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AVIATR - Aerial Vehicle for In-situ and Airborne Titan Reconnaissance A Titan Airplane Mission ConceptWe describe a mission concept for a stand-alone Titan airplane mission: Aerial Vehicle for In-situ and Airborne Titan Reconnaissance (AVIATR). With independent delivery and direct-to-Earth communications, AVIATR could contribute to Titan science either alone or as part of a sustained Titan Exploration Program. As a focused mission, AVIATR as we have envisioned it would concentrate on the science that an airplane can do best: exploration of Titan's global diversity. We focus on surface geology/hydrology and lower-atmospheric structure and dynamics. With a carefully chosen set of seven instruments-2 near-IR cameras, 1 near-IR spectrometer, a RADAR altimeter, an atmospheric structure suite, a haze sensor, and a raindrop detector-AVIATR could accomplish a significant subset of the scientific objectives of the aerial element of flagship studies. The AVIATR spacecraft stack is composed of a Space Vehicle (SV) for cruise, an Entry Vehicle (EV) for entry and descent, and the Air Vehicle (AV) to fly in Titan's atmosphere. Using an Earth-Jupiter gravity assist trajectory delivers the spacecraft to Titan in 7.5 years, after which the AVIATR AV would operate for a 1-Earth-year nominal mission. We propose a novel 'gravity battery' climb-then-glide strategy to store energy for optimal use during telecommunications sessions. We would optimize our science by using the flexibility of the airplane platform, generating context data and stereo pairs by flying and banking the AV instead of using gimbaled cameras. AVIATR would climb up to 14 km altitude and descend down to 3.5 km altitude once per Earth day, allowing for repeated atmospheric structure and wind measurements all over the globe. An initial Team-X run at JPL priced the AVIATR mission at FY10 $715M based on the rules stipulated in the recent Discovery announcement of opportunity. Hence we find that a standalone Titan airplane mission can achieve important science building on Cassini's discoveries and can likely do so within a New Frontiers budget.
Document ID
20140011539
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Barnes, Jason W.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Lemke, Lawrence
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Foch, Rick
(Naval Research Lab. Washington, DC, United States)
McKay, Christopher P.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Beyer, Ross A.
(Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Inst. Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Radebaugh, Jani
(Brigham Young Univ. Provo, UT, United States)
Atkinson, David H.
(Idaho Univ. Moscow, ID, United States)
Lorenz, Ralph D.
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
LeMouelic, Stephane
(Nantes Univ. France)
Rodriguez, Sebastien
(Paris Univ. France)
Gundlach, Jay
(Aurora Flight Sciences Corp. Manassas, VA, United States)
Giannini, Francesco
(Aurora Flight Sciences Corp. Manassas, VA, United States)
Bain, Sean
(Naval Research Lab. Washington, DC, United States)
Flasar, F. Michael
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Hurford, Terry
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Anderson, Carrie M.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Merrison, Jon
(Aarhus Univ. Denmark)
Adamkovics, Mate
(California Univ. Berkeley, CA, United States)
Kattenhorn, Simon A.
(Idaho Univ. Moscow, ID, United States)
Mitchell, Jonathan
(California Univ. Los Angeles, CA, United States)
Burr, Devon M.
(Tennessee Univ. Knoxville, TN, United States)
Colaprete, Anthony
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA United States)
Schaller, Emily
(Arizona Univ. Tucson, AZ, United States)
Friedson, A. James
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Edgett, Kenneth S.
(Malin Space Science Systems San Diego, CA, United States)
Coradini, Angioletta
(Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziale (INAF-IAPS) Rome, Italy)
Adriani, Alberto
(Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziale (INAF-IAPS) Rome, Italy)
Sayanagi, Kunio M.
(California Univ. Los Angeles, CA, United States)
Malaska, Michael J.
(SCYNEXIS, Inc. Research Triangle Park, NC, United States)
Morabito, David
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Reh, Kim
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
September 10, 2014
Publication Date
December 20, 2011
Publication Information
Publication: Experimental Astronomy
Publisher: Springerlink
Volume: 33
Issue: 1
Subject Category
Astronomy
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN8884
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: SAA2401923
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
UAV
Airplane
Mission Concept
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