as much of the delta v as possible is provided by gravity assists from Earth, Venus, and Mercury for all the spacecraft involved in the mission. Also, To expand on some of the ideas posted in this thread, could a kevlar net orbiting Mercury (tethered to a shielded orbiter) 'snag' debris from a plume generated from an impactor craft? This might be a 'cheap and dirty' way of retrieving materials from the surface of Mercury as part of mission to return them to earth. The killer with Mercury landings - not counting the interplanetary stuff, where perhaps there might be *reverse* slingshots to be had with some clever planning - is that as it's an airless body you're limited to rocket-based descents. Add the cost of transporting your fuel for ascent and there are some quite rapid diminishing returns! Of course, if there's ice at the poles, in-situ fuel might be an option - otherwise, the 'smash and grab' mission seems about the only game in town! Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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Nov 27 2005, 04:42 PM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 688 Joined: 20-April 05 From: Sweden Member No.: 273 |
QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ Nov 26 2005, 08:30 PM) The killer with Mercury landings - not counting the interplanetary stuff, where perhaps there might be *reverse* slingshots to be had with some clever planning - is that as it's an airless body you're limited to rocket-based descents. Add the cost of transporting your fuel for ascent and there are some quite rapid diminishing returns! Of course, if there's ice at the poles, in-situ fuel might be an option - otherwise, the 'smash and grab' mission seems about the only game in town! Bob Shaw The best and fastest way to acquire Mercury samples is almost certainly to search for meteorites here on Earth. I'm reminded of an old saying in paleontological circles: "The best place to find unknown fossil species is in museum drawers". tty |
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Nov 27 2005, 09:20 PM
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#5
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Member Group: Members Posts: 270 Joined: 29-December 04 From: NLA0: Member No.: 133 |
QUOTE (tty @ Nov 27 2005, 05:42 PM) The best and fastest way to acquire Mercury samples is almost certainly to search for meteorites here on Earth. But that wouldn't be as interesting. The great thing about a sample return mission is that you can select the rocks that you'll be researching. There are a lot of Martian meteorites, but we would learn at lot more if we could get our hands on some Meridiani Planum sedimentary rocks. -------------------- PDP, VAX and Alpha fanatic ; HP-Compaq is the Satan! ; Let us pray daily while facing Maynard! ; Life starts at 150 km/h ;
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