NASA's ``Neptune Orbiter with Probes" Vision Mission: Remote Sensing and In Situ Science at Neptune and Triton

Details NASA's ``Neptune Orbiter with Probes" Vision Mission: Remote Sensing and In Situ Science at Neptune and Triton NASA's ``Neptune Orbiter with Probes" Vision Mission: Remote Sensing and In Situ Science at Neptune and Triton

Aug 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005dps....37.1821s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #37, #18.21; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 37, p.654

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

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The Vision Mission Study team led by the authors reported preliminary results a year ago, based on the science analysis by the Science Team and the first half of engineering study by JPL's ``Team". The team has now completed all aspects of the task to the levels described in the NRA proposal. New Team X studies, augmented by analyses by outside experts, indicate that all the Science Team's high-priority objectives reported last year can be achieved, and that it is quite likely that the mission could achieve additional high-value science by delivering an instrumented soft-lander to Triton, in addition to the two Neptune atmospheric entry probes previously considered. A ballute decelerator enables delivery of the lander during one of the orbiter's hyperbolic flybys of Triton. This device dissipates more than 99 percent of the energy of a 4 km/s approach via aerodynamic drag in Triton's tenuous atmosphere, yet accounts for less than one third of the approach mass, providing for a significant science payload. The new Team X studies also show that the mission is not dependent on advanced power system developments; the baseline mission (without the Triton lander) could be flown with current-technology Radioisotope Power Systems. The poster will report the final results of this year-long study, and will detail the science to be addressed by a 300-400 kg Triton lander.
This work was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract to NASA's Office of Space Science.

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