Re: Delta 4 Heavy -- the engine for humans beyond LEO?

From: George William Herbert (gherbert_at_retro.com)
Date: 12/27/04 

Date: 27 Dec 2004 18:42:47 GMT

Phil Fraering <pgf@AUTO> wrote:
>gherbert@retro.com (George William Herbert) writes:
>>The New Horizons mission *is* using the Star 48 kick stage;
>>that was always in the Pluto/Kuiper mission baseline assumptions.
>
>>It's using an Atlas V-551 though, not a Delta IV-H.
>
>>Grumble. I really really have to write up PLUCKSHOT one of these days.
>
>PLUCKSHOT?

The mission title for the alternative mission architecture
I was attempting to propose for the Pluto-Kuiper RFP.
Didn't get very far on the science team side; people who
were possibly interested all bailed when the RFP was cancelled
the first time and never came back.

PLUto Cluster Kuiper Spacecraft Headed Out There

It was to have been a pair of spacecraft, each with their
own RTG; each carrier spacecraft had an instrument package
and three battery powered subprobes, each of which had an
instrument package, attitude control, and a small radio.
The main spacecraft had a xenon hall effect thruster for
a long boost out to and past a Jupiter flyby, with some
residual delta-V for the Pluto encounter and for retargeting
on Kuiper objects. Other than the hall thruster, the
spacecraft was designed to be entirely solid state past
Jupiter; we were using little pulsed plasma thrusters for
attitude control on both the main spacecraft and the
probes, and there would be no moving parts.

The objective was to get mission redundancy (one whole
spacecraft could fail and the mission minimum return would
still be gathered) and component redundancy (any two of
the science packages could fail pre-subprobe deploy, and you'd
be able to retarget and still get about 90% of the key data).

-george william herbert
gherbert@retro.com

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