Robot Spacecraft (Frontiers in Space)

Frontiers in Space Robot Spacecraft JOSEPH A. ANGELO, JR. To the memory of my paternal (Italian) grandparents, Antonio and Nina, who had the great personal courage to leave Europe early in the 20th century and embrace the United States as their new home. Through good fortune they met, married, and raised a family. Their simple, hardworking lives taught me what is most important in life. This book also carries a special dedication to Mugsy-the-Pug (February 23, 1999, to January 2, 2006)—my faithful canine companion—who provided so much joy and relaxation during the preparation of this book and many other works. ROBOT SPACECRAFT Copyright © 2007 by Joseph A. Angelo, Jr. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Angelo, Joseph A. Robot spacecraft / Joseph A. Angelo, Jr. p. cm.— (Frontiers in space) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-5773-7 1. Space robotics—Juvenile literature. 2. Space probes—Juvenile literature. 3. Roving vehicles (Astronautics)—Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series. TL1097.A54 2007 629.47—dc22 2006001118 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Erika K. Arroyo Cover design by Salvatore Luongo Illustrations by Sholto Ainslie Printed in the United States of America VB FOF 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Contents Preface vii Acknowledgments x Introduction xi ✧ 1 From Pioneer Lunar Probes to Interstellar Messengers 1 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 2 The Basic Principles of Robotics 6 Pioneer to the Moon and Beyond 9 EARLY SOVIET LUNA MISSIONS 14 Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)—America’s Premier Space Robot Factory 17 MESSENGER MISSION 26 Robot Spacecraft in Service to Astronomy 30 ✧ 2 How Robot Spacecraft Work 34 Space Robots in Service to Science 35 General Classes of Scientific Spacecraft 37 Functional Subsystems 50 SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC CONVERSION 51 ELECTRO-OPTICAL IMAGING INSTRUMENTS 52 Spacecraft Clock and Data Handling Subsystem 56 SINGLE-EVENT UPSET 57 Navigation of a Robot Spacecraft 58 Telecommunications 59 Deep Space Network 61 ✧ 3 Robot Spacecraft Come in All Shapes and Sizes 67 Pioneer 3 Spacecraft 68 Ranger Project 70 Lunar Prospector Spacecraft 75 LUNAR PROSPECTOR’S NEUTRON SPECTROMETER 76 Magellan Spacecraft 78 Galileo Spacecraft 80 NASA’s Soccer-Ball Space Robot 85 USING ROBOTS OR HUMANS IN SPACE EXPLORATION 88 ✧ 4 Flyby Spacecraft 91 Mariner 10—First Spacecraft to Mercury 92 Pioneer 11—First Space Robot to Saturn 94 The Grand Tour of Voyager 2 98 NEPTUNE AND TRITON 100 ✧ 5 Orbiters, Probes, and Penetrators 103 Mariner 9 Spacecraft 105 Viking 1 and 2 Orbiter Spacecraft 107 Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Spacecraft 109 Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO)—Lost in Space Due to Human Error 110 MARS OBSERVER (MO) MISSION 111 Mars Odyssey 2001 Spacecraft 112 Cassini Spacecraft 113 Huygens Spacecraft 120 Pioneer Venus Mission 122 Ulysses Spacecraft 122 ✧ 6 Lander and Rover Spacecraft 126 Surveyor Project 126 Lunokhod 1 and 2 Robot Rovers 128 Viking 1 and 2 Lander Spacecraft 130 Mars Pathfinder Mission 132 MARS POLAR LANDER (MPL)—ANOTHER MARTIAN MYSTERY 134 Mars Exploration Rover (MER) 2003 Mission 135 ✧ 7 Sample Return Missions 139 Genesis Solar-Wind Sample Return Mission 141 Stardust Mission 143 Mars Sample Return Mission 146 EXTRATERRESTRIAL CONTAMINATION 148 ✧ 8 Mobile Robots as Scientific Laboratories 150 Prospecting for Lunar Water with Smart Robots 151 Smarter Robots to the Red Planet 153 ✧ 9 Robot Spacecraft Visiting Small Bodies in the Solar System 159 Giotto Spacecraft 162 Deep Space 1 (DS1) Spacecraft 164 Deep Impact Spacecraft 167 Rosetta Spacecraft 170 Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Spacecraft 171 Dawn Spacecraft 174 ✧ 10 Future Generations of Robot Explorers 177 New Horizons Pluto–Kuiper Belt Flyby Mission 178 KUIPER BELT 180 Telepresence, Virtual Reality, and Robots with Human Traits 181 ANDROIDS AND CYBORGS 184 Mars Airplane 185 Robots Exploring Icy Regions 187 EUROPA 190 Star Probe Mission 193 Space Nuclear Power 195 The Need for High Levels of Machine Intelligence 197 ✧ 11 Self-Replicating Systems 202 The Theory and Operation of Self-Replicating Systems 203 Extraterrestrial Impact of Self-Replicating Systems 208 Control of Self-Replicating Systems 212 ✧ 12 Interstellar Probes 218 Interstellar Journeys of the Pioneer 10 and 11 Spacecraft 220 Voyager Interstellar Mission 224 Thousand Astronomical Unit (TAU) Probe Mission 227 Designing an Interstellar Probe 229 Project Daedalus 232 ✧ 13 Conclusion 236 Chronology 237 Glossary 259 Further Reading 291 Index 297 Preface It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. —Robert Hutchings Goddard rontiers in Space is a comprehensive