Larry,
Do you mean something like this:
http://www.europa-icepick.org/klaes_probe.shtml
Just a quick rendering set I did. I do love the concept and think it
can be flushed out even more. If these things are smaller than 30cm
across and weigh only a few kilograms then someone out there would have
a use for them if only as a standardized platform.
Joe L.
On Wed, 2003-08-06 at 22:46, LARRY KLAES wrote:
> Here is a mission concept I have been thinking about for a while.
> It does not have a direct connection to Europa exploration, but
> some of the ideas could be applied to future missions there.
>
> Besides, whenever we start talking about something besides
> Icepick and Europa on this list, we always get someone new
> asking where the Icepick-Europa info is, and that leads us back
> to the main topic. :^) I promise, though, if you read through
> this article, you will see it connect back to Icepick and our
> favorite Galilean moon.
>
> Now about my idea: The rings of Saturn have always been
> fascinating and - until 1977 with the discovery of similar ones
> around Uranus - unique objects in the Sol system. Around
> 1980 I envisioned a well-armored probe that would fly among
> the rings, scoop up some debris (in 1970 radar examinations
> had shown the ring particles to average 3 feet in diameter),
> and return them to Earth.
>
> While such an idea still has appeal, perhaps by the time we
> have the capabilities and resources for such a mission that
> we won't need to bring ring samples all the way back to Earth
> but can examine them thoroughly on site or at a nearby Saturn
> colony. Plus we would need a bunch of such samplers to get
> a real cross-section of the rings and that would be costly.
>
> My recent idea envisions a group of spherical robots released
> into the rings, where they would gently bounce around, off,
> and through the debris, sampling the surfaces as they alight, and
> imaging the ice blocks both from a distance and at a microscopic
> level when they briefly land. They could even follow the rings
> around the planet, displaying orbital patterns and determining
> what the different colored ring lanes are made of. They could
> even examine the famous and mysterious spokes in detail.
>
> For lack of a better description, the probes would look like soccer
> balls bouncing among the ring debris for as long as their batteries
> last.
>
> http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971210.html
>
> They could relay their findings to a larger and more sophisticated
> orbiter located outside the rings - the very vessel that brought them
> to Saturn - which would send the data to Earth. These soccer ball
> probes could even be landed on some of the smaller moons or dropped
> into Saturn's atmosphere to relay data before being extinguished deep
> into the clouds. Or they could be sent into the planet's
> magnetosphere.
>
> I can see these probes being modified for exploration all over the
> Sol system. And with so many being deposited, if a few are lost
> the mission is not. Plus they can be modified for specific data-
> gathering tasks. For example, I can envision a bunch of soccer
> ball probes being released into the ocean of Europa and relaying
> data to the probe that bored its way through the ice crust,
> which would in turn be able to get the data back to the surface
> without having to leave the vicinity.
>
> So what do you think? Think we can convince a space agency
> to look into this more? Think we can design a detailed prototype?
> This is how Icepick got its start.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Larry
>
>
>
==
You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
