Radioisotope powered Mars Hopper

[newtons_laws]

I went to a lecture yesterday on Nuclear Power in Space Exploration by Dr Hugo Williams from Leicester University. One interesting mission concept he discussed was the radioisotope powered Mars Hopper, see
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11765413
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/de ... /?p1=Blogs
http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/ ... .2010.0438
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grffBimd ... _embedded#!

It seemed to me a neat concept - using the CO2 in the martian atmosphere as the propellant, and with a radioisotope thermal energy source it would be able to operate at high Martian latitudes where photovoltaic power is more problematic. The concern raised in the BBC article about the robustness of the RTG unit on a hopper seems a bit misplaced to me - the RTGs are designed with the isotope encapsulated in metal cladding and surrounded by other engineered barriers in order to survive an unplanned Earth re-entry in the event of a launch malfunction, the velocities and impact loads from a 1km hop in Martian gravity would seem to be much less than that.

Although this mission is only at the concept stage, I guess this is the appropriate forum to discuss it? - if not would the mods please move it as appropriate.

 

[MeteorWayne]

Hmmm, well this forum is generally just for real Missions and Launches, so I'll probably move it to Space Business and Technology, but leave a link here for a while.

Wayne

 

[sPace15_DC]

This concept is not new and was brought to our office last year by an American group from Idaho, who had conceived of a novel means to generate propellant while in-situ using radioisotope power. Identically, decay heat was accumulated prior to propellant blowdown through the engine. From what I recall, their vehicle would travel greater distances and due to its smaller size than what is outlined here, was capable of being deployed in numbers for elimination of a single point mission failure. I believe their work can be found in several conference proceedings both last year and this year prior to this paper in the Royal Society proceedings.