Missions to Triton and Pluto using a Hopper Vehicle with In-Situ Refueling

[摘要] The Triton Hopper is a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) project to design a mission to not merely land, but repeatedly fly across the surface of Triton, utilizing the volatile surface ices (primarily nitrogen) as propellant for a radioisotope-heated thermal rocket engine to launch across the surface and explore all the moon's varied terrain. An engineering design study of the vehicle and mission was done. With a calculated range of 20 km per hop, equator-to-pole mobility can be achieved over a primary mission duration of 2 years. Using Nuclear Electric Propulsion for the transfer vehicle, the same concept can be applied for a mission to the surface of Pluto.

[发布日期] 2019-10-21

[学科分类] 航空航天科学

[关键词] AEROBRAKING;BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION;ELECTRIC PROPULSION;ENGINE DESIGN;HOPPERS;IN SITU RESOURCE UTILIZATION;MISSION PLANNING;NUCLEAR ELECTRIC PROPULSION;PLUTO (PLANET);REFUELING;ROCKET ENGINES;SPECIFIC IMPULSE;THERMAL ENERGY;TRITON