Planetary Geology: Goals, Future Directions, and Recommendations

Planetary exploration has provided a torrent of discoveries and a recognition that planets are not inert objects. This expanded view has led to the notion of comparative planetology, in which the differences and similarities among planetary objects are assessed. Solar system exploration is undergoing a change from an era of reconnaissance to one of intensive exploration and focused study. Analyses of planetary surfaces are playing a key role in this transition, especially as attention is focused on such exploration goals as returned samples from Mars. To assess how the science of planetary geology can best contribute to the goals of solar system exploration, a workshop was held at Arizona State University in January 1987. The participants discussed previous accomplishments of the planetary geology program, assessed the current studies in planetary geology, and considered the requirements to meet near-term and long-term exploration goals

Orbital imagery for planetary exploration - Condensed summary

Orbital imagery for planetary exploration - summar

Some new methods for planetary exploration

For many centuries the planets of our solar system have been objects of study by astronomers. Before the invention of the telescope, these studies were restricted to an attempt to understand and predict their motion. Telescopes and accurate clocks allowed more precise observations to be made. By the 19th century, minor perturbations of the motions of the planets were being analyzed. By the end of this century, however, astronomers were becoming more interested in stellar and galactic problems, and the group interested in celestial mechanics and planetary observations appeared to be decreasing to a vanishing point in the mid-20th century. Then came the space program, and the possibility of performing experiments on, or at least near, other planets encouraged interest in the solar system to a remarkable degree

Planetary exploration by NASA spacecraft

The planet, spacecraft, launch and encounter dates, and scientific findings are summarized

Trade studies for nuclear space power systems

As human visions of space applications expand and as we probe further out into the universe, our needs for power will also expand, and missions will evolve which are enabled by nuclear power. A broad spectrum of missions which are enhanced or enabled by nuclear power sources have been defined. These include Earth orbital platforms, deep space platforms, planetary exploration, and terrestrial resource exploration. The recently proposed Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) to the Moon and Mars has more clearly defined these missions and their power requirements. Presented here are results of recent studies of radioisotope and nuclear reactor energy sources, combined with various energy conversion devices for Earth orbital applications, SEI lunar/Mars rovers, surface power, and planetary exploration

The 1990 update to strategy for exploration of the inner planets

The Committee on Planetary and Lunar Exploration (COMPLEX) has undertaken to review and revise the 1978 report Strategy for Exploration of the Inner Planets, 1977-1987. The committee has found the 1978 report to be generally still pertinent. COMPLEX therefore issues its new report in the form of an update. The committee reaffirms the basic objectives for exploration of the planets: to determine the present state of the planets and their satellites, to understand the processes active now and at the origin of the solar system, and to understand planetary evolution, including appearance of life and its relation to the chemical history of the solar system

Parallel Architectures for Planetary Exploration Requirements (PAPER)

The Parallel Architectures for Planetary Exploration Requirements (PAPER) project is essentially research oriented towards technology insertion issues for NASA's unmanned planetary probes. It was initiated to complement and augment the long-term efforts for space exploration with particular reference to NASA/LaRC's (NASA Langley Research Center) research needs for planetary exploration missions of the mid and late 1990s. The requirements for space missions as given in the somewhat dated Advanced Information Processing Systems (AIPS) requirements document are contrasted with the new requirements from JPL/Caltech involving sensor data capture and scene analysis. It is shown that more stringent requirements have arisen as a result of technological advancements. Two possible architectures, the AIPS Proof of Concept (POC) configuration and the MAX Fault-tolerant dataflow multiprocessor, were evaluated. The main observation was that the AIPS design is biased towards fault tolerance and may not be an ideal architecture for planetary and deep space probes due to high cost and complexity. The MAX concepts appears to be a promising candidate, except that more detailed information is required. The feasibility for adding neural computation capability to this architecture needs to be studied. Key impact issues for architectural design of computing systems meant for planetary missions were also identified

Workshop on Advanced Technologies for Planetary Instruments, part 1

This meeting was conceived in response to new challenges facing NASA's robotic solar system exploration program. This volume contains papers presented at the Workshop on Advanced Technologies for Planetary Instruments on 28-30 Apr. 1993. This meeting was conceived in response to new challenges facing NASA's robotic solar system exploration program. Over the past several years, SDIO has sponsored a significant technology development program aimed, in part, at the production of instruments with these characteristics. This workshop provided an opportunity for specialists from the planetary science and DoD communities to establish contacts, to explore common technical ground in an open forum, and more specifically, to discuss the applicability of SDIO's technology base to planetary science instruments