Scenarios
Tier-scalable reconnaissance missions allow access to targets of great interest on planetary bodies, something which is not currently feasible with conventional single-rover or single-orbiter mission designs. Tier-scalable reconnaissance missions also enable spanning larger surface areas than previously possible – mimicking the way geologists explore regions on Earth – and therefore allow for greater data return.
Consider how the tier-scalable paradigm adapts to various environmental scenarios:
- Environments with atmospheres and with non-extreme surface temperatures (Earth, Mars):
- Tier 1: Spaceborne orbiters, which guide deployment and control of
- Tier 2: Airborne balloons or blimps, which in turn deploy and control
- Tier 3: Surface-based buoys, and sensors, which in turn deploy and control
- Tier 4: Submersibles and sensors.
- Environments with atmospheres and with extreme surface temperatures (Venus, Titan):
- Tier 1: Spaceborne orbiters, which guide deployment and control of
- Tier 2: Airborne balloons or blimps, which, if conditions permit, deploy and control
- Tier 3: Ground sensor webs, rovers, or submersibles.
- Environments without atmospheres and with extreme surface conditions (Mercury, Moon, Europa):
- Tier 1: Spaceborne orbiters, which guide deployment of and communicate with
- Tier 2: Ground-based rovers and sensor webs.
Read more about this topic: Tier-Scalable Reconnaissance
Famous quotes containing the word scenarios:
“The taste for worst-case scenarios reflects the need to master fear of what is felt to be uncontrollable. It also expresses an imaginative complicity with disaster.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)