For studies of Saturn's moon Titan is proposed to use the UAV. For the first time an artificial flying machine rises into the sky somewhere other than Earth's - if he would be hydrocarbon clouds on the shoulder of the Titan.
In 1982,. When started on an interplanetary probe Cassini, Jason Barnes (Jason Barnes) was only six years. Now, already a scholar proposes to continue the study Cassini mission absolutely fantastic: UAV that can hover in the sky of one of Saturn's moons, Titan.
AVIATR project is not fundamentally different from conventional military UAV flying, say, a reconnaissance mission in Afghanistan. Scientists have calculated that in the sky of Titan unit will feel even better than on Earth where gravity is weaker than sevenfold, and the atmosphere is three times thicker. All these factors will remain in flight AVIATR much longer - and if used judiciously, compact power source on board, perhaps forever.
As a source author proposes to use a Stirling Radioisotope Generator power source (Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator, ASRG): economical Stirling engine converts heat into electricity weak, which makes the decay of radioactive fuel supply. ...
The authors expect that the atmosphere of Titan AVIATR come in a protective capsule. The fall of the parachute would slow, and in the course of the smooth descent of the UAV will open its wings, including the engine and take off from the capsule to freedom, as the electronic butterfly cocoon of steel.
Generally, the drone with its controlled flight is more interesting option for the study of Titan than previous designs using a balloon. In the end, the unit will fall below the dense fog envelops the satellite, and to hold the first ever complete survey of its surface.
However, the question arises: what will happen with the machine in a completely unfamiliar to us the conditions of Titan's atmosphere? . However, according to Barnes and his colleagues fundamentally new technical solutions will not require it: all the technologies are already available and tested by military.
On the military worked and joined the team engineer Richard Barnes Foch (Richard Foch), who participated in the development of dozens of drones for the U.S. Army. ...
Among the truly new to the scope of UAV technology can be noted that unless the use of radioisotopes in the Stirling generator, but the power system are being worked out for many years, and NASA plans to use them in a number of future missions. In the case of AVIATR it is not too strong, but the ...
In general, the energy expenditure of the authors pay particular attention to AVIATR. For example, an impressive amount of data required for the Earth - and during the chat sessions other energy systems may simply not enough. It would be possible to increase the capacity of the on-board batteries, but the developers have found a clever way to. Accumulating information, AVIATR will rise slowly, gaining altitude to 14 km above the surface of Titan, and then - off the engines and let all the energy in connection with the Earth, while the unit itself will gradually go down to 3.5 km.
All this looks very attractive, but, as always, the question of financing. Project AVIATR coined as part of a larger mission to study TSSM Titan, which should also include the orbiter and the landing module TiME. But such an ambitious project and requires huge investments - about 715 million dollars, which translates TSSM in the category of the most expensive and important projects of NASA, the program implemented by New Frontiers. The account he goes into units, each shown very carefully, and - alas! .
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