There are many projects on asteroid mining. I am not a fan of those ideas. However, I propose a similar idea to explore the rings of Saturn up close. The idea is to travel among the particles by continuously refueling the propellent from the ice on the particles in orbit with the planet.
A preliminary mission would be deployed before the Saturn Ring Explorer. The objective of that mission would be to explore the particles making up the ring in detail to draw a mission route for the Ring Explorer.
Saturn Ring Explorer will be tumbler shaped and bottom heavy to allow it to land and takeoff multiple times from rough surfaces. It will use liquid hydrogen and oxygen as the propellant. It will also have a nuclear battery to power its electronics and electrolyze the ice to produce propellant. The refueling will allow the explorer to travel among the closely spaced particles composing the ring. The very cold temperatures on the rings would liquify the oxygen without the need for a compressor. However, the hydrogen may need further processing.
The electrolysis unit and the sample analyzer will be on the bottom of the Explorer. Therefore, once the Explorer lands on an icy particle it will analyze its surroundings. The top of the explorer will have a 360-degree camera for area surveying. The Explorer will also use some of its propellant to navigate on large particles before moving on to the neighboring particle.
The idea is to convert a low power and high duration energy source to a high-power low duration energy source such as rocket propellant. This would allow an explorer to continuously navigate over close distances such as the particles of the Saturn’s rings.
No comments :
Post a Comment