Titan Bumblebee: A 1kg Lander-Launched UAV Concept

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10-149-1-PB.pdf (2.11 MB)
10-197-1-PB.ppt (4.03 MB)
Author(s)
Lorenz, Ralph D.
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Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
The Daniel Guggenheim School of Aeronautics was established in 1931, with a name change in 1962 to the School of Aerospace Engineering
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http://hdl.handle.net/1853/26341
Abstract
A concept for a small (~1kg) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launched from a lander on Saturn's moon Titan is discussed. This battery-powered vehicle could survey an area of hundreds of square kilometers around the lander over a few hours, providing stereo imagery, boundary-layer meteorological profiles and other data. The cold, thick atmosphere on low-gravity Titan makes a fixed- or moving-wing vehicle easy to fly, but requires substantial energy to keep it warm, a situation similar to terrestrial bumblebees and a similar flight configuration may therefore be appropriate.
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NASA
Date
2008-06-24
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Proceedings
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