Outstanding Science at Neptune: Aerocapture Implementation of NASA's "Neptune Orbiter With Probes" Vision Mission

Details Outstanding Science at Neptune: Aerocapture Implementation of NASA's "Neptune Orbiter With Probes" Vision Mission Outstanding Science at Neptune: Aerocapture Implementation of NASA's "Neptune Orbiter With Probes" Vision Mission

Dec 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agufm.p51b1438s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2004, abstract #P51B-1438

Other

5794 Instruments And Techniques, 5799 General Or Miscellaneous, 6255 Neptune, 6260 Neptunian Satellites

Scientific paper

After successfully proposing to NASA's "Vision Missions Studies" NRA (NRA-03-OSS-01-VM) the authors are studying an implementation option for the "Neptune Orbiter With Probes" mission that performs Cassini-level science without fission-based electric power or propulsion. Our Study Team includes a Science Team composed of experienced planetary scientists, many of whom helped draft the Neptune discussions in the Solar System Exploration Decadal Survey, and an Implementation Team with experienced engineers and technologists from multiple NASA Centers and JPL. The key characteristics of our mission concept are a mix of Solar Electric Propulsion and gravity assists to reach Neptune in 12 years or less, aerocapture into an eccentric Neptune orbit for a Triton-driven orbital tour, and a well designed set of science objectives guiding a very capable science payload including multiple Neptune entry probes. Significant pathfinding work done in 2002-03 by NASA's Aerocapture Systems Analysis Team allowed focusing quickly on principal issues. By the end of May 2004 the Science Team had drafted a thorough and coherent set of science objectives, leading to our first series of design sessions with JPL's "Team X" in early June. The initial design options studied in those sessions produced flight system designs that all fit easily on soon-to-be-operational launch vehicles. Since then, students working in Caltech's Laboratory for Space Mission Design have studied the potential benefits of incorporating new technologies into those initial designs. Later this year another series of Team X sessions will incorporate the most beneficial technologies into the best design options. The poster will discuss the mission's science objectives, and summarize study results to date. This work was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and its parent institution, the California Institute of Technology, under contract to NASA's Office of Space Science.

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