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Advanced Aerobots for Scientific ExplorationThe Picosat and Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Systems Engineering (PAUSE) project is developing balloon-borne instrumentation systems as aerobots for scientific exploration of remote planets and for diverse terrestrial purposes that can include scientific exploration, mapping, and military surveillance. The underlying concept of balloon-borne gondolas housing outer-space-qualified scientific instruments and associated data-processing and radio-communication equipment is not new. Instead, the novelty lies in numerous design details that, taken together, make a PAUSE aerobot smaller, less expensive, and less massive, relative to prior aerobots developed for similar purposes: Whereas the gondola (including the instrumentation system housed in it) of a typical prior aerobot has a mass of hundreds of kilograms, the mass of the gondola (with instrumentation system) of a PAUSE aerobot is a few kilograms.
Document ID
20100024430
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Other - NASA Tech Brief
Authors
Behar, Alberto
(California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Raymond, Carol A.
(California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Matthews, Janet B.
(California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Nicaise, Fabien
(California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Jones, Jack A.
(California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
July 1, 2010
Publication Information
Publication: NASA Tech Briefs, July 2010
Subject Category
Cybernetics, Artificial Intelligence And Robotics
Report/Patent Number
NPO-42737
Report Number: NPO-42737
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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