For the title of this article, I thought of two alternatives. The first one was Ticket To Ride (inspired by The Beatles song), but I opted for the second one. Which gets its inspiration from Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”.
Japanese Hayabusa2 spacecraft had successfully brought back asteroid samples to Earth in 2020. I believe such missions should get the highest priority if we want to learn more about our solar system. Focusing on a single planet or Moon can only reveal limited information. The Near-Earth objects (NEO) especially the Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHO) are invaluable for understanding the solar system we live in. They are travelers like Marco Polo, and they carry traces from every corner of our solar system.
I opted for PHO while their close proximity requires less distance to be travelled by the spacecraft. The samples brought back by Hayabusa2 were contaminated. My proposal instead is to analyze the samples on the celestial body. I call these spacecrafts as Solar Hitchhikers. They will jump on the PHO like a person jumping on a moving train. The landing stage will double as an analysis lab and a communication base. The surface exploration will be conducted by a light weight agile rover. The samples collected by the rover will be analyzed on the stationery base. The base will also function as a communication relay between the rover and Earth. This will allow lighter and less energy hungry transceivers on the rover. The base will also analyze the nearby celestial objects with the onboard telescope and sensors. PHOs usually flyby the planets, their moons and the Sun. The spacecraft will be safer in deep space compared a small satellite navigating with its limited propellent. The hitchhiker spacecraft will be stationary on a celestial object like a train passenger. Inspecting the celestial body, it resides on and the nearby objects.
Given the frequency of PHOs, such missions can be conducted frequently compared to a Mars mission.
No comments :
Post a Comment