SAILING THE PLANETS: PLANETARY EXPLORATION FROM GUIDED BALLOONS 7th Annual Meeting of the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts DR. ALEXEY PANKINE GLOBAL AEROSPACE CORPORATION
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MARS ROVERS ARE A GREAT SUCCESS…
Spirit view from Husband Hill summit (NASA/JPL)
… but their range is very limited SAILING THE PLANETS
Columbia Hills surroundings (NASA/JPL/MSSS)
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DARE – NEW PLATFROM FOR PLANETRAY EXPLORATION
An airplane will last for just a few hours
Airships propulsion systems make them prohibitively heavy
Ordinary balloons are at the mercy of the winds
Directed Aerial Robot Explorers (DARE) guided long-duration balloon platforms
Mars Express/ESA-GAC
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NEW ARCHITECTURE FOR PLANETARY EXPLORATION
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KEY ELEMENTS:
Long-Duration Planetary Balloon Platforms
Balloon Flight Path Guidance
Autonomous Navigation & Control
Lightweight Power Generation & Energy Storage
Miniaturized Science Sensors
Small Deployable Science Packages
Communication Relay Orbiter (MTO)
Synergy Between Platforms Comprising Architecture 4
MARS DARE PLATFORM SCHEMATICS
Superpressure balloon (Al top, white paint bottom, D=20-70 m) Gondola:
Science payload (~100 kg) Power generation & energy storage Communications Microprobes BGS deployment system (a winch)
Tether (5-11 km) Balloon Guidance System (BGS)
DARE ARCHITECTURE APPLICATIONS AND EXPLORATION CAPABILITIES
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EXPLORATION CAPABILITIES
Global planetary coverage
Heavy, power-intensive payloads (90 kg and 200 W in 3 to 10 years, 170 kg and 400 W >10 years)
Long flight duration: 700 days (1 Mars year)
Targeted overflight of surface sites and precise delivery of science probes
Proximity to surface enables highresolution imaging, elemental, magnetic and gravity surveys not possible or challenging from orbit
In situ atmospheric chemistry and circulation
Landing sites reconnaissance, navigation beacon emplacement
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Olivine outcrop and DS-2 landing ellipse (NASA/JPL/ASU)
Water ice lake inside a crater on Mars 7 (ESA)
FRACTIONATION OF METHANE ISOTOPES IN THE ATMOSPHERE Methane-making organisms discriminate between isotopes as they feed on a global reservoir of CO2 Measure the C12/C13 ratio in the methane. If it is different from the isotope ratio in the CO2, it would offer strong evidence for a biological source.
Tunable Laser Spectrometer for Atmospheric and Sub-surface gas measurements on Mars (NASA JPL)
DARE enables planetary-wide search for surface biological sources SAILING THE PLANETS
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SURFACE TARGETS FOR HIGHRESOLUTION IMAGING Very small craters
Boulders
Dichotomy boundary Layers in canyon/crater walls
Origins of the outflow channels
10 cm
10 km SAILING THE PLANETS
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EMPLACEMENT OF SURFACE NETWORKS ON MARS
Single DARE platform can carry tens of mini-labs
Meteorological & seismological networks
Surface labs locations
NetLander Surface Module (ESA)
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Mars Microprobe (NASA) as an example of a mini-lab 10
MARS SAMPLE RETURN ASSIST
Multiple rovers collect samples at different sites Samples and transferred to Sample Return Vehicle by DARE platform Science results: several samples from distinct sites SAILING THE PLANETS
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SAILING ACROSS MARTIAN EQUATOR Simulated DARE trajectory over elevation contour map
DARE trajectory over MOLA topography (NASA)
90-day late Southern spring, 1 m/s control velocity Objective: navigate from Southern to Northern midlatitudes SAILING THE PLANETS
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DARE AT VENUS, TITAN, JUPITER ﾂシENUS - Targeted overflight of surface sites and precise delivery of geophysical probes - Wind profiles and atmospheric composition at multiple locations
ﾂサITAN - Global measurements of winds, gas abundances, surface chemistry with probes
ﾂカUPITER - Solar-Infrared Montgolfier balloons - Sample with probes distinct regions of the atmosphere (Great Red Spot, belt/zone)
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KEY TECHNOLOGIES
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KEY TECHNOLOGIES Three technological time horizons: Current (0-3 years, TRL 8-9), Near (3-10 years, TRL 3-6), Far (beyond 10, TRL 1-3)
Advanced Balloon Materials Balloon Guidance System (BGS) Entry, Descent and Inflation (EDI) Navigation & Guidance in Mars winds Mars Balloon performance modeling
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MARS DARE BALLOON Low-mass high-strength envelope material composite material 1-µm Mylar/38-Denier PBO thread/3- µm PE film areal density of 0.012 kg/m2 Nano-tubes fabric in future?
Mars balloon concept
Superpressure sphere Al top, white bottom to prevent CO2 condensation
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Composite Mars balloon material
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BALLOON GUIDANCE SYSTEM (BGS)
BGS is an aerodynamic surface suspended on a tether several km below the balloon
Tether could be Zylon fiber, 5 to 20 times stronger than steel, by weight. 10 km long tether weighs 0.5 kg
Variation in atmospheric wind and density with altitude result in a sideways lifting force
1 m2 BGS creates sideways control velocity of 1-2 m/s in typical Martian winds and 8 km tether
BGS wing operates at low Reynolds numbers at Mars (~1000), lift coefficients of 0.6-1.4
Single-wing and Dual-wing BGS designs are being studied
Dual-wing BGS
Single-wing BGS SAILING THE PLANETS
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ENTRY, DESCENT & INFLATION (EDI)
Parachute deploys Inflation commences Parachute cut-off Inflation equipment jettisoned
Platform ascends to floating altitude The BGS is deployed SAILING THE PLANETS
Altitude profile
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SYSTEM TRADES AND EXAMPLE DESIGN
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PAYLOAD VS. ALTITUDE Height of atmospheric density levels lower by 4 km in dusty atmosphere DARE to float 2-3 km above southern highlands in dust storm 6 km at τ=3 M=87 kg, R=17.2 m Altitude of 10 km at normal conditions
ALTITUDE CHANGE AFTER PROBE RELEASE
Releasing 30 kg of probes raises altitude by 3 km Increase in super-pressure can be relieved by venting 1 kg of gas (out of 8 kg) SAILING THE PLANETS
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ENTRY VEHICLE
Delta 7326 launch rocket, 616 kg Mars injection capability 340 kg Pathfinder-type entry vehicle EDI hardware 200 kg, balloon flight system 140 kg
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BALLOON FLIGHT SYSTEM
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GONDOLA DESIGN
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SUMMARY
DARE enables revolutionary planetary exploration capabilities at Mars and other planets DARE addresses NASA's Mars Exploration Program (MEP) goals by returning unique measurements in critical science themes
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