Abstract
Hopper Missions to Triton and Pluto using a Vehicle with In-Situ Refueling
Highlights
This white paper is drawn from a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) study of a conceptual design of a mission to the surface of Triton
The Triton Hopper is a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) project to design a mission to not merely land, but repeatedly fly across the surface of Triton, utilizing the volatile surface ices as propellant for a radioisotope-heated thermal rocket engine to launch across the surface and explore all the moon’s varied terrain
The propulsion energy is supplied by a conventional plutonium isotope heat source, the General Purpose Heat source (GPHS) (“General Purpose Heat Source”) which is identical to those used in previous missions, including Pioneer, Viking, Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini mission to the outer solar system
Summary
The Triton Hopper (Figure 1) is a concept for a vehicle to not merely land, but to utilize the volatile surface ices (primarily nitrogen) as propellant for a radioisotope-heated thermal rocket engine to launch across the surface and explore all the moon’s varied terrain [2,3] We call this vehicle a “hopper” because it is capable of making multiple rocket-propelled ballistic “hops” across the surface, allowing long-distance mobility and the ability to examine multiple sites of scientific interest. B) Characterize dynamic processes of Triton's surface and ice shell over the multiple landing sites and terrains to understand exogenous and endogenous effects on the physiochemical properties of surface material.
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