Future Planetary Exploration Options

[rlorenz]

How do you keep parts of the copter from getting "crudded up"? Like camera lenses, propeller axels etc. And boy, that antenna better work!

Like any other space mission (like rovers on dusty Mars, or the not insignificant challenges associated with a comet) the interactions of the vehicle with the environment need to be considered carefully - analysis, testing, covers, actuator performance margins etc.

[vjkane]

Like any other space mission (like rovers on dusty Mars, or the not insignificant challenges associated with a comet) the interactions of the vehicle with the environment need to be considered carefully - analysis, testing, covers, actuator performance margins etc.

I wonder if one strategy on Titan would be to simply heat the instrument's surface enough to melt and evaporate dust, mist, etc.

[vjkane]

Ralph, if you can say, I have a couple of questions after reading your great paper:

Would Dragonfly have a mast for the panoramic cameras? I see something that looks like it may be a folded down mast in the drawings of the lander

Your instrument list doesn't include an imaging spectrometer. Are the cameras multispectral, and if so does the team believe it could distinguish among broad surface types during flight (e.g., water ice, ammonia-rich water ice, carbon-rich sands) for the aerial surveys?

[rlorenz]

Ralph, if you can say,

No.

I appreciate your curiosity, but you'll understand
1) this paper is already extraordinarily detailed for a concept under competitive evaluation. You're welcome!
2) many implementation details may evolve during the Phase A study in any case

[monty python]

I wonder if one strategy on Titan would be to simply heat the instrument's surface enough to melt and evaporate dust, mist, etc.

I admit I don't know enough about titans cold organics, but I bet heating would help. I'm sure the people developing it will mitigate risk like crazy.

And even an examination of one site on the surface is great!

[nprev]

That's likely an interesting problem. Heating up Titanian surface material probably does volatilize it fairly rapidly, but the atmosphere is so dense that it may not waft away conveniently. Might be that some compounds dissociate and then recombine in fairly short order into other stuff, which may introduce additional issues.

Heating up Titanian materials and observing the results might be a productive line of experimentation all by itself.

[Gerald]

It must be an el dorado for all kinds of distilation, chromatography and fractional crystallization.

[Explorer1]

Big announcement tomorrow (4 PM EST)!: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-...-teleconference

We'll see if Titan or 67P gets graced with a visitor next....

[Hungry4info]

Dragonfly has been selected.

They'll land in the dune areas near Huygens, then make their way to Selk crater to the north-west.

[bkellysky]

That's likely an interesting problem. Heating up Titanian surface material probably does volatilize it fairly rapidly, but the atmosphere is so dense that it may not waft away conveniently. Might be that some compounds dissociate and then recombine in fairly short order into other stuff, which may introduce additional issues.

Heating up Titanian materials and observing the results might be a productive line of experimentation all by itself.

Yes, I thought the Huygens probe camera saw some waviness in the atmosphere after landing from volatilizing some of the surface. Reminded me of heat rising from a hot summer highway (although not as pronounced).
bob k

[Holder of the Tw...]

Southwest Research Institute has announced a significant improvement in their engineering models of a spacecraft lander sized geochronometer utilizing measurement of isotope ratios.

LINK: In Situ Dating Device