The 2012 Decadal Survey has stated that there is a critical role for a Venus In-situ Explore (VISE) missions to a variety of important sites, specifically the Tessera terrain. This work aims to answer the Decadal Survey's call by developing a new comprehensive Entry, Descent, Landing, and Locomotion (EDLL) vehicle for in-situ exploration of Venus, especially in the Tessera regions.
TANDEM, the Tension Adjustable Network for Deploying Entry Membrane, is a new planetary probe concept in which all of EDLL is achieved by a single multifunctional tensegrity structure. The concept uses same fundamental concept as the ADEPT (Adaptable Deployable Entry and Placement Technology) deployable heat shield but replaces the standard internal structure with the structure from the tensegrity-actuated rover to provide a combined aeroshell and rover design. The tensegrity system implemented by TANDEM reduces the mass of the overall system while enabling surface locomotion and mitigating risk associated with landing in the rough terrain of Venus's Tessera regions, which is otherwise nearly inaccessible to surface missions.
TANDEM was compared to other state-of-the-art lander designs for an in-situ mission to Venus. It was shown that TANDEM provides the same scientific experimentation capabilities that were proposed for the VITaL mission, with a combined mass reduction for the aeroshell and lander of 52% (1445 kg), while eliminating the identified risks associated with entry loads and very rough terrain. Additionally, TANDEM provides locomotion when on the surface as well as a host of other maneuvers during entry and descent, which was not present in the VITaL design. Based on its unique multifunctional infrastructure and excellent crashworthiness for impact on rough surfaces, TANDEM presents a robust system to address some of the Decadal Survey's most pressing questions about Venus. / Ph. D. / NASA has proposed the possibility of performing a robotic mission to Venus in this upcoming decade. This could be NASA’s first attempt to design a robot that is capable of landing on the surface of our solar systems hottest planet. Venus presents a great exploration opportunity, as it is our closest planetary neighbor. Venus is similar to Earth in both size and location in the solar system, yet it is profoundly different in many other aspects regarding habitability. There is a significant scientific interest in exploring the mysteries of the greenhouse gases and runaway climate change present in the Venusian atmosphere. Understanding Venus’ atmosphere will help us to increase our knowledge of Earth’s atmosphere. Exploring the difference in these two planets will greatly further our intuition of other planetary systems and will aid in our search for life in the universe. Yet, exploring Venus presents a number of severe engineering challenges: the extreme temperature and pressure at the planet's surface, the highly corrosive atmosphere, and lack of terrain resolution caused by the dense permanent cloud layer.
In order to address these engineering challenges, a new ultra-lightweight planetary probe has been invented. TANDEM, the Tension Adjustable Network for Deploying Entry Membrane, is unique in its design as it has combined all of the subsystems in needs to safely land on the surface into a single lightweight, multifunctional structure. This enables the design to be nearly 1.5 metric tons lighter than the same mission that was proposed in 2010 using the current state-of-the-art technologies. Based on this and other unique capabilities that are provided, TANDEM presents a robust system to address some of NASA’s most pressing questions about Venus.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/78743 |
| Date | 26 August 2017 |
| Creators | Schroeder, Kevin Kent |
| Contributors | Mechanical Engineering, Bayandor, Javid, Battaglia, Francine, Samareh, Jamshid A., Armand, Sasan, Scales, Wayne A., O'Brien, Walter F. Jr. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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