Evaluation of a heated-air airship for the environment of Titan

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2011.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Heller, Richard, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Other Authors: John J. Leonard.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/67614
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author Heller, Richard, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
author2 John J. Leonard.
author_facet John J. Leonard.
Heller, Richard, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
author_sort Heller, Richard, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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description Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2011.
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spelling mit-1721.1/676142019-04-12T15:04:08Z Evaluation of a heated-air airship for the environment of Titan Heller, Richard, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology John J. Leonard. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Mechanical Engineering. Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2011. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-63). Future exploration of Saturn's moon Titan can be carried out by airships, which have the capability to study the atmosphere as well as the capability to land and study the surface at multiple locations. Several lighter-than-air gas airships and passive drifting heated-air balloon designs have been studied, but a heated-air airship could combine the best of both. A design tool was created to enable iteration through different design parameters of a heated-air airship (diameter, number of layers, and insulating gas pocket thicknesses) and evaluate the feasibility of the resulting airship. A baseline heated-air airship was designed to have a diameter of 6 m (outer diameter of 6.2 m), 3 layers, and an insulating gas pocket thickness of 0.05 m between each layer. This heated-air airship also had a mass of 161.87 kg. A similar mission making use of a hydrogen-filled airship would require a diameter of 4.3 m and a mass of about 200 kg. For a desired long-term mission, the heated-air airship appears better suited. However for a desired mission under 180 days, the less complex hydrogen airship would likely be a better option. by Richard Heller. S.M. 2011-12-09T21:32:45Z 2011-12-09T21:32:45Z 2011 2011 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/67614 765924719 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 76 p. application/pdf zsa---- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Mechanical Engineering.
Heller, Richard, S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Evaluation of a heated-air airship for the environment of Titan
title Evaluation of a heated-air airship for the environment of Titan
title_full Evaluation of a heated-air airship for the environment of Titan
title_fullStr Evaluation of a heated-air airship for the environment of Titan
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation of a heated-air airship for the environment of Titan
title_short Evaluation of a heated-air airship for the environment of Titan
title_sort evaluation of a heated air airship for the environment of titan
topic Mechanical Engineering.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/67614
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