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One big or many small?



Have you ever experienced the fate of an interplanetary probe? A large apparatus, in which years of work have been invested, filled with advanced scientific instruments, enters the atmosphere of a distant planet, and it is not a fact that it will respond from the surface. There are enough precedents - the probes were broken, destroyed in the atmosphere or were silent for an unknown reason. And the whole mission was wasted. Even if the landing was successful, only one device could not be in several places at the same time, and one had to choose between many potentially interesting places. Also the place had to be safe - the risk of losing the probe outweighed the scientific interest. But now dozens of micro and nano-satellites are flying in Earth orbit, what if we apply this idea to interplanetary stations?

First success


The first mission, where several small ones flew with a large probe, was Pioneer Venus-2 , launched in 1978. A large apparatus sat near the equator, and three small dispersed to the sides. One sat at ~ 60 ° north latitude, the second - far away on the night side, and the third - on the daytime. The design of the apparatus was simple:


1 is an antenna, 2 is a thermometer, 3 is thermal protection, 4 is an airtight container with batteries and electronics, 5 is a nephelometer , 6 is a radiometer.
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Small devices did not even have a parachute. The “day” apparatus exceeded the expectations of the designers, withstood the impact on the surface and transmitted data for another hour.

Losing streak


The next station, which bore the "cage" of the apparatuses, was the super-ambitious Mars-96 . The heaviest Martian station, besides the orbital module, carried two landing stations and two penetrators:



The landing stations in the inflatable cushioning casing were to parachute, and the penetrators were to stabilize with an inflatable conical braking device and to be stuck in Mars at a speed of ~ 80 m / s. After the impact, the front part had to dive for 5-6 meters, unwinding the wires behind it, and transmit the data to the tail part, which remained on the surface.



Each penetrator carried 10 scientific instruments and promised to collect unique data about Mars. Until now, no apparatus has plunged so deeply into Mars. It is a pity that the station did not go to Mars from Earth's orbit and burned down in the atmosphere several hours later.

In the 1990s, NASA launched the “New Millennium” program , in which two small Deep Space 2 probes went to Mars with the Mars Polar Lander . They were placed in a heat shield aero shell:



Separated shortly before landing, they had to fall without a parachute, break the shell when struck and immerse the front part half a meter to Mars:





On the third of December, 1999, the vehicles plunged into the atmosphere of Mars, but neither the large Mars Polar Lander, nor the small penetrators did not come into communication. The cause of the accident of all devices remained unknown.

Branch


In the zero years, articles were written about the idea of ​​small vehicles, but the real interplanetary stations carried a maximum of one device for descending to Jupiter , Mars or Titan . But the concept of a simple apparatus, which is able to withstand the entrance to the atmosphere, received a curious offshoot. Information about the passage of the apparatus of the dense layers of the atmosphere offered to record in the "black box", which would survive the destruction of the main unit and would be able to transmit data for further investigation. Thus was born the project Reentry Breakup Recorder (REBR), which has already recorded the destruction of the ISS supply cargo ships in dense layers of the atmosphere and successfully transmitted data.


Scheme of the apparatus. Nothing complicated - batteries, data fixing device and transmitter

On the basis of REBR technologies, the Pico Re-Entry Probe project, a very cheap universal device capable of withstanding braking in dense layers of the atmosphere and transmitting data, is proposed. For example, it is proposed to set the associated load to the satellites:


The satellite carrier's orbit gradually degrades, it burns in the atmosphere, and PREP transmits data directly to the communication satellite, without the need for search and selection

With the help of PREP, it is proposed to obtain data on the behavior of subsystems and spacecraft materials, or, for example, to conduct cheap atmospheric studies.

New Hope


In recent years, the number of ideas for the use of micro, nano and pico probes has increased dramatically. In the summer of last year, they wrote about chipset chip probes, which are proposed to be dropped on Jupiter’s satellite Europe.
In the spring of this year, the University of Toronto offered to dump a swarm of vehicles into the atmosphere of Jupiter (project SMARA):



And in March, the nonprofit organization Planetary Science Institute proposed the MARSDROP project :



It is proposed to place a landing parachute with a guided parachute-wing in the mastered aerial shell. This combination is expected to provide an accurate landing in an interesting from the point of view of science section of the surface of Mars - a fresh crater, canyon, area of ​​volcanic activity, glacier. The developers assume that such a probe will be able to fly up to 10 km in the atmosphere of Mars, compensating for the inevitable inaccuracy of braking in the atmosphere, and deliver a 1-kg vehicle exactly to the target. It is expected that two MARSDROP vehicles, taken by passing cargo to the main mission, will increase its value by no more than 5%.

Analysis


The idea of ​​using a swarm of probes to explore planets has the following advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:


Disadvantages:


In my opinion, the advantages obviously outweigh, I hope, in the near future, swarms of probes will complement the large complex devices we are used to.

List of used sources


In addition to the sources indicated in the text, the following were used:

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/365409/

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