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A Self-Sustaining, Boundary-Layer-Adapted System for Terrain Exploration and Environmental Sampling

This thesis describes the preliminary design of a system for remote terrain exploration and environmental sampling on worlds with dense atmospheres. The motivation for the system is to provide a platform for long-term scientific studies of these celestial bodies. The proposed system consists of three main components: a buoyancy-driven glider, designed to operate at low altitude; a tethered energy harvester, extracting wind energy at high altitudes; and a base station to recharge the gliders. This system is self-sustaining, extracting energy from the planetary boundary layer.

A nine degree of freedom vehicle dynamic model has been developed for the buoyancydriven glider. This model was used to illustrate anecdotal evidence of the stability and controllability of the system. A representative system was simulated to examine the energy harvesting concept. / Master of Science

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/34186
Date18 August 2005
CreatorsMorrow, Michael Thomas
ContributorsAerospace and Ocean Engineering, Woolsey, Craig A., Schaub, Hanspeter, Mason, William H.
PublisherVirginia Tech
Source SetsVirginia Tech Theses and Dissertation
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Formatapplication/pdf, text/plain, text/plain, text/plain
RightsIn Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
RelationThesis.pdf, Figures9-10.txt, Figure8-Figure11.2005.08.09.txt, Abstract.txt

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