March OPAG presentations available |
March OPAG presentations available |
Apr 8 2008, 09:37 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 706 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 17 2008, 03:56 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 307 Joined: 16-March 05 Member No.: 198 |
After reading the proposal for the Jovian OPF mission at the OPAG site what strikes me most is that it's really three separate missions bundled together and presented as one OPF! Not only would NASA, ESA, and JAXA each have their own orbiter, each of those orbiters would be launched on separate launch vehicles at (maybe widely varying) occasions.
Granted that each of those orbiters would have differing goals, but then that's hardly the point! Consider NASA's contribution, the Europan Orbiter. The report estimates it will cost $2.4 billion. Unfortunately, NASA only has $2.1 billion in the kitty to pay for it (which in turn has, not unnaturally, produced what I take to be a certain amount of handwringing). However, instead of ESA and JAXA riding to the rescue to make up the shortfall they will instead be spending their money on their own orbiters. Indeed if the ESA and JAXA will be contributing anything (other than science personnel) to the EO it is not spelt out in that document as far as I can make out. That is not say all three orbiters are not exciting, worthwhile endeavours, but is that really the way these international space missions are supposed to work? On the face of it it's difficult to call this one an international mission at all. With all due respect to those who put that presentation together it looks more like three national missions bundled together for marketing purposes. ====== Stephen |
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Apr 17 2008, 05:48 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 706 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
On the face of it it's difficult to call this one an international mission at all. With all due respect to those who put that presentation together it looks more like three national missions bundled together for marketing purposes. ====== Stephen I would disagree. Each mission addresses key areas of Jovian science that no single craft can. One orbits Europa. Another conducts long term studies of Io and Jupiter and possibly orbits Ganymede. Another studies the magnetosphere in a second location, which has been a long term goal of the fields and particles community for Jupiter. Instrument development and science teams would be shared across all three missions. -------------------- |
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