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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#1
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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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Apr 16 2010, 12:23 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
This is an artist's impression of the AVIATR airplane flying over a northern Titan lake:
This image was the background for the LPSC and Titan Through Time AVIATR mission poster. -Mike Link to a full size graphic here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/4524067323/ -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Apr 16 2010, 12:33 AM
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#3
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8784 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
...niiiiiiiice!!!! Sweet image, Mike, and that's an exciting concept!
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Apr 16 2010, 06:08 AM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 706 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
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Apr 20 2010, 03:14 AM
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#5
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Image showing the proposed AVIATR Titan airplane flying over mountainous bright terrain:
Higher resolution here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/4536966474/ Full resolution detail of the AVIATR aircraft here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/...in/photostream/ (I've no clue why the thumbnail looks fuzzy.) -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Apr 30 2010, 01:12 PM
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#6
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Recent video showing NASA's Global Hawk UAV research platform:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qyiwt1_68 Also a TED talk by Joel Levine describing the Mars ARES UAV proposed mission: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/joel_levine.html -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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May 20 2010, 05:35 PM
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#7
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Smithsonian Air and Space article on Titan AVIATR mission:
http://www.airspacemag.com/space-explorati...itan-Air-.html# -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Jun 13 2010, 03:32 AM
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#8
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Video of Jason Barnes presenting the AVIATR mission concept during the Huygens legacy conference Jan 15, 2010:
http://vimeo.com/11432536 -------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Jun 17 2010, 01:44 PM
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#9
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 2785 Joined: 10-November 06 From: Pasadena, CA Member No.: 1345 |
Future Planetary Exploration blog entry on AVIATR mission details: http://futureplanets.blogspot.com/2010/06/aviatr-titan-plane-details.html
-------------------- Some higher resolution images available at my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31678681@N07/
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Jun 23 2010, 01:30 PM
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#10
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Member Group: Members Posts: 656 Joined: 20-April 05 From: League City, Texas Member No.: 285 |
I'm really bothered by the very low (2 Gb) projected data return. This just doesn't sound like a lot of return for a billion dollar investment. Even with compression, 2 Gb doesn't add up to a lot of images (try going on vacation with only a 2 Gb flash card for your digicam), and this mission has the potential to explore much of Titan. Also, the 30 cm/pixel maximum resolution of the surface is on par with what I would expect from an orbiter, not an aircraft. I'd be reasonably happy with 3 mm per pixel (presumably associated with occasional low passes over targets of interest), and I'd like to see data return increased by at least a factor of 10, preferably 100. Possibly the greater data return might be achieved by storing much of the data until near end of mission, then achieving an intact landing and then leisurely transmitting the remainder over a period of months or years; I could even envision adding a very lightweight parabolic antenna to be deployed post-landing to accelerate data return.
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Jun 23 2010, 04:16 PM
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#11
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14433 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
You're not going to get 30cm resolution from orbit around Titan. Furthermore, you're not going to get 3mm resolution from an aircraft. Infact, I've never ever heard of an aircraft getting 3mm/pixel on EARTH, let alone on Titan. Google Earth imagery is mainly aerial photography, and is typically at about 25cm/pixel - maybe 12.5cm in some places. That's still a factor of 40 (1600x fewer pixels) lower than the 3mm you're suggesting. If you COULD - you wouldn't need a 10 or 100 fold increase in data return - you would need 10,000 fold increase.
Covering just 0.1% of Titan's surface at 3mm/pixel, at 8 bits per pixel, with 10:1 compression? 83,000 sqkm. At 72 Gigabits per sqkm. 5,976 TERRABITS of data. At 30cm/pixel 0.0072 Gigabits per sqKm. 598 Gigabits. MRO with it's huge high gain antenna, in our back-garden at Mars (compared to a flight to Titan) has sent back just 42 Gigabits of data to date. I'm afraid your expectations are unrealistic, and your engineering suggestions are just in the wrong place in terms of complexity, feasibility etc given the budget, mass, volume etc. If we're going to go back to Titan, I don't think AVIATR is the way to do it. The way to do it is with TSSM, so you can have the montgolfière + an orbiter for relay. You're still not going to get anywhere near your requirements. But you've going to get a lot more data, that's for sure. |
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Jun 23 2010, 04:52 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1585 Joined: 14-October 05 From: Vermont Member No.: 530 |
Note that the figure is two gigabytes, and calling it 2 Gb rather than the correct 2 GB reduces the figure by a factor of eight to some eyes.
And 2 GB can be thousands of compressed photos. And they will be choosing the best from thumbnails, they say, which does sort of admit the data return would ideally be higher. |
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Jun 23 2010, 05:08 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 293 Joined: 29-August 06 From: Columbia, MD Member No.: 1083 |
MRO with it's huge high gain antenna, in our back-garden at Mars (compared to a flight to Titan) has sent back just 42 Gigabits of data to date. Doug...You're way low with the MRO data return. I'm analyzing MCS data, and there's about 20GB of MCS data publically available alone. This article says that by March, 100 TERABITS of data had been returned by MRO. http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/mro-d...one-100315.html |
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Jun 23 2010, 06:00 PM
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#14
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14433 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
I was going from http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/ (bottom left corner ) - but you're right, that widget's clearly WAY out of date. Perhaps they mean 142Tb
Still - the point I was making (even the very highest downlink in planetary exploration is a LOT less than the requirements algorimancer was trying to place on a Titan aircraft.) holds true. |
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Jun 23 2010, 06:25 PM
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#15
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Member Group: Members Posts: 293 Joined: 29-August 06 From: Columbia, MD Member No.: 1083 |
I was going from http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/ (bottom left corner ) - but you're right, that widget's clearly WAY out of date. Perhaps they mean 142Tb Still - the point I was making (even the very highest downlink in planetary exploration is a LOT less than the requirements algorimancer was trying to place on a Titan aircraft.) holds true. Perhaps you need to hit refresh . When I load that page, it says 115.7 TB. Your point was correct, I agree. |
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