How infeasible is a Kuiper Belt equivalent of Dawn |
How infeasible is a Kuiper Belt equivalent of Dawn |
Nov 25 2008, 01:41 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 22 Joined: 3-January 07 Member No.: 1551 |
I presume that it is completely infeasible without a very powerful nuclear reactor and many years' production of ion engines to do anything remotely like Dawn in the Kuiper belt - the distances are just too long.
Is it in fact feasible with current technology even to get a probe into orbit around Haumea or Makemake? I'd suspect not, that the speed you need to get it out to the Kuiper belt in a lifetime is much too great to cancel down to orbital velocity. |
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Feb 23 2010, 09:00 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 796 Joined: 27-February 08 From: Heart of Europe Member No.: 4057 |
No. Some informations about this mission are in this paper and this is only paper which I found on net with some informations.
But I searched my personal archive and I have original paper about this mission (it's one of ESA ACT studies). It was freely available on net, but now It's somewhere in ESA archives. I don't know if I can send copy here, It's ESA copyrighted material. But at least some informations about this study: Pluto Orbiter Probe (POP): Wet mass: 830 kg. Dry mass: 510 kg. Power: 4×GPHS-like RTG (MMRTG) (1.05 kW at Pluto). Propulsion: 4×QinetiQ T5 ion engines with 270 kg of Xe. Communication: X/Ka band. 380 bps to 35 meter ESA antenna (Ka band). Instruments: Camera, near infrared spectrometer, X-ray spectrometer, radiation experiment, SAR, bolometer (20 kg). Launch: XII.2016 (enhanced Ariane 5). JGA: 2018. Pluto orbit: VI.2034 (after 1 year spiral down phase). Final orbit: Circular with a inclination 99°, altitude 1000 km, Charon visited on spiral-down phase. -------------------- |
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