Jovian Turbopause Probe

[Graham1973]

I've seen references to Jupiter drop probes dating back to the mid 1960's, but this upper atmosphere probe dating from the early 1970's is the earliest detailed design I know of, to quote the abstract:

The design of a space probe to explore the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter is discussed. Five major areas were considered: (1) definition of science requirements, (2) mission evaluation, (3) definition of probe system, (4) definition of spacecraft support requirements, and (5) nonequilibrium flow field analysis for communications blackout evaluation. The overall mission and system design are emphasized. The integration of the various technologies into complete systems designs is described. Results showed that a nonsurvivable turbopause probe mission to Jupiter with adequate data return to meet the science objectives is feasible and practical.

1. The Jovian turbopause probe. Part 1 - The scientific requirements for the Jovian turbopause probe

http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19710024124


2. Systems-level study of a nonsurvivable Jupiter turbopause probe. Volume 1: Summary

http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19720020283


3. Systems-level study of a nonsurvivable Jupiter turbopause probe. Volume 2: Supporting technical studies

http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19720020284

4. Systems-level study of a nonsurvivable Jupiter turbopause probe. Volume 3: Appendixes

http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19720021226

 

[blackstar]

Interesting. I have never heard of that one. It doesn't totally surprise me, because JPL was starting to consider a bunch of Jupiter missions once they had the Pioneers underway. Certainly dipping into the atmosphere would have been a major goal.

 

[Graham1973]

Interesting. I have never heard of that one. It doesn't totally surprise me, because JPL was starting to consider a bunch of Jupiter missions once they had the Pioneers underway. Certainly dipping into the atmosphere would have been a major goal.

Are you referring to the 1966 Advanced Planetary Probe report which discussed a 'Mariner-Mars' style campaign, with pairs of probes sent to Jupiter at every favourable launch opportunity starting in 1972 and culminating in drop probes in the late 1980's?

[Edit:]Checked the 3rd Volume of the Advanced Planetary Probe report, which discusses the idea of a drop probe. Mostly covers the re-entry problems that would need to be solved before the drop probe could be used.

 

[Michel Van]

many thanks, Graham1973

i heard of proposal of using the Pioneers Jupiter-Saturn for carrying a atmospheric probe
but actual, i see for the first time a design study of it !

by the way

that down lest is a Pioneer probe
but what those two bigger one ?

 

[blackstar]

Interesting. I have never heard of that one. It doesn't totally surprise me, because JPL was starting to consider a bunch of Jupiter missions once they had the Pioneers underway. Certainly dipping into the atmosphere would have been a major goal.

Are you referring to the 1966 Advanced Planetary Probe report which discussed a 'Mariner-Mars' style campaign, with pairs of probes sent to Jupiter at every favourable launch opportunity starting in 1972 and culminating in drop probes in the late 1980's?

Well, I was being more general. The idea was getting bounced around by the latter 1960s. Pioneer 10 and 11 were approved in the late 1960s and launched in 1972. I just checked and Pioneer 10 was launched and reached Jupiter in 18 months. Wow!

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/missions/archive/pioneer.html

Anyway, the idea was circulating. But I just checked. There was a 1974 JPL study of a Jupiter orbiter that ultimately became Galileo. That proposal did not include an atmosphere probe. So clearly it was not a foregone conclusion that an atmosphere would be carried during the studies done from the late 1960s into the mid-1970s. I believe that I posted the executive summary of that study (along with a bunch of others) on the NSF website awhile back. If you're interested, go looking there.

 

[Graham1973]

many thanks, Graham1973

i heard of proposal of using the Pioneers Jupiter-Saturn for carrying a atmospheric probe
but actual, i see for the first time a design study of it !



but what those two bigger one ?

The larger of the two is the Thermoelectric Outer Planet Spacecraft (TOPS), which is to the Grand Tour opportunity what the 1960's Voyager program was to Mars, namely canceled due to costs. The smaller of the two is something called the Modified Outer Planet Spacecraft (MOPS) and I think, is one of the competing designs for what became Voyager (Grand Tour).

 

[OM]

...And, of course, the real question is which one became V'Ger