Implementation of Lunar Exploration Initiative goals will require deployment of science packages at sites with the appropriate vantage point for obtaining the desired measurements and remote from potential (human) sources of contamination, thus requiring stand alone operation. Chief instruments/instrument package candidates include those which could provide long‐term monitoring of the surface and subsurface environments for fundamental lunar science and crew safety. The major challenge such packages face will be operating during long periods of darkness in extreme cold potentially without the Pu238 based power and thermal systems available to Apollo era packages (ALSEP). The initial attempt to design a 10 instrument environmental monitoring package with a solar/battery based power system led to a package with a unacceptably large mass (500 kg) of which over half was battery mass. We achieved considerable reduction in this mass, first through the introduction of high performance electronics capable of operating at far lower temperature, reducing the initial mass estimate by a factor of 2, and then through the use of innovative thermal balance strategies involving the use of multi‐layer thin materials and gravity‐assisted heat pipes, reducing the initial mass estimate by a factor of 5. Yet to be implemented are strategies involving the universal incorporation of ULT/ULP (Ultra Low Temperature/Ultra Low Power) digital and analog electronics, distributed or non‐conventionally packaged power systems, and state of the art solar power technology. These strategies will be required to meet the far more challenging thermal requirements of operating through a normal 28 day diurnal cycle. Limited battery survival temperature range remains the largest obstacle.
Enabling Technology for Lunar Surface Science
SPACE, PROPULSION & ENERGY SCIENCES INTERNATIONAL FORUM: SPESIF‐2009 ; 2009 ; Huntsville (Alabama)
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 1103 , 1 ; 599-607
16.03.2009
9 pages
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Enabling Technology for Lunar Surface Science
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