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NASA NTRS2018

A Common Probe Design for Multiple Planetary Destinations

Atmospheric probes have been successfully flown to planets and moons in the solar system to conduct in situ measurements. They include the Pioneer Venus multi-probes, the Galileo Jupiter probe, and Huygens probe. Probe mission concepts to five destinations, including Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, have all utilized similar-shaped aeroshells and concept of operations, namely a 45-degree sphere cone shape with high density heatshield material and parachute system for extracting the descent vehicle from the aeroshell. Each concept designed its probe to meet specific mission requirements and to optimize mass, volume, and cost. At the 2017 International Planetary Probe Workshop (IPPW), NASA Headquarters postulated that a common aeroshell design could be used successfully for multiple destinations and missions. This "common probe" design could even be assembled with multiple copies, properly stored, and made available for future NASA missions, potentially realizing savings in cost and schedule and reducing the risk of losing technologies and skills difficult to sustain over decades. Thus the NASA Planetary Science Division funded a study to investigate whether a common probe design could meet most, if not all, mission needs to the five planetary destinations with extreme entry environments. The Common Probe study involved four NASA Centers and addressed these issues, including constraints and inefficiencies that occur in specifying a common design. Study methodology: First, a notional payload of instruments for each destination was defined based on priority measurements from the Planetary Science Decadal Survey. Steep and shallow entry flight path angles (EFPA) were defined for each planet based on qualification and operational g-load limits for current, state-of-the-art instruments. Interplanetary trajectories were then identified for a bounding range of EFPA. Next, 3-degrees-of-freedom simulations for entry trajectories were run using the entry state vectors from the interplanetary trajectories. Aeroheating correlations were used to generate stagnation point convective and radiative heat flux profiles for several aeroshell shapes and entry masses. High fidelity thermal response models for various Thermal Protection System (TPS) materials were used to size stagnation-point thicknesses, with margins based on previous studies. Backshell TPS masses were assumed based on scaled heat fluxes from the heatshield and also from previous mission concepts. Presentation: We will present an overview of the study scope, highlights of the trade studies and design driver analyses, and the final recommendations of a common probe design and assembly. We will also indicate limitations that the common probe design may have for the different destinations. Finally, recommended qualification approaches for missions will be presented.

Hwang, H. H.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Compact Hererodyne 220 GHz Receiver For Planetary Spectroscopy

Solar System spectroscopy yields information about the physics, chemistry and dynamics of planetary atmospheres. Many molecular species, such as CO,water have very strong spectral emission lines in the millimeter and sumillimeter wave regions.

Compact Heterodyne Spectroscopy Solar System↗

NASA NTRS1975

Apparent relationship between solar sector boundaries and 300-millibar vorticity: Possible explanation in terms of upward propagation of planetary-scale waves

The correlations between the solar sectors and large-scale atmospheric vorticity in the lower atmosphere reported earlier are of interest since the solar-sector data appear to be independent of any terrestrial influences. It is shown that even these solar data may be affected by geomagnetic properties; a method for removing such influences is suggested.

