HR: 1340h
AN: P43A-0914    [Abstracts]
TI: Sailing the Planets: Science from Directed Aerial Robot Explorers
AU: Nock, K
EM: kerry.t.nock@gaerospace.com
AF: Global Aerospace Corporation, 711 W. Woodbury Rd., Suite H, Altadena, CA 91001 United States
AU: * Pankine, A
EM: alexey.a.pankine@gaerospace.com
AF: Global Aerospace Corporation, 711 W. Woodbury Rd., Suite H, Altadena, CA 91001 United States
AB: In the past 50 years planetary exploration has evolved from being a subject of science fiction to a multi-billion dollar activity that embraces numerous branches of science, engineering and government on several continents, affects national policies and excites the public. The development of new observational platforms - orbiters, landers and rovers - has been central to successful exploration of the planets. The maturing of planetary exploration suggests that a unifying approach to planetary exploration - one that would reduce costs and facilitate discovery - is needed. Global Aerospace Corporation under funding from the NASA institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is developing a concept for planetary exploration architecture that would provide such an approach. At the core of the architecture are the Directed Aerial Robot Explorer (DARE) platforms, which are autonomous balloons with path guidance capabilities that can deploy swarms of miniature robotic probes over multiple target areas. These platforms will observe planets in concert with orbiter(s) and surface platforms (landers and rovers) on global scales continuously for several years. Due to their relatively low cost and low power consumption balloons represent a very attractive platform for planetary exploration. Indeed, the successful Venera-Vega Project demonstrated technical feasibility of deploying a balloon on another planet and the wealth of opportunities presented by a balloon platform for planetary atmospheric and surface studies. Concepts for planetary balloon exploration of Mars, Venus, Titan and the Outer Planets have been studied. The DARE architecture revolutionizes these early concepts by providing the balloon, for the first time, a means of flight path control and autonomous navigation, and by integrating the balloon platform with innovative lightweight microprobes. In addition, DARE platforms can make concurrent observations with other observational platforms leading to a revolutionary architecture for planetary exploration. This architecture would greatly expand the planetary exploration capabilities allowing high-resolution targeted observations, and augmenting observations at atmospheric altitudes with in situ surface observations by the microprobes. The study focuses on development of the DARE concept in the context of a Mars mission. On Mars, DARE will search for biologically favorable sites on and under the surface by globally surveying the planet and "sniffing" the water and methane in the atmosphere. A survey will result in concentration maps that could help to identify promising sites for exploration. Miniature thermal-emission spectrometers and high-resolution cameras onboard the DARE platforms will image the surface and map mineralogical abundances at the resolution achieved by the Mars Exploration Rovers, but on the global scale. Magnetic field measurements from altitudes of just 6 to 12 km will provide an unprecedented opportunity to study Martian geology and geophysics, and evolution of the planet. DARE will visit Polar Regions to closely observe sublimation of polar caps during the spring and the genesis of local dust storms, and then migrate towards tropical regions to observe the formation of dust devils or trace the plumes of atmospheric water vapor. DARE could release ice penetrators over the polar cap to study the layering in the ice sheets, miniature weather and geophysical stations, rovers and crawlers while flying over highlands and lowlands, and subsurface penetrators over the areas where subsurface ice could be present. Small navigational beacons could be deployed over potential landing sites to provide assistance in precision landing of robotic and/or piloted spaceships.
DE: 6225 Mars
DE: 6280 Saturnian satellites
DE: 6295 Venus
DE: 6297 Instruments and techniques
DE: 6299 General or miscellaneous
SC: Planetary Sciences [P]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting