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The Winnipeg Chapter has selected as its project the design of a micro probe to be sent to Mars. The challenge is to design a probe small enough. This is not a Winnipeg only project, but the Winnipeg web site will co-ordinate the efforts of all Society members throughout the internet. We in Winnipeg, however, will contribute the ion engine. The first phase of the project was to decide what the mission would be. Although response to the vote was small, the conclusion was a Mars Balloon. Chris Vancil's Mars Balloon group (the Yahoo! message group) will be responsible for development of the balloon itself, including the deployment mechanism and scientific instruments. The Winnipeg Chapter will work with Ardeco Aerospace to develop the ion engine.
Chris Vancil (Chair, Mars Society Chapters Council) wrote an article entitled Barnstorming Mars on August 17th. Their project focus is the balloon itself, not the interplanetary transfer vehicle. I also received an email from Cayetano Santana Gil (Spain chapter). They are starting a project to send a robotic aerostat, airship or aeroplane (Aerobot) to Mars. Cayetano asked to combine our efforts, instead of duplication. We will combine with both Cayetano and Chris. The Mars Society Espaņa (TMSE) presented their project "Mars montgolfiere microaerobot" on September 29 at the Mars Society European Convention in Paris. Their presentation focused on co-operation and enabling everybody to participate. A copy is Ganima.ppt (in Power Point). The TMSE web page for their project is Proyecto GANIMA. The US Space Shuttle program supports a Get Away Special. This is run by the Shuttle Small Payloads Project. The Hitchhiker Ejection System (HES) can deploy a payload up to 150 pounds (68kg), 19 inches diameter, 20.5 inches high, and balanced to within 0.25 inches of the ejection centre line, and a centre of gravity (CG) no more than 10.25 inches above the separation plane. With NASA sponsorship, we can send such a probe into low Earth orbit (LEO) free. NASA has sent to the chair of the Winnipeg Chapter (Robert Dyck) technical documentation on the design and development of the NSTAR engine, the ion thruster that propelled the Deep Space One probe. The manufacturer who built the original model for NASA (formerly Hughes Electron Dynamics, now Electron Dynamic Designs, a subsidiary of Boeing Satellite Systems) bid for the project at $8.1 million, but charged NASA an additional $1.1 million. They have asked us $2-3 million just to build another one. The first project of the Winnipeg Chapter will be to construct and test an ion engine of the NSTAR design for substantially less money than that. The NSTAR Ion Engine had a specific impulse (Isp) of 3100 seconds. The thrusters Electron Dynamic Design used for station keeping on Boeing's 702 satellite have a specific impulse of 3800 seconds. According to Boeing, NSTAR was de-tuned to comply with NASA's requirement to permit throttling. Simply controlling the length of time thrust is applied should permit thrust control with a fully tuned engine, so we should be able to achieve a higher specific impulse than DS1. Technical documentation from NASA specified tests showed erosion of the grid by exhaust could be reduced by replacing the molybdenum grid with titanium. One reason for this was the greater strength of titanium permitted larger holes in the grid, thus producing less impact with the exhaust. Since titanium is easier to get a hold of than pure molybdenum (moly) anyway, we will consider the use of titanium. |
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