Deland, R. J.↗

NASA NTRS2018

A Common Probe Design for Multiple Planetary Destinations

Atmospheric probes have been successfully flown to planets and moons in the solar system to conduct in-situ measurements. They include the Pioneer Venus multi-probes, the Galileo Jupiter probe, and Huygens probe. Probe mission concepts to five destinations, including Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, have all utilized similar-shaped aeroshells and concept of operations, namely a 45 deg sphere cone shape with high density heatshield material and parachute system for extracting the descent vehicle from the aeroshell. Each concept designed its probe to meet specific mission requirements and to optimize mass, volume, and cost. At the 2017 IPPW, NASA Headquarters postulated that a common aero-shell design could be used successfully for multiple destinations and missions. This "common probe" design could even be assembled with multiple copies, properly stored, and made available for future NASA missions, potentially realizing savings in cost and schedule and reducing the risk of losing technologies and skills difficult to sustain over decades. Thus the NASA Planetary Science Division funded a study to investigate whether a common probe design could meet most, if not all, mission needs to the five planetary destinations with extreme entry environments. The Common Probe study involved four NASA Centers and addressed these issues, including constraints and inefficiencies that occur in specifying a common design.Study methodology: First, a notional payload of instruments for each destination was defined based on priority measurements from the Planetary Science Decadal Survey. Steep and shallow entry flight path angles (EFPA) were defined for each planet based on qualification and operational g-load limits for current, state-of-the-art instruments. Interplanetary trajectories were then identified for a bounding range of EFPA. Next, 3-DoF simulations for entry trajectories were run using the entry state vectors from the interplanetary trajectories. Aeroheating correlations were used to generate stagnation point convective and radiative heat flux profiles for several aeroshell shapes and entry masses. High fidelity thermal response models for various TPS materials were used to size stagnation point thicknesses, with margins based on previous studies. Backshell TPS masses were assumed based on scaled heat fluxes from the heatshield and also from previous mission concepts.

Hwang, Helen H.↗

NASA NTRS1977

The Pioneer Venus program

Mission timetables, spacecraft, scientific objectives, and payloads of the two mission, Orbiter and Multiprobe, planned for launch and encounter with Venus during the 1978 Venus mission opportunity are described. Basically, the Orbiter mission has the goal of global mapping of the clouds, atmosphere and ionosphere of Venus by remote sensing and radio occultation, global studies by in situ measurements of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere and solar wind-ionosphere interaction region, and determination of gravitational field harmonics from perturbations of the spacecraft orbit. The Multiprobe mission will study the nature and composition of the clouds, the structure of the atmosphere, the circulation pattern, and the characteristics of the planetary environmental interaction with the solar wind.

Colin, L.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Radio science investigations with Voyager

Radio links to and from the Voyager spacecraft will be used for occultation measurements of planetary and satellite atmospheres and ionospheres, the rings of Saturn, the solar corona, and the general-relativistic time delay for radio wave propagation through the solar gravity field. In addition, the radio link measurements may provide information on the gravity fields of the planets, the masses of the satellites, properties of the interplanetary medium, and long-wavelength gravitational radiation propagation in the solar system.

Eshleman, V. R.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Future exploration of Mars

Scientific study of Mars after Viking will focus on the following areas: planetary formation from the solar nebula, internal development, interaction with its atmosphere and with the interplanetary medium, and biological history (if any). Four basic measurement modes are outlined to pursue these areas of investigation. They are: orbital, especially polar orbits with wide area surface, atmospheric, and magnetospheric studies; in situ, which include bio-, geo-, and meteorological surface ground stations; network, using separated ground stations and, possibly, RPV aircraft; and sample-return. Various vehicle concepts for the different study modes are described.

Minear, J.↗

NASA NTRS1982

A survey of nongravitational forces and space environmental torques with applications to the Galileo spacecraft

A detailed survey of nongravitational forces and space environmental torques acting upon the Galileo spacecraft during its interplanetary flight to Jupiter is given. It includes simple analytic equations to model the first order effect of: solar, planetary and spacecraft radiation, solar wind, meteoroids, cosmic rays, magnetic fields, atmospheric forces and gas leakage of the propulsion system. The model parameters are taken from recent spaceflight data. The result is a probabilistic error model of the magnitudes of the disturbing forces and torques. It provides a useful tool for the analysis of the Galileo and future spaceflight missions.

Longuski, J. M.↗

NASA NTRS1986

A history of presatellite investigations of the earth's radiation budget

The history of radiation budget studies from the early twentieth century to the advent of the space age is reviewed. By the beginning of the 1960's, accurate radiative models had been developed capable of estimating the global and zonally averaged components of the radiation budget, though great uncertainty in the derived parameters existed due to inaccuracy of the data describing the physical parameters used in the model, associated with clouds, the solar radiation, and the gaseous atmospheric absorbers. Over the century, the planetary albedo estimates had reduced from 89 to 30 percent.

