van Pelt Space Invaders

How Robotic Spacecraft Explore the Solar System
1. Auflage 2010
ISBN: 978-0-387-68880-0
Verlag: Springer US
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 312 Seiten, eBook

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 From the Ground Up 3 Rockets and Satellites 4 To the Moon 15 Humans versus Robots 18 CHAPTER 2: A SPACE ROBOT IS BORN 23 Scientific Conception 25 Proving Technology 33 The Political Push 36 Paper Spacecraft 38 It'sJust a Phase I'm Going Through 48 CHAPTER 3: ANATOMY OF A SPACE PROBE 53 Bits and Pieces 55 Power 57 Vll Contents Communication 65 Structures 70 Thermal Control 73 Attitude Control 77 Propulsion 86 Data Handling 89 Mechanisms 93 The Kidnap ofLuna 1 95 CHAPTER 4: BUILDING AND TESTING 97 The Spacecraft Garage 97 Keep it Clean 100 Planetary Protection 102 Shake, Rattle 'n' Roll 108 Shaken, not stirred 110 Canned space 112 Antenna testing 112 Special cases 113 Breaking the software 114 CHAPTER 5: INSTRUMENTS OFS CIENCE 115 The More we Learn, the More we Don't Know 116 Let's get Physical 118 It's All in the Data 121 Many Eyes 122 123 Visible light instruments There is more than meets the eye 126 Messenger's Instruments 129 Roving Around 132 Diving through an Atmosphere 140 142 Primeval soup Going down 142 CHAPTER 6: LAUNCH 149 On the Road 149 Spaceports 150 Preparing for Launch 153 Up and Away 156 Rockets 159 162 Orbits Vlll Contents CHAPTER 7: DISTANT DESTINATIONS 167 To the Moon 170 The first visits 170 Preparing for Apollo 172 Robot rovers 175 Modern missions 176 A new Moon 177 Unromantic Venus 179 Greenhouse nightmare 179 Into the unknown 180 Magellan 186

Zielgruppe

Popular/general

Autoren/Hrsg.

van Pelt, Michel

Inhaltsverzeichnis

A Space Robot is Born.- Anatomy of a Space Probe.- Building and Testing.- Instruments of Science.- Launch.- Distant Destinations.- Death of a Spacecraft.- A Bright Future.- Only Just Beginning.

Leseproben

"9 A Bright Future (p. 249-250)

THE opportunities for new scientific discoveries in the Solar System remain boundless. We will continue to send out new, more efficient robotic explorers incorporating exciting new technology with ever-increasing capabilities. We will use them to visit new worlds as well as revisit places weve already had a glimpse of, to see them in new ways and learn much more .

We are going to build spacecraft that can do more science for the same sizes, masses and power levels ofour current spacecraft. In parallel, we will develop robots that can do the same amount of exploration with much smaller systems than we are using now. Our mechanical adventurers will investigate regions on planets and moons that were inaccessible for earlier spacecraft, and they will be more adaptive to changing situations. Some new developments are the result ofa "requirement pull"; they are undertaken to reach a certain specified goal.

The technology ofthe Apollo Moon program is a clear example of this: to fulfill president Kennedys proclamation "oflanding a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth," NASA and US industries had to invent new moonsuits, lunar landers, rocket motors, smaller onboard computers and much more. A current requirement pull is the ongoing development of new launcher technology in a quest to make access to space cheaper. However, more often new space projects are a result of a "technology push"; new inventions making it possible to do robotic space missions faster, better or cheaper.

The fast progress in miniaturization and increased sensitivityofall kinds of electronic detectors has for instance resulted in new scientific instruments that are much better and yet smaller than those launched 10 years ago. And these were in turn already a big improvement over the instruments flown on board spacecraft in the 1980s. Modern instruments can make more detailed observations than earlier versions, but we need more stable satellites to fully benefit from the improved capabilities.

This means the AOCS (Altitude and Orbit Control System) equipment needs to be more accurate. Furthermore, because of the increased amount of detail that the instruments are able to see, they collect larger amounts of data. In turn, this requires improvements in the Data Handling subsystem. Due to this kind ofprocesses, interplanetary spacecraft on the whole are improved continually; each new mission is a step forward in science as well as in technology."