[Previous] | [Session 18] | [Next]
T.R. Spilker (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), A.P. Ingersoll (California Inst. of Technology)
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.
[Previous] | [Session 18] | [Next]
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.