Hunt, G. E.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Microwave Radiometers from 0.6 to 22 GHz for Juno, a Polar Orbiter around Jupiter

A compact radiometer instrument is under development at JPL for Juno, the next NASA New Frontiers mission, scheduled to launch in 2011. This instrument is called the MWR (MicroWave Radiometer), and its purpose is to measure the thermal emission from Jupiter's atmosphere at selected frequencies from 0.6 to 22 GHz. The objective is to measure the distributions and abundances of water and ammonia in Jupiter's atmosphere, with the goal of understanding the previously unobserved dynamics of the subcloud atmosphere, and to discriminate among models for planetary formation in our solar system. The MWR instrument is currently being developed to address these science questions for the Juno mission. As part of a deep space mission aboard a solar-powered spacecraft, MWR is designed to be compact, lightweight, and low power. The entire MWR instrument consists of six individual radiometer channels with approximately 4% bandwidth at 0.6, 1.25,2.6,5.2, 10,22 GHz operating in direct detection mode. Each radiometer channel has up to 80 dB of gain with a noise figure of several dB. The highest frequency channel uses a corrugated feedhorn and waveguide transmission lines, whereas all other channels use highly phase stable coaxial cables and either patch array or waveguide slot array antennas. Slot waveguide array antennas were chosen for the low loss at the next three highest frequencies and patch array antennas were implemented due to the mass constraint at the two lowest frequencies. The six radiometer channels receive their voltage supplies and control lines from an electronics unit that also provides the instrument communication interface to the Juno spacecraft. For calibration purposes each receiver has integrated noise diodes, a Dicke switch, and temperature sensors near each component that contributes to the noise figure. In addition, multiple sensors will be placed along the RF transmission lines and the antennas in order to measure temperature gradients. All antennas and RF transmission lines must withstand low temperatures and the harsh radiation environment surrounding Jupiter; the receivers and control electronics are protected by a radiation-shielding enclosure on the Juno spacecraft that also provides for a benign and stable operating temperature environment. This paper will focus on the concept of the MWR instrument and will present results of one breadboard receiver channel.

receiver↗

NASA NTRS2008

Microwave Radiometers from 0.6 to 22 GHz for Juno, A Polar Orbiter Around Jupiter

A compact instrument called the MWR (MicroWave Radiometer) is under development at JPL for Juno, the next NASA New Frontiers mission, scheduled to launch in 2011. It's purpose is to measure the thermal emission from Jupiter's atmosphere at six selected frequencies from 0.6 to 22 GHz, operating in direct detection mode, in order to quantify the distributions and abundances of water and ammonia in Jupiter's atmosphere. The goal is to understand the previously unobserved dynamics of the sub-cloud atmosphere, and to discriminate among models for planetary formation in our solar system. As part of a deep space mission aboard a solar-powered spacecraft, MWR is designed to be compact, lightweight, and low power. The receivers and control electronics are protected by a radiation-shielding enclosure on the Juno spacecraft that would provide a benign and stable operating temperature environment. All antennas and RF transmission lines outside the vault must withstand low temperatures and the harsh radiation environment surrounding Jupiter. This paper describes the concept of the MWR instrument and presents results of one breadboard receiver channel.

Antenna↗

NASA NTRS1995

Exploration of Venus and Mars Atmospheres; Symposium C2 and Symposium C5 of the COSPAR Plenary Meeting, 29th, Washington DC, 28 August - 5 September, 1992

Two symposia related to the exploration of the Venus and Mars atmospheres produced papers which described the results of spacecraft-based and ground-based observations of these two planets. The topics addressed included solar wind interactions, molecular ions, planetary magnetospheres, planetary ionospheres, planetary thermospheres, gravity waves, the homopause, radiative transfer, radiative balance, atmospheric water, planetary lightning, very low frequency bursts, cosmic-ray ionization, planetary loss, and future missions to study Mars aeronomy, energetic particles near Mars, radar exploration of Mars, and the Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) mission.

