Hot‐air balloons, also known as Montgolfiere balloons, powered by heat from radioisotope decay are a potentially useful tool for exploring planetary atmospheres and augmenting the capabilities of other exploration technologies. This paper describes the physical equations and identifies the key engineering parameters that drive radioisotope‐powered balloon performance. These parameters include envelope strength‐to‐weight, envelope thermal conductivity, heater power‐to‐weight, heater temperature, and balloon shape. The design space for these parameters are shown for varying atmospheric compositions to illustrate the performance needed to build functioning “Curie‐Montgolfiere” balloons for various planetary atmospheres. Methods to ease the process of Curie‐Montgolfiere conceptual design and sizing of are also introduced.


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    Title :

    Curie‐Montgolfiere Planetary Explorers


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    SPACE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL FORUM-STAIF 2007: 11th Conf Thermophys.Applic.in Micrograv.; 24th Symp Space Nucl.Pwr.Propulsion; 5th Conf Hum/Robotic Techn & Vision Space Explor.; 5th Symp Space Coloniz.; 4th Symp New Frontrs & Future Con ; 2007 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA)


    Published in:

    AIP Conference Proceedings ; 880 , 1 ; 364-371


    Publication date :

    2007-01-30


    Size :

    8 pages





    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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