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

Landis, Geoffrey A ; Oleson, Steven R ; Abel, Phillip ; Bur, Michael ; Colozza, Anthony ; Faller, Brent ; Fittje, James ; Gyekenyesi, John ; Hartwig, Jason ; Jones, Robert(NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH, United States)

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;   

RP-ID  :  IAC-19,A3,5,7,x53412,GRC-E-DAA-TN74147

学科分类：航空航天科学

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来源: NASA Technical Reports Server

【 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.