Keating, G. M.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Atmospheres from Within

In this review of atmospheric investigations from planetary surfaces, a wide variety of measurement and instrument techniques relevant to atmospheric studies from future planetary lander missions are discussed. The diversity of planetary surface environments within the solar system precludes complete or highly specific coverage, but lander investigations for Mars and cometary missions are presented as specific cases that represent the broad range of atmospheric-surface boundaries and that also correspond to high priority goals for future national and international lander missions.

Morgan, Thomas↗

NASA NTRS2014

Northern Late Winter Planetary Waves: MRO/MARCI Observations and Mars Climate Model Simulations

As does Earth, Mars presents pronounced global atmospheric circulation patterns. Solar differential heating drives mean meridional overturning (Hadley) circulations which are deep and intense, are hemispherically asymmetric, and where a cross-equatorial single cell dominates. Within middle and high latitudes, thermally indirect eddy-driven (Ferrel) circulation cells have been indicated. Differently, however, large-amplitude orography on planetary and continental scales on Mars can force very non-Earth-like hemispheric circulation patterns. Recent observations from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, "Mars Color Imager" (MARCI) instrument are utilized that emphasize water ice clouds in ultra-violet (UV) wavelengths, and these measurements have been binned into "daily global maps" (DGMs) of water-ice cloud optical depth. The presence of large-scale, extratropical quasi-stationary atmospheric wave disturbances in middle and late winter of the northern hemisphere have been found to be present in such DGMs. In combination with such observations, a full-physics Mars global climate model (NASA ARC marsgcm 2.1) is applied to place the observations into context. During late northern winter, it is found that strong, forced Rossby modes (i.e., planetary waves) exist, and with direct correlation to columnintegrated cloud opacity undulating spatial patterns. At this season, zonal wavenumber s = 2 dominates (in contrast to wavenumber s = 1), consistent with MGS/TES analyses at this particular season (Banfield et al., 2003). Large-scale, planetary waves dictate the "coherence" of the northern polar vortex. Fundamentally, such forced planetary waves influence the polar vortex's impermeability (wave-induced) to tracer transport (e.g., dust and water-ice aerosol) and temporal mean water vapor spatial variations. The large-scale dynamical features of such planetary waves will be highlighted and discussed.

Northern polar vortex↗

NASA NTRS2018

A Common Probe Design for Multiple Planetary Destinations

Hwang, Helen H.↗

NASA NTRS1989

The impact history of the solar system - Implications for the origins of atmospheres

The present consideration of the roles played by impacts in the origin and evolution of planetary and satellite atmospheres notes that while small impacts of volatile-rich planetesimals can contribute to a body's volatile inventory, large impacts blow away existing primordial atmospheres and generate main-body outgassing; these processes would have been in greatest competition during the end-stage of accretion. The uncertainties in solar system cratering-record interpretation and event-chronology yield only order-of-magnitude estimates. Temporal fluctuations in the impact rate may be very large, notably in the case of cometary sources, where a factor-of-2 variation is common, and a factor-of-100 variation is entirely possible.

Weissman, P. R.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Cassini atmospheric chemistry mapper. Volume 1. Investigation and technical plan

