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Accession Number
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N20120012527
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Title
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Heated-Atmosphere Airship for the Titan Environment: Thermal Analysis.
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Publication Date
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Jul 2012
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Media Count
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14p
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Personal Author
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A. F. Hepp A. J. Colozza G. A. Landis R. S. Heller
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Abstract
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Future exploration of Saturn's moon Titan can be carried out by airships. Several lighter-than-atmosphere gas airships and passive drifting heated-atmosphere balloon designs have been studied, but a heated-atmosphere airship could combine the best characteristics of both. This work analyses the thermal design of such a heated-atmosphere vehicle, and compares the result with a lighter-than-atmosphere (hydrogen) airship design. A design tool was created to enable iteration through different design parameters of a heated-atmosphere airship (diameter, number of layers, and insulating gas pocket thicknesses) and evaluate the feasibility of the resulting airship. A baseline heated-atmosphere airship was designed to have a diameter of 6 m (outer diameter of 6.2 m), three-layers of material, and an insulating gas pocket thickness of 0.05 m between each layer. The heated-atmosphere airship has a mass of 161.9 kg. A similar mission making use of a hydrogen-filled airship would require a diameter of 4.3 m and a mass of about 200 kg. For a long-duration mission, the heated-atmosphere airship appears better suited. However, for a mission lifetime under 180 days, the less complex hydrogen airship would likely be a better option.
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Keywords
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Airships
Buoyancy
Comparison
Design analysis
Heat generation
Hydrogen
In situ resource utilization
Mission planning
Planetary atmospheres
Spacecraft design
Thermal analysis
Thermoelectric generators
Titan
Weight(Mass)
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Source Agency
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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NTIS Subject Category
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84G - Unmanned Spacecraft
84C - Manned Spacecraft
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Corporate Author
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Cleveland, OH. NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field.
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Document Type
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Conference proceedings
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Title Note
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N/A
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NTIS Issue Number
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1303
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Contract Number
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N/A
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