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Heated-Atmosphere Airship for the Titan Environment: Thermal AnalysisFuture exploration of Saturn's moon Titan can be carried out by airships. Several lighter-than-atmosphere gas airships and passive drifting heated-atmosphere balloon designs have been studied, but a heated-atmosphere airship could combine the best characteristics of both. This work analyses the thermal design of such a heated-atmosphere vehicle, and compares the result with a lighter-than-atmosphere (hydrogen) airship design. A design tool was created to enable iteration through different design parameters of a heated-atmosphere airship (diameter, number of layers, and insulating gas pocket thicknesses) and evaluate the feasibility of the resulting airship. A baseline heated-atmosphere airship was designed to have a diameter of 6 m (outer diameter of 6.2 m), three-layers of material, and an insulating gas pocket thickness of 0.05 m between each layer. The heated-atmosphere airship has a mass of 161.9 kg. A similar mission making use of a hydrogen-filled airship would require a diameter of 4.3 m and a mass of about 200 kg. For a long-duration mission, the heated-atmosphere airship appears better suited. However, for a mission lifetime under 180 days, the less complex hydrogen airship would likely be a better option.
Document ID
20120012527
Acquisition Source
Glenn Research Center
Document Type
Technical Memorandum (TM)
Authors
Heller, R. S.
(Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Cambridge, MA, United States)
Landis, G. A.
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Hepp, A. F.
(NASA Glenn Research Center Cleveland, OH, United States)
Colozza, A. J.
(QinetiQ North America Cleveland, OH, United States)
Date Acquired
August 26, 2013
Publication Date
July 1, 2012
Subject Category
Spacecraft Design, Testing And Performance
Report/Patent Number
E-18250
NASA/TM-2012-217639
Meeting Information
Meeting: Earth and Space 2012 Conference
Location: Pasadena, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: April 15, 2012
End Date: April 18, 2012
Sponsors: American Society of Civil Engineers
Funding Number(s)
WBS: WBS 387498.01.03.02.05
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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