The Cassini Atmospheric Chemistry Mapper (ACM) enables a broad range of atmospheric science investigations for Saturn and Titan by providing high spectral and spatial resolution mapping and occultation capabilities at 3 and 5 microns. ACM can directly address the major atmospheric science objectives for Saturn and for Titan, as defined by the Announcement of Opportunity, with pivotal diagnostic measurements not accessible to any other proposed Cassini instrument. ACM determines mixing ratios for atmospheric molecules from spectral line profiles for an important and extensive volume of the atmosphere of Saturn (and Jupiter). Spatial and vertical profiles of disequilibrium species abundances define Saturn's deep atmosphere, its chemistry, and its vertical transport phenomena. ACM spectral maps provide a unique means to interpret atmospheric conditions in the deep (approximately 1000 bar) atmosphere of Saturn. Deep chemistry and vertical transport is inferred from the vertical and horizontal distribution of a series of disequilibrium species. Solar occultations provide a method to bridge the altitude range in Saturn's (and Titan's) atmosphere that is not accessible to radio science, thermal infrared, and UV spectroscopy with temperature measurements to plus or minus 2K from the analysis of molecular line ratios and to attain an high sensitivity for low-abundance chemical species in the very large column densities that may be achieved during occultations for Saturn. For Titan, ACM solar occultations yield very well resolved (1/6 scale height) vertical mixing ratios column abundances for atmospheric molecular constituents. Occultations also provide for detecting abundant species very high in the upper atmosphere, while at greater depths, detecting the isotopes of C and O, constraining the production mechanisms, and/or sources for the above species. ACM measures the vertical and horizontal distribution of aerosols via their opacity at 3 microns and, particularly, at 5 microns. ACM recovers spatially-resolved atmospheric temperatures in Titan's troposphere via 3- and 5-microns spectral transitions. Together, the mixing ratio profiles and the aerosol distributions are utilized to investigate the photochemistry of the stratosphere and consequent formation processes for aerosols. Finally, ring opacities, observed during solar occultations and in reflected sunlight, provide a measurement of the particle size and distribution of ring material. ACM will be the first high spectral resolution mapping spectrometer on an outer planet mission for atmospheric studies while retaining a high resolution spatial mapping capability. ACM, thus, opens an entirely new range of orbital scientific studies of the origin, physio-chemical evolution and structure of the Saturn and Titan atmospheres. ACM provides high angular resolution spectral maps, viewing nadir and near-limb thermal radiation and reflected sunlight; sounds planetary limbs, spatially resolving vertical profiles to several atmospheric scale heights; and measures solar occultations, mapping both atmospheres and rings. ACM's high spectral and spatial resolution mapping capability is achieved with a simplified Fourier Transform spectrometer with a no-moving parts, physically compact design. ACM's simplicity guarantees an inherent stability essential for reliable performance throughout the lengthy Cassini Orbiter mission.

Smith, William Hayden↗

NASA NTRS2016

The Sustainability of Habitability on Terrestrial Planets: Insights, Questions, and Needed Measurements from Mars for Understanding the Evolution of Earth-Like Worlds

What allows a planet to be both within a potentially habitable zone and sustain habitability over long geologic time? With the advent of exoplanetary astronomy and the ongoing discovery of terrestrial-type planets around other stars, our own solar system becomes a key testing ground for ideas about what factors control planetary evolution. Mars provides the solar systems longest record of the interplay of the physical and chemical processes relevant to habitability on an accessible rocky planet with an atmosphere and hydrosphere. Here we review current understanding and update the timeline of key processes in early Mars history. We then draw on knowledge of exoplanets and the other solar system terrestrial planets to identify six broad questions of high importance to the development and sustaining of habitability (unprioritized): (1) Is small planetary size fatal? (2) How do magnetic fields influence atmospheric evolution? (3) To what extent does starting composition dictate subsequent evolution, including redox processes and the availability of water and organics? (4) Does early impact bombardment have a net deleterious or beneficial influence? (5) How do planetary climates respond to stellar evolution, e.g., sustaining early liquid water in spite of a faint young Sun? (6) How important are the timescales of climate forcing and their dynamical drivers? Finally, we suggest crucial types of Mars measurements (unprioritized) to address these questions: (1) in situ petrology at multiple units/sites; (2) continued quantification of volatile reservoirs and new isotopic measurements of H, C, N, O, S, Cl, and noble gases in rocks that sample multiple stratigraphic sections; (3) radiometric age dating of units in stratigraphic sections and from key volcanic and impact units; (4) higher-resolution measurements of heat flux, subsurface structure, and magnetic field anomalies coupled with absolute age dating. Understanding the evolution of early Mars will feed forward to understanding the factors driving the divergent evolutionary paths of the Earth, Venus, and thousands of small rocky extra solar planets yet to be discovered.

rocky exoplanets↗