Icy moons such as Enceladus and Europa may have subsurface oceans that could harbor life. Power generation and necessary surface mobility are key challenges to future scientific and exploratory missions.The Cassini mission observed plumes ejected from the crustal cracks on these icy moons’ surfaces. This paper explored the feasibility of using the plume’s kinetic energy to propel lightweight aerial vehicles. We designed a robotic surface mission concept of using multiple cooperative tethered rovers to deploy aerial vehicles with a force-amplification nozzle over the plume ejection area. We estimated the trade-off between the weight of the aerial vehicles versus flying ranges with the available plume energy.We studied in detail the force amplification as well as the aerobot mobility range in different shapes of nozzles.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    In-situ Resource Utilization with Icy Moons’ Plumes


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2024-03-02


    Size :

    2980934 byte




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    COLONIZING MARS: IN-SITU RESOURCE UTILIZATION OF THE MARTIAN MOONS

    Mani, Vipul / Goel, Harshit / Awasthi, Lawanya et al. | TIBKAT | 2022


    In Situ Resource Utilization

    Bruno, Claudio / Accettura, Antonio G. | AIAA | 2008


    Planets, Moons, & More

    Haviland, Heidi | NTRS | 2019


    Moons of Jupiter

    Johnson, T. V. | NTRS | 2000


    Planets, Moons, & More

    H. Haviland | NTIS | 2019