multivolume set that explores F the scientific principles, technical applications, and impacts of space technology on modern society. Space technology is a multidisciplinary en deavor, which involves the launch vehicles that harness the principles of rocket propulsion and provide access to outer space, the spacecraft that operate in space or on a variety of interesting new worlds, and many dif- ferent types of payloads (including human crews) that perform various functions and objectives in support of a wide variety of missions. This set presents the people, events, discoveries, collaborations, and important ex periments that made the rocket the enabling technology of the space age. The set also describes how rocket propulsion systems support a variety of fascinating space exploration and application missions—missions that have changed and continue to change the trajectory of human civilization. The story of space technology is interwoven with the history of astronomy and humankind’s interest in flight and space travel. Many ancient peoples developed enduring myths about the curious lights in the night sky. The ancient Greek legend of Icarus and Daedalus, for example, por- trays the age-old human desire to fly and to be free from the gravitational bonds of Earth. Since the dawn of civilization, early peoples, including the Babylonians, Mayans, Chinese, and Egyptians, have studied the sky and recorded the motions of the Sun, the Moon, the observable planets, and the so-called fixed stars. Transient celestial phenomena, such as a passing comet, a solar eclipse, or a supernova explosion, would often cause a great deal of social commotion—if not out right panic and fear—because these events were unpredictable, unexplainable, and appeared threatening. vii viii Robot Spacecraft It was the ancient Greeks and their geocentric (Earth-centered) cosmology that had the largest impact on early astronomy and the emer- gence of Western Civilization. Beginning in about the fourth century B.C.E., Greek philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers articulated a geocentric model of the universe that placed Earth at its center with everything else revolving about it. This model of cosmology, polished and refined in about 150 C.E. by Ptolemy (the last of the great early Greek astronomers), shaped and molded Western thinking for hundreds of years until displaced in the 16th century by Nicholas Copernicus and a heliocentric (sun-centered) model of the solar system. In the early 17th century, Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler used astronomical observations to validate heliocentric cosmology and, in the process, laid the foundations of the Scientific Revolution. Later that century, the incomparable Sir Isaac Newton completed this revolution when he codified the fundamental principles that explained how objects moved in the “mechanical” universe in his great work Principia Mathematica. The continued growth of science over the 18th and 19th centuries set the stage for the arrival of space technology in the middle of the 20th century. As discussed in this multivolume set, the advent of space technology dramatically altered the course of human history. On the one hand, modern military rockets with their nuclear warheads redefined the nature of strategic warfare. For the first time in history, the human race developed a weapon system with which it could actually commit suicide. On the other hand, modern rockets and space technology allowed scientists to send smart robot exploring machines to all the major planets in the solar system (including tiny Pluto), making those previously distant and unknown worlds almost as familiar as the surface of the Moon. Space technology also supported the greatest technical accomplishment of the human race, the Apollo Project lunar landing missions. Early in the 20th century, the Russian space travel visionary Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky boldly predicted that humankind would not remain tied to Earth forever. When astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin stepped on the Moon’s surface on July 20, 1969, they left human footprints on another world. After mil- lions of years of patient evolution, intelligent life was able to migrate from one world to another. Was this the first time such an event has happened in the history of the 14-billion-year-old universe? Or, as some exobiolo- gists now suggest, perhaps the spread of intelligent life from one world to another is a rather common occurrence within the galaxy. At present, most scientists are simply not sure. But, space technology is now helping them search for life beyond Earth. Most exciting of all, space technology offers the universe as both a destination and a destiny to the human race.

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