Directed aerial robot explorers for planetary exploration

Global Aerospace Corporation (GAC) is developing a revolutionary system architecture for exploration of planetary atmospheres and surfaces from atmospheric altitudes. The work is supported by the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC). The innovative system architecture relies upon the use of Directed Aerial Robot Explorers (DAREs), which essentially are longduration-flight autonomous balloons with trajectory control capabilities that can deploy swarms of miniature probes over multiple target areas. The balloons will serve a dual purpose as independent explorers and as microprobe delivery systems for targeted observations. Trajectory control capabilities will offer unprecedented opportunities in high-resolution, targeted observations of both atmospheric and surface phenomena. Multifunctional microprobes will be deployed from the balloons once over the target areas, and perform a multitude of functions, such as atmospheric profiling or surface exploration, relaying data back to the balloons or an orbiter. This architecture will enable low-cost, low-energy, long-term global exploration of planetary atmospheres and surfaces. We report here results of the preliminary analysis of the trajectory control capabilities and potential applications for DARE platforms at Venus, Mars, Titan and Jupiter. 2004 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.