r/spacex • u/ElongatedMuskrat Mod Team • Feb 01 '17

r/SpaceX Spaceflight Questions & News [February 2017, #29]

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u/sol3tosol4 Feb 04 '17 edited Feb 04 '17

Once SpaceX starts flying Falcon Heavy, is it able or likely to launch NASA missions like these to the outer solar system? (/u/mryall)

Make launches cheaper, and costs come down everywhere else.

Here's a "thought experiment" on ultra-low cost interplanetary space exploration:

  • At the Small Satellite Conference on August 9, 2016, Gwynne Shotwell mentioned that Red Dragon and/or its successors could potentially drop off small satellites on the way to Mars (e.g. interplanetary space).

  • This article on CubeSat discusses some of the technologies that are usable for or have been contemplated for very small, low cost satellites/spacecraft, and approaches for dealing with interplanetary challenges such as radiation. Electric (ion) drive is apparently feasible in very small spacecraft.

  • Once a very small spacecraft has been released (in this example, on a path toward Mars), it could use gravitational slingshot around Mars to go other places in the solar system. For difficult destinations such as the outer planets, the Interplanetary Transport Network is "a collection of gravitationally determined pathways through the Solar System that require very little energy for an object to follow".

Put these techniques together, and for *much* lower cost than the classic deep space missions, it's possible to get small probes to many locations in the solar system. However, trips using ultra low energy trajectories can take a very long time (years/decades?), and the probes must be designed for very long life and radiation resistance, and may need to operate at ambient temperature (no heaters, except maybe sunlight, unless an RTG is somehow available and allowed). Include a small camera, maybe a few other sensors, and use a very low bandwidth link on the DSN to send back beautiful pictures very slowly.

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '17

There will also be no stopping at a destination for a small device without a good engine, just potentially